It’s official. We have sold our house.
One the one hand I’m really glad that it’s finally all sorted and excited to move on to a new adventure and on the other it’s obviously sad to be leaving our home.
I hated selling our house.
It wasn’t because it wasn’t something I didn’t want but because I found the whole process messy, frustrating and annoying. Estate agents seem like sleazy second-hand car dealers, solicitors are a pain and potential buyers just felt like an inconvenience.
Yes, we would have had to deal with most of these aspects if we’d gone through the process of selling our home ourselves but at least then we would have spent thousands of pounds less. Overall the whole process has been frustrating.
We sold our home through an estate agent because we were felt under pressure and the house we were trying to buy was on the market with the same estate agent. Looking back (especially given that we’ve now moved to another country) we should have followed our instincts and tackled the sale ourselves.
Here’s What We Learned
#1 Estate Agents Just Don’t Care
Yes, they’ll say what they can to get your business but as soon as our house was sold it felt like we were invisible. That’s not to say that they didn’t care at all but, for the most part, it felt like we were left to our own devices and it definitely didn’t feel like the thousands we were paying were justified. I mean seriously, an hour of taking pictures, writing a bit of a description and handling a few offers really didn’t seem worth paying thousands for. Yes, there’s probably more to it but it still didn’t feel like it was worth the amount we were paying.
#2 Negotiate
Nothing in life is fixed. We negotiated with our estate agent and paid less than they’d initially offered but our neighbours a couple of doors down who put their house on the market a couple of weeks after we did paid even less! Aim for as low as you can!
#3 Get at least 3 Valuations
As with any other quote for building work, we’d definitely recommend getting at least three valuations. In our case every estate agent we had round to value our house gave us exactly the same house value so at least we felt like we had a good idea of what our house was worth.
#4 If you live in a popular area – go it alone!
Admittedly it’s hard to judge as we’ve obviously not gone the route of selling our home ourselves but after our experience, we’d definitely go it alone next time. The area we live in is super popular at the moment and people seemed to be queuing up to buy there.
#4 People really don’t care
Seriously. It sounds mean but when it comes down to money people can be really horrible. It took around two days to sell our house and for the most part, it felt like people didn’t even care about what it looked like. Our period features cost a fortune and no one cares if you’ve spent £10 or £1000 on something. Overall we were happy that we’d paid for some high-quality items like our log burner and the bifold doors but in reality, I honestly don’t think they made a difference.
#5 Showing People Around Your Home Is Horrible
Seriously. It’s horrible. You could get your estate agent to handle the viewings for you but apparently, it’s better if the owners show the buyers around. You probably know more about your house than anyone else and you can answer any questions straight away. It’s one thing to show friends and family around your home and show just how far you’ve come but when it comes to justifying and selling your home to random strangers it just feels weird and uncomfortable. Let’s be honest, everyone knows both the positive aspects as well as the imperfections of one’s home but actually showing it to random people still seems completely alien to me.
#6 Buyers aren’t your friends
As nice as the people buying your home may be in reality, when it comes to money people can be awful. At the end of the day, everyone wants the best deal for them but that doesn’t make the situation any less stressful and annoying. An estate agent may be a good buffer between you and your buyers but that doesn’t change any of the facts you have to deal with as a consequence of random requests and demands.
Have you ever sold a house? Would you use a traditional estate agent or would you go it alone? We’d love to hear your experiences!
Vanessa says
Well I have bought 15 and sold 11 (we still have four with one for sale in Manchester, Michigan!). I have done this in many, many different permutations and nearly always complain about my agents although I have had a few excellent ones that were careful with us and shared their knowledge with me. I don’t think I could have sold our last home in California without my wonderful agent, Rachel, there.
I signed up for real estate classes and I also bought a $12 book, “How to buy and sell your own house in Oregon.” It saved us about $30,000 over the years.
Agreed, it is truly hard to look at a home with the owner doing the showing, it’s a turn-off to shoppers, enough so that American sellers rarely are” allowed” to do that, even though I am always chomping at the bit to do it myself. My agent right now is my brother-in-law and he said “go ahead” but normally they don’t want that to happen in case the conversation becomes strained.
I do remember the immobilien from the time when I lived in Germany in the 80’s and was shocked at the idea of it but that person did find us a lovely apartment and we still remember it fondly. As a suggestion, consider becoming an agent and learn the other side of the process. I took all of the classes, passed the exams and did my own sales but never wanted to represent others. The paperwork is too much.
Good luck in Berlin. Have you ever read the Taking Notes blog? Katrin is just outside of Berlin and it looks lovely there.
Christine says
It’s always great to find someone who’s good at what they do. It’s just a shame there aren’t more good estate agents out there!
That’s an amazing saving, Vanessa! That book was definitely a good purchase! :)
I’m not sure how being an estate agent is regulated here in Germany but essentially you don’t have to use one when it comes to selling your home. It’s the seller that appoints the agent so if a property you’re trying to buy has an estate agent you have no choice and have to pay the fee.
We actually shared a post about the buying process and estate agents in Germany and why they’re much worse than in the UK! https://www.littlehouseonthecorner.com/estate-agents-germany-even-worse-uk/
Right, I’m off to check out Taking Notes. Thanks for the tip!
Cx
Dave Jones says
It seems since you’ve left the UK, all you’ve done is moan and complain about how awful it was.
This is the UK which allowed and enabled you to buy a house, start a blog about said house and make a living out of it not to mention probably employed your husband. Not to mention allowed you too make a considerable profit at the end of you stay once you came to sell the house.
Just seems like sour grapes and stabbing us in the back.
Very poor taste and form in my eyes.
Dave
Christine says
I’m sorry if that’s the impression we created and it certainly wasn’t intended, Dave! We really enjoyed our time in the UK and stayed much longer than we’d ever anticipated as we liked it so much. Yes, we weren’t overly happy with how the process of selling our house went but dealing with estate agents that aren’t particularly good at what they do definitely isn’t a UK related problem as we’re now discovering here in Berlin.
A perfect country or city probably doesn’t exist anywhere in the world but we loved our time in Manchester and although we’ve only been in Berlin for a few months have already been back to visit.
Cx
Sarah-Jane Porter says
I too paid a large amount of money when I put my basement flat up for sale! Though I am 50/50 because in the end they did have to work for their money (2 fell through 3rd time lucky!)
But unfortunately the 3rd time lucky buyer at the last minute wanted a large chunk of money further off the price (bearing in mind I accepted a below offer from asking price) Only a week or so before exchanging I felt backed into a corner as the buyer wouldn’t back down as they were ‘urgent’ work (mainly damp issues but I had the work covered under guarantee but she didn’t ‘trust’ the builder) To my horror I went back 9 months later – to find that no work has been done at all!
Its a tough one – though if I am too sell in future I would try those online ones as it seems to be a better choice! Or really make sure I get my monies worth again!
Christine says
Thanks for sharing your experience, Sarah-Jane! The whole selling and buying process is just so stressful for everyone involved. We’re now on the buyer side of things again and it’s definitely not easy either.
If we ever sell again I’d also be tempted to try an online agent.
Cx
Kate says
We were one of those with a positive experience! Our estate agents were determined to get the best deal for us. They took amazing pictures, gave suggestions and put the house back on the market at a slightly reduced price when we did not get any offers the first time around. Funnily the only offers we got was when they showed buyers around and not when we did.
They also gave us first dibs on the property we ended up buying which they were also in charge of. Definitely worth the money as it was a fixed price and not percentage. Also since they continued loading with the sellers to get all our queries sorted when the seller proved difficult.
We did choose them as we were impressed when they showed us around a property the first time.. so try to get viewings through an agent and choose the professional ones!!
Christine says
Thank you so much for sharing your experience, Kate! It’s so nice to hear a positive experience and that your estate agent did a great job for you. I totally agree with you about choosing the right agent – there surely have to be more good ones out there!
Cx
Penny says
We’ve just sold our house through an agent, and actually they were really helpful. It still feels like a lot of money, but they dealt with all the viewings – most were done as open house, so we only had to clear up and clear out for one day (makes life so much easier with two small children and many many toys!) – and kept things moving along in the chain as well as negotiating queries between us and the buyers.
We also viewed a lot of houses before finding the one we wanted to buy, and I have to say, I would always MUCH rather be shown round by an agent, than by the owner. Yes, it’s helpful to get immediate answers from an owner, but it’s pretty weird and uncomfortable to feel like you’re judging someone else’s home too.
Christine says
It’s nice to hear a positive experience, Penny! I have to agree that I’d also rather be shown around by an agent. Our estate agent said that it would be better for us to do the viewings but looking back I think they may just have been trying to get us to do the work.
Cx
paulo says
I would be interested to hear how much your home improvement projects actually added to your home price.
I’m not asking how much your house was sold for or what you bought but a rough ball park figure would be incredibly insightful specially for a first time buyer looking at “fixer uppers”
Christine says
We’re always happy to share helpful info, Paulo. Making money on a property will depend on so many factors. We did a lot of the work ourselves which kept our building costs down, we purchased our house for a reasonable price and we knew exactly what work needed doing so weren’t faced with any major unforeseen circumstances. Of course, it’ll all depend on the housing market, too.
Having said that, we did make a profit of over 25%.
Cx
Paulo Nogueira says
that’s great to hear.
I wanted to reach out and ask about guest posts on your blog you have a great site with great content and I’d love to add to it.
Christine says
Thanks, Paulo!
Sorry, we don’t accept guest posts – thanks for asking!
Cx
Maya says
As someone who has been on the other side (the one going of viewings) I have to still agree with the points you made.
Buying a house is no more easier than selling it. But once you finally make the sale, there is no better feeling.
Christine says
I can vividly remember viewing houses and totally agree with you, Maya! I guess it’s a stressful situation for everyone involved.
Cx
Louise says
We are selling at the moment. I don’t trust estate agents as far as I could throw them! We sold initially in May via an online one which was great until it all fell through. The market where we are had then gone dead. So now we have an estate agent. Time will tell if they are any good. One offered us a low rate and then when we were going to go with them said oh that was a one time only offer its 2 weeks later now and put it up by another few grand!
Christine says
Wow, no wonder estate agents have a bad reputation when you hear things like that! I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed that you get a quick sale. Hopefully using an estate agent will be worth it – surely there are good ones out there, too!
Cx
Jeanette says
We recently sold our (period) house in a similar area – Manchester, houses going like hot cakes. Got 3 valuations, went with the best and let them hold a one day open house. The agent was fantastic – dealt with our buyers who were first timers and very needy and also liaised with the agent we were buying our new house from when the sellers turned into the nightmare from hell. She was pretty much the reason the sale went ahead so you can get lucky and was certainly worth paying for. Re period features, yes if you are putting them in they have to be for you as not everything is to everyone’s taste and is Farrow and Ball paint really worth the extra cost??? Would everyone be able to recognise ‘Moles breath ‘really??
Christine says
I love hearing that about your positive experience, Jeanette. It seems like so many people have negative estate agent experiences so it’s great to hear about how good it can be, too.
I totally agree with you about not everything being to everyone’s taste. I guess the best home improvement advice is always to do things for you and not for others.
Cx
Phil says
We have also sold twice but last time used an on-line agent. For a fixed fee of a few hundred pounds they handled the advertising (prominent adverts on the well known sites), organised viewings and managed offers. Basically 90% of the service of a traditional agent at a fraction of the cost. I highly recommend it.
Christine says
That’s really interesting to hear, Phil! It’s nice to hear about positive experiences and is definitely something we’ll look into if we sell a house again.
Cx
Victoria says
We’ve sold twice and used estate agents both times, although negotiated hard both times ;) When I’m paying big money for an estate agent to sell my house I expect them to do the viewings – they always seem to try to weedle their way out but thats what I pay them to do so I go out when we have viewings. I’ve bought 5 homes so far myself and only one estate agent didn’t leave us with the owners when we viewed – and that was in Spain. English estate agents just cannot be bothered!
Christine says
Thanks for sharing your experience, Victoria! It’s quite shocking how little service and help you sometimes get even when you’re paying a lot of money. It would be interesting to know if anyone selling their home has ever had a good estate agent experience!
Cx
Andrea says
I hope you managed to keep your lovely Chesterfield sofa and it’s now with you in Germany!
Christine says
Yes, there was no way we were going to leave it behind! We’ll be sharing some pics of our new living room soon!
Cx
Gerry says
“People really don’t care”. I was reading another DIY blog where they said the buyers messed them around for things like not having curtains in the house!
You have to wonder what other people ‘see’ when they look at a house. *eyeroll*
Christine says
Overall I think we were fairly lucky and our buyers seemed like nice people. Things could definitely have been much worse. Having said that it was still a really stressful time and I’m glad it’s over and done with!
Cx
Akos says
I totally understand your frustration! Estate agents are the biggest cowboys in the UK. You get nothing or just rubbish service for your money. Best to avoid them if you can but it is difficult because the whole property industry has been built around them. Shame.
Christine says
Having been on the hunt for a new home in Berlin I can honestly say that estate agents are no better here in Germany either! It’s already driving me mad and worst of all the buyer has to pay the extortionate estate agent fees – which in Berlin are 7.14%! I think it’s definitely an industry that could do with an overhaul!
Cx
Enc says
I’ve never had to deal directly with an estate agent. But I believe they are one step below car dealers … we all know what snakes they are ! But I believe you’ve been very lucky here .. to sell within 2 days … wow .. many houses are in the market for weeks or months… some never sell.
to expect potential purchasers to gush over your home improvements maybe expecting a toomuch regardless of how much time and money you put in. After all, we are all different and what may appeal to me may not appeal to you. There’s a strong possibility the new owner will remodel to their own taste.
Congrats on the sale btw ;-)
Christine says
The area we lived in is really popular so it really wasn’t unusual to sell within a couple of days. I’m sure that the new owners will want to change things and there were definitely home improvements that still needed doing. At the end of the day. it’s only a house and there’s no point getting too attached.
Cx