John and Mandy Hayes: ‘least stressful property sale ever’
They were members of their local Facebook page, “Grange Park, Northampton”,
which operates as an online message board for the community.
One of the members uploaded a post asking if anyone was looking to sell
a five-bedroom house in the area. Mr Hayes responded, saying they were
thinking of selling in the new year.
They arranged a viewing, but interest in the property quickly grew online.
“The first couple came and viewed the house twice, but there was also a lot of
interest from others who had seen the original post,” Mr Hayes said. “In the
end another couple made an offer and we thrashed out a deal. We saved
thousands of pounds by cutting out the estate agent.
“The couple who bought it already lived in the area and were looking to move
up the ladder. It was nice to sell to someone living in the local community.”
The sale completed at the start of March. An estate agent had initially quoted
2pc plus VAT to sell the house, meaning the Hayeses saved £8,784 in fees.
Mrs Hayes said: “It was the least stressful property sale I’ve ever been
involved in. We didn’t have to negotiate through an agent and it all went
very smoothly. With the resources available online today, I don’t think you
necessarily need to use estate agents.”
Websites such as eBay and Gumtree have historically had a stronghold on the
online marketplace, but sellers’ fees and problems with fraudsters have
encouraged some users to look elsewhere. Many feel more comfortable trading
within their local area or their Facebook “friend” network.
Local community pages tend to be quite general and people post a range of
items for sale as well as services such as plumbing, house removals and
beauty treatments. Some local businesses use them to promote their services,
but a large proportion of the advertisers are private individuals. Most have
rules that prevent businesses from posting too often.
Some are “closed groups”, which means you have to submit a request to the
group administrator to become a member. Open groups can be viewed by anyone
with a Facebook account.
The “Battersea and Wandsworth selling site”, for example, is a closed group
with 1,900 members. It lists a range of items for sale in south-west London
from cars to vintage clothing, furniture and children’s games.
One post this week advertised a Fiat Punto sport with 2007 registration and
123,000 miles on the clock for £2,500.
Other pages on Facebook target a particular interest group. “Buy, Sell, Swap
Camera and Photography Gear – UK” is an open group with almost 1,400
members. The items on the site include digital SLR cameras, lenses and
accessories.
A used Nikon D600 camera body in the box with all accessories was posted this
week for £875 or nearest offer. eBay listings for other second-hand D600s
ranged from £600 to £1,100.
Another seller listed a used Canon EF 300mm telephoto lens for £710. It is
available new on other sites for £1,169.
The downside of buying on Facebook is there is no buyer protection. If the
item you buy turns out to be a lemon, there’s probably not much you can do
about it.
The eBay website, on the other hand, offers a money-back guarantee for items
purchased with PayPal that are not received, are damaged or are not as
described in the listing.
Avoiding agents
Home owners paid out more than £3bn in fees to high street estate agents
during 2013, with London home owners alone paying almost £1bn, according to
research by online estate agents Housesimple.co.uk.
It said agents charged an average fee of 1.75pc plus VAT for their services.
The figures are further evidence that agents still have a stranglehold over
the housing market. The widely forecast shake-up, where home owners shun
costly agents and instead advertise their homes on the internet, has not
materialised and DIY house-selling is still uncommon.
Part of the problem is that in order to reach a broad audience sellers need to
be on the dominant property portals, Rightmove and Zoopla, which also owns
Prime Location. To feature a property on one of these all-powerful sites,
however, it has to be listed with a traditional agent. This has really hurt
the success of private sales websites.
Property expert Sarah Beeny started her own sale-by-owner website, Tepilo,
four years ago and found that many people were reluctant to use the service
because they wanted their property listed on the big portals.
Sarah Beeny
She relaunched the website last Christmas as a low-cost online estate agent.
The charges range from £195 to £495, depending on how much help the vendor
needs.
Other listing sites for private sellers do exist. Noestateagentsplease.co.uk
acts as a notice board for private sellers. Potential buyers contact and
negotiate with the home seller direct. Sellers pay a one-off fee of £49.98
to market a property.
— Have you sold anything on Facebook? Let us know in the comments
below.
— nicole.blackmore@telegraph.co.uk