Should You Sell Your Apartment Without Using a Traditional Agent?

With the average real estate agent charging as much as 3% of the listing price to sell your apartment, many homeowners are choosing to look into alternative ways to sell their house and save some money.  There are a variety of ways that you can go about doing this including completely doing it yourself, using an online agent, and using listing sites like eBay and Gumtree.  We are going to take a look at the most common options here, and explain what’s involved.

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Online Estate Agents

There are a number of online property portals that list properties up for sale and rent, and this can be a great way to advertise your home for sale.  The problem is that most of the large ones only allow listings to be uploaded by estate agents.  If you still want your property to be listed on these sites, you can opt to work with an online estate agent instead.  These tend to provide all of the usual services that a traditional agent does, including arranging viewings and taking photographs of your apartment, but at a lower price point.

Do It Yourself

If you’d still rather not pay a fee to an agent, you can look into listing your property yourself.  Most people who go down this route set up a website for their property and market it manually.  It’s important to note here that you will need to hire a commercial photography Minneapolis company to take photos of your space, and you’ll also need to be around regularly to arrange your own viewings.  Marketing can also be more difficult without the assistance of an agent.  That said, if you find a buyer, you could save thousands of dollars.

eBay and Gumtree

At the time of writing, over 1200 homes were listed on eBay and over 600 were listed on Gumtree.  The listings were created by both private sellers and traditional agents.  If you choose to go with the option above, listing your property on these sites could be a great way to market it for very little.  Just be aware that you’ll again be responsible for the photographs and arranging viewings, and, if you sell through eBay, they will take a percentage of the sale price.

Auctions

If you want to sell your property quickly, and are willing to pay for the privilege, putting your apartment up for auction could be a good idea.  Generally, properties sold in this way need a lot of renovation work, or are difficult to value, but you do sometimes see ‘normal’ properties sold in this way as well.  This option is generally only recommended for those who have experience with auctions, and commissions can be high.  Nevertheless, it’s worth keeping in mind as an option.

As the internet continues to make everything in life easier, a lot of people are choosing not to work with traditional agents when selling their home.  Above are just four of the options you have available to you.


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