Selling property onlinePrivate sales

There are huge savings to be made in private sales

Private property sales websites

If you don't want to employ the services of an estate agent, either online or on the high street, the internet offers plenty of options to go it alone. Private property sales websites, such as HouseWeb and Property Broker, are equivalent to the classified ads pages of your local paper - except they allow you to reach a much wider audience.

A one-off charge of as little as £47 will buy you a basic advert with a photo and a description of your property on HouseWeb's website until it is sold. But a higher fee will get you much more exposure. 

HouseWeb's Ariane Decloux told us: 'Most customers go for our £129 package, which will get your property marketed to more than two million househunters, on over 180 websites, including Propertyfinder and Fish4Homes. For sale boards cost £30.'

Property Broker charges £137 to advertise which includes a for sale board.

Recent OFT guidelines on what constitutes estate agency work mean that private sales sites can't do anything except advertise your property. You have to do everything else yourself, from writing the description of your property and taking photos to handling enquiries, conducting viewings and negotiating with potential buyers. But if you've got the time and are happy to do this, there are huge savings to be made.

Private sales in action

Jane Hansen sold her one-bedroomed flat in Watford using private sales site HouseWeb in August 2005 and saved a fortune in estate agent's commission.

Despite initial reservations about handling the sale herself, she decided to sell privately to cut costs and paid HouseWeb £129 to have photographs and a description of her property, which she wrote herself, placed on a number of websites.

Her ad went live on a Monday; by the middle of the week she'd arranged a viewing and had an offer on the table by Saturday evening. Jane sold the flat for £2,500 more than the best valuation she'd received from a local estate agent, and she reckons she saved at least £1,400 in commission.

She told us: 'I'd never sold a property before but managing the calls and viewings on my own was fine. Don't go with an estate agent until you've given your property at least two weeks to sell on a private sales site.'