Would this service work?

[MarkP]

I am seeking opinions on the following idea;

A service which is very similar to that offered by local estate agents but much cheaper and more personal than the current trend of online companies offering to sell your house.

Seller calls and expresses interest in selling so I attend and take several photo's of property, no measurements of rooms. Sign is then erected displaying my phone number, website address etc. Interested parties who have seen the sign and local ad which would be simple and guiding people to website would contact me and I then pass their details over to seller for them to make contact and arrange viewings. This way the seller is not advertising his/hers phone number on the board outside. No commission charged to seller just fixed fee of maybe £200 which would include their property on the website.

My aims are to use low cost ads in the local paper weekly which simply say "Why pay estate agents fees, look at website for our latest properties etc" By using this method and charging low fees it would not allow me to advertise with Rightmove for example due to the £150 + VAT charge per month. This would be concentrating on local people moving within the area.

I don't believe that the majority of people in the country who wish to save thousands on estate agents fees can be bothered to take digital images of their property and then upload them to a website themselves and I think they still want some sort of personal service. I would not be looking to produce brochures on properties but instead aim to get as many people viewing as possible.

I would value your opinions, would you use a service such as this?

Mark

[jai]

Sounds good in theory however one big flaw is that the vendor would have to do the viewings themselves. What if they have a full time job? Not everyone can sell their property themselves, you might even get vendors that put people off because of their poor viewing..

You are basically an online estate agent that doesnt charge a percentage fee but I also think that for £200 per property you won't make that much money considering the advertsing and website costs and if you factor in the time it will take you to sell each property..

Good luck with it though...in theory its a good idea..

[MarkP]

Jai

Thanks for your views, I was considering a higher fee and maybe an extra charge if the property is sold this way. What do you think is a reasonable charge for this service?
I do take your point about the viewings and appreciate that it won't be everyones cup of tea but something has to give if you as a seller want to save yourself £4,500 +

Mark

[jai]

I suggest doing a breakdown of all the costs involved and then putting your profit on top of that, whatever that figure may be..

I would also suggest finding buyers whose property had been on the market for a long time, i.e if you see a for sale board on a property for ages, give them a knock and sell them your deal...

Also you cannot just rely on a board to sell your property so try and come up with other creative ways of advertising properties for sale..

[MarkP]

That's a good idea, I could leaflet drop any property with a for sale sign outside. May make myself a few enemies though?