Private Property Sales Could Change Role of Estate Agents

Selling property privately is becoming big business. The portals attract thousands of visitors every day, most of them actively looking to purchase property, and some charging only £89 to advertise property until it is sold, their allure is obvious.

I have previously written that taking estate agents out of the property buying and selling equation could lead to a seriously deregulated property market, so much so that real growth becomes very difficult.

However, private sales companies like the Little House company are enticing more people to give it a go by advising they put a clause in their estate agents contract so that no agent's commission is payable if the property is sold through privately enacted avenues. This gives sellers the best of both worlds as it were.

If private sales becomes the most effective way sell property; as more and more people migrate to the online world to buy and sell everything, I foresee agents playing a more active role in the process from the buyer's side a lot more often than they currently do.

No doubt it will sort the men from the boys, but the decent agents, the ones with in depth knowledge of the housing and property markets they cover, will be sought out by buyers in need of advice about the property they have seen online.

The fact that they are voluntarily approaching the agent rather than having to because the agent is managing the sale of the property they want may even improve the image of the estate agent industry.