The Private Sale Conundrum

“Brilliant! Someone’s contacted me directly and made a decent offer for my house!”

If this ever happens it’s certainly gratifying.  Without making any effort your property has attracted buyer.

If you happen to be looking to move it’s even more appealing.  All of a sudden, without lifting a finger or incurring Agents costs, you’ve become a buyer with a chain in place.  All the better for securing your next purchase.

There’s just one problem:  How do you know this is a good offer when you’ve not even tested the open market?

If this question occurs to you when the house of your dreams suddenly becomes available the pressure builds.  Do you risk losing it to secure a higher sale price for your own place (less agent’s fees and VAT) or convince yourself you’ve got a good deal? 

Questions like this can drive you nuts.  Trying to do something about it can also result in your private buyer questioning your integrity (“you said we had a deal!”) and the seller of the home you want viewing you as unreliable (“have you got a buyer or not?”).

What you really need is a way for the open market to know about you in the first place.  Somewhere that,  if you’re only thinking about selling and long before you appoint an agent, you can test the market. 

This is part of the philosophy behind xchain.co.uk.  A place where, regardless of how committed they are to moving, people can publicise what they have to sell and what they wish to buy.

With Xchain, should you receive a private offer out of the blue, you could place your own, free, advert to sell and see what sort of response you receive.  You may be pleasantly surprised and if not at least you’ll know your private buyer has made a decent offer.

Of course you could then choose to proceed without an agent but, as I’ve written about in my previous post, Estate Agents, have their uses.