Can I sell the flat on my own?
In Spain there is a common belief that having a professional costs money, but the numbers show that the opposite is true: it costs more and takes longer!
First comes the decision: I'm selling the flat (if you want a free valuation of your home, without obligation, reasoned and without generating false expectations, ask for a free valuation). here). And then the question: Can I sell the flat on my own? Listen, I'm sure it's not difficult. I'm sure there's a tutorial on the internet that explains me step by step, details what paperwork I need and I'll organise the visits myself. Anyway, for any estate agent "opening doors" to get a commission, I'll take it!
In Spain, the "yo me lo guiso yo lo como" (I cook it myself, I eat it myself) is very popular. Idealist56% of the properties, premises and garages that are advertised on the portal are sold privately, compared to 44% that are managed through agencies, developers or consultants. The belief is that having a professional costs money, but the numbers, which hide nothing, show that it is just the opposite: not having a professional costs more.
Certainly, selling a house is something that anyone can do on their own and we know that, approximately, selling a house is 85 hours. It is as easy as sending an urgent parcel from Valencia to Barcelona. Everyone can load their express parcel in their Dacia Logan, go to the indicated address in Barcelona and deliver it. Full stop. But you can also go to the express parcel service and have it delivered to them. E x a c t a m e n t a l l y the same, because the parcel will end up in the same place.
When you wonder if you can sell the flat on your own, ask yourself why express delivery agencies exist.
So why do express delivery agencies exist? Well, apparently they have more than just a driving licence. They have experience, which comes in handy when it comes to solving eventualities; they know Barcelona, although not to the letter, they know the main roads, they know the neighbourhoods with precision and they probably even know some areas in depth; they have a GPS; they have planning skills and, very importantly, they are dedicated to it, which gives us the idea that their cost per delivery will be infinitely lower than ours. So, sure, the package will get to the same place, but if we do it, it's going to cost us a lot more.
And let's add a little more... because Selling the flat on our own will not only cost us more, but it will also take us longer. Let's continue with the simile of sending the package: we have to take a package with some succulent elvers from the Albufera gulfs to a prestigious Michelin-starred restaurant. To do this, we first need to keep the package cold.
We can carry the elvers in a camping cooler (yes, the classic blue one with the white handle) and some ice, but it turns out that the transporter-deliverer probably has a refrigerated vehicle for items of this kind. Elvers can cost over €1,000 per kilo, but even so, it won't be worth buying a lorry for a single shipment. Of course... And let's not talk about the consequences of our package arriving late. The elvers may arrive a bit battered by the water from the ice and the rise in temperature in the blue fridge. And of course, the Albert Adrià of our example will not want to pay €1,000 for such a poor product. Perhaps we'll have to look for second-rate restaurants to snap up the once-delicious genre..... Or perhaps our limited negotiating skills will end up delivering the goods to a wok near Diagonal Mar, at a ridiculous price, which won't cover the cost of the food or the journey. Or in the end, they may even end up as stinking cat food. Horror! We will have arrived late and badly, which is what usually happens when one decides to sell the flat on one's own, without understanding that the first 20 days of marketing are key. The flat, after a few weeks on the real estate portals, with poor quality photos, incomplete information and little or no follow-up to requests for information, also smells bad...
I could use a thousand similar metaphors. Why there are delivery drivers, business consultants, bricklayers, tapas bars, farmers... In the end we can all carry a parcel, do our tax returns, build a wall, cook some bravas, plant tomatoes or take four photos of our flat with our iPhone and post them on Idealista. But it's not just about reaching the goal. Sometimes you can get there better or worse, sometimes it can be expensive and sometimes we may not be able to do it with our means, because that's what those who do it every day are there for!
And I end with the moral of the story: if your objective is to sell your house, choose an agency that offers you added value, that offers its experience and means to go where you cannot go, that can do more than you could do on your own. (be careful not to get false promises either, that's another topic for another article...). It goes without saying, but don't go with the agency/s whose list of services is reduced to taking photos of your flat with an iPhone and posting them on Idealista. It will cost you a lot of money!
Conclusion: Do you need to sell your flat? Click here and save yourself time and money.
