The web is your oyster

Keith Wickham sold his North London house on the net last year. “To be honest, there's not a lot to say other than it worked and it only cost me 500 quid.” Read how the little people can save big bucks with a few clicks of the mouse.

I put my house on the market last August. It's converted into two flats. I lived in one and rented the other. Initially I invited some local high street estate agents to give me some idea of the market value, and they were clearly desperate.

All of them offered to lower their percentages, and all of them valued my property at a level far higher than I thought polite, but it was pleasantly surprising to hear how much I'd made in the nine years I'd lived there.

I had no intention of using them for the sale (evil cackle). At even 1%, they would have cost me £5,000 over the two properties. Having established what I could get, I went online. I only had to put my top flat up for sale, as the lower floor was immediately snapped up by a neighbour.

There were two sites I chose, The Little House Company and housenetwork.co.uk. The latter had the edge. For £250 (they take the final £250 on completion of the sale) they came round and took photos, offered help with the wording and layout of the web page, and put the ad on seemingly dozens of other websites.

Within a day of putting the ad online I had some response. Within a week I had about ten viewings and several offers. Even after I accepted an offer, I kept getting calls offering more money. I can't fault the experience, frankly. I have to add a few points though.

Firstly, this is only my experience, and I haven't spoken to anyone else who has done this, so it might be an exception (I doubt this though).

Secondly, my house was in a nice street in a nice bit of North London, and was always going to be in demand.

Thirdly, it still took six months to complete the sale thanks to a dodgy lease and a mistake by previous solicitors during a re-mortgage, so a quick offer is no guarantee of a quick sale (but then, you knew that anyway).

Lastly, the only downside is that you have to arrange the viewings and show people around yourself. If, like me, you're self-employed and your time is flexible, then it should present no problems, but I can see this being a bit of stumbling block for those with regular or long working hours. I suppose it can be worked around though.

If I were an estate agent, I'd be extremely nervous right now.

Charging a huge fee for what amounts to displaying an ad and walking around properties is no longer looking so clever. I don't know why everyone isn't doing this.

For more information on selling your home online listen to Jasmine's podcast.