Selling a house without an estate agent: how to do it

Putting a house up for sale without an estate agent is perfectly allowed in Belgium. You save the commission, but you also take on the entire file: the certificates, the pricing, the viewings and the negotiation up to the preliminary sales agreement. For one seller that works out fine. For another it ends up costing more than it brings in. Below you will read what you arrange yourself and where things tend to go wrong in practice.

What you save, and what you give up for it

An estate agent's commission in Belgium usually sits between 3 and 3.5 percent of the sale price, plus 21 percent VAT. On a home of 350,000 euros that comes to roughly 12,700 euros including VAT. That figure is why many owners start out on their own.

Against it stands work you take over. An agent delivers three things you would otherwise have to organise yourself: a correct valuation based on recent sales in your street, visibility on the major portals, and follow-up with prospective buyers right through to the offer. That last part is the underrated one. A home that sits online three months too long loses negotiating room, because buyers can see the publication date.

Do the maths honestly. If you save 12,700 euros but sell 15,000 euros below the achievable price, you have gained nothing. The reverse holds just as well: for a sought-after home in a tight market you sometimes find a buyer within two weekends without any help at all.

The documents you have to gather yourself

Without an agent you are also responsible for the sales file. In Flanders that means at least the following items:

• EPC: mandatory, and the label has to appear in your advertisement along with the energy score.
• Soil certificate from OVAM, to be requested per cadastral parcel.
• Inspection certificate for the electrical installation, required on the sale of every residential unit.
• Asbestos certificate for homes built before 2001.
• Town planning information, to be requested from your municipality. Delivery times sometimes run to several weeks.
• Post-intervention file for works carried out since May 2001.
• An inspection certificate for the oil tank if a tank is still present.

Start on this early. The municipality and the inspectors set part of your timing, not your diary. Anyone planning to sell in the autumn is best off requesting the slowest documents before taking the first photo. A file that is not ready when an offer comes in costs you the buyer, or at the very least a discussion about the price.

Setting the asking price without an agent

This is where selling on your own most often costs money. Asking prices on the portals are not sale prices. What a neighbour asked says little about what he eventually got. And the sentimental value of a kitchen you fitted yourself is not something a buyer pays for.

So work with three sources side by side. First the statistics on actually registered sales in your municipality, which give you the range per property type. Then a comparison with homes currently for sale within the same radius, because that is your competition. Finally a correction for the condition of your home, the EPC label and the plot size.

A neutral starting point comes from a free valuation of your home. It costs you nothing and commits you to nothing, but it gives you a benchmark against which to test your own estimate. If your dream price sits 20 percent above that range, you know the first weeks online will probably stay quiet.

Advertising and running viewings

Private sellers can publish on most Belgian portals themselves, sometimes free of charge, sometimes for a fixed fee per listing. Make sure you have at least daylight photos, a floor plan with dimensions and an honest description of the state of the roof, the windows and the heating. Staying quiet about what is plainly visible only produces arguments during the viewing.

Allow for the practical work. You answer the phone yourself, including during working hours. You schedule the visits, you let people you do not know into your home, and you will not find out whether someone can secure financing unless you ask. So ask. A short screening on budget, on the sale of an existing home and on the preferred timing saves you whole Saturday afternoons.

Group your viewings as well. Four visits in one afternoon signals to candidates that there is interest, whereas four separate appointments spread over two weeks removes that effect entirely.

From offer to preliminary agreement

An accepted offer is not a non-binding intention in Belgium. The moment you accept in writing, the sale is in principle closed. So be careful about what you confirm by email or by message, certainly while conditions are still open.

The preliminary sales agreement fixes everything: price, date of the deed, suspensive conditions such as obtaining a loan, and the division of costs. Have that document drawn up or reviewed by a notary. You can arrange this yourself without an agent, and it is not the place to economise. The notarial deed usually follows within four months of the preliminary agreement.

Two classic pitfalls. The first is a suspensive financing condition with no end date, which leaves your home blocked for weeks. The second is a verbal promise about furniture or about the handover date that ends up nowhere in the agreement.

When an agent is the better calculation after all

Selling yourself pays off most often with a mainstream home in a sought-after municipality, with a seller who has time during the day and who is not under time pressure. If one of those three does not hold, it gets harder.

With a home that has a difficult story, think of a weak EPC label, an outdated electrical installation or an unusual layout, an agent's experience weighs more heavily than the commission. The same applies if you have to sell against a deadline, for instance because you have already bought.

You can test both routes side by side without committing yourself. Through a comparison of estate agents in your municipality you see what local offices propose in terms of price, commission and approach. You get a maximum of three offices, not six, and you remain free to sell on your own after all.

Frequently asked questions

Am I allowed to put my house up for sale myself in Belgium, without an estate agent?

Yes. There is no legal obligation to engage an estate agent when selling your own home. You do have to comply with the same documents and disclosure duties as an agent, including the EPC in the advertisement and the soil certificate at transfer.

Do I need a notary if I sell without an agent?

Yes. The notarial deed can only be executed by a notary, including for a sale between private individuals. Have the preliminary agreement drawn up or checked by the notary as well, because that document already binds you before the deed.

How much do I save by selling without an estate agent?

The commission saved in Belgium usually amounts to 3 to 3.5 percent of the sale price plus 21 percent VAT, so around 12,700 euros on a home of 350,000 euros. Set against that are your own listing costs, your time and the risk of a lower sale price.

Can I try on my own first and bring in an agent later?

You can. Many owners try for a few weeks themselves and switch afterwards. Bear in mind that your home then already carries a publication history, which can weaken your negotiating position.

Your next step

Putting a house up for sale without an estate agent is doable, provided you have the file complete in time, set the price soberly and let a notary handle the legal step. Start with a realistic valuation, because every further decision depends on it. If you want to know whether a local office would sell your home faster or for more than you would yourself, you can compare estate agents without obligation before you decide for good.