Is it better to sell a flat yourself, or through an agent?
You can sell a flat yourself, and it makes sense mainly when you already have a buyer, perhaps in the family or among neighbours. In every other case a good agent pays for themselves: they price the flat from real sales, prepare a presentation people notice, negotiate the price and watch over the contracts and escrow. The difference shows in the final price, the speed and the level of risk.
Updated 08/08/2026 · Jan Šrubař
When a private sale makes sense
If you have a buyer, you are not in a hurry and a lawyer prepares the contracts, a private sale is a legitimate route. You save the commission, and with an agreed buyer you need neither listings nor viewings.
What a good agent does for you
An agent's job is not to photograph the flat with a phone and put it on a portal. The difference lies in pricing from actual sales, home staging and professional presentation, targeted social media advertising, filtering applicants by financing and negotiation where someone holds the price for you.
The most common risks of selling without experience
Over the years I keep seeing the same mistakes in private sales:
- A badly set price: too high and the property goes stale, too low and you lose money.
- Amateur photos and a listing that disappears among hundreds of others.
- An unvetted buyer who turns out months later not to get financing.
- Contracts downloaded from the internet and a purchase price sent without escrow.
How to decide
Work out what the commission means to you: a price for a result, or an unnecessary cost. If you are unsure, get a free valuation and compare the price you would list at with the one the agent proposes. That difference usually decides on its own.
Thinking about selling or renting?
Get in touch for a non-binding consultation. Together we will go through your property and the current local market.