THE National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) is advising home owners not to sell themselves short when considering a do-it-yourself property sale.

On average more than 1.2 million properties are sold every year in the UK. Of these, around 94 per cent are sold through an estate agent.

However, with the plethora of new websites enticing property vendors to ditch the traditional route and do it themselves, some people might be considering avoiding agency fees by going it alone.

For some this can work. But for many it can actually mean making less on the property than they would have done through an agent, even after taking fees into account.

Meanwhile, others struggle to sell at all. In a survey by the NAEA, 27 per cent of estate agents admitted they had been approached to sell a property that the owner had tried and failed to sell on their own.

Peter Bolton King, chief executive at the NAEA, offers the following advice for aspiring DIY home sellers: "Getting the price right in the first place takes expertise. DIY vendors can easily sell themselves short because they don’t have the inside track on the local market – either in terms of comparable house prices, infrastructure plans that might affect prices in the future, or whether it’s a buyer’s or seller’s market.

"On the other end of the scale, if you overprice your property you could find yourself coming up against all sorts of difficulties in selling. If you’re going to sell alone, it’s vital you research your local market thoroughly."