Banner - no middle man, save money, more choice, save time, free to use

Frequently Asked Questions about Selling Property Abroad

The following page can be used to answer any questions you may have about Beat The Agent, or
our overseas property selling services, if your question has not been answered please contact us.

Click on a question to be taken to the answer which is further down the page.

WHAT SERVICE DOES BEAT THE AGENT OFFER?

Quite simply, Beat the Agent is the leading website for people looking to buy or sell an overseas property without having to pay any commission to an agent. We are an FSBO website. This means For Sale By Owner and it means exactly that...no middle man...and no finders fees or commissions for you to pay.

The registration fee that you pay lists your overseas property for one month and registers that property with the website. Further months are billed at just £9.99 and you own that webpage for as long as you keep up your subscription. You can cancel the subscription at any time by contacting us through the website, but before you do - just remember - for less than £10 per month your listing is available to hundreds of thousands of property hunters all over the world. 

HOW DO BUYERS AND SELLERS CONTACT EACH OTHER ON BEAT THE AGENT?

It’s very straightforward. The person selling the property uploads their details to the website, the buyer then identifies the property by searching by country, region, and price. The buyer views the individual property details and if interested fills out a short enquiry form on the webpage which when sent, emails directly to the seller of the property. Alternatively, they may wish to contact the seller by telephone. You’re directly in touch and ready to do a deal!

[back to top]

WHY SHOULD I ADVERTISE MY PROPERTY WITH BEAT THE AGENT?

See section “Why Choose Us?”

HOW WILL BUYERS FIND THE WEBSITE?

The Shareholders of Beat the Agent are investing heavily in on-line marketing targeting both buyers and sellers. This website has been optimised to prolifically appear on all search engines, so you can guarantee being seen by a huge, global audience. In addition, we have budgeted for a large local, national and international press campaign working alongside some of the worlds leading Public Relations Officers and Journalists.

We have also allocated a large budget for very targeted advertising in property magazines and at property exhibitions. We also have strategic partnerships with investment companies, investment funds and tour operators globally. You can be sure that your advertisement will be seen by a large amount of people seeking holiday homes, investments and relocation properties.

HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?

See section “Pricing”

HOW DO I PAY?

Once you have uploaded your personal details, and your property, it will not be listed on Beat the Agent until you pay the registration fee. This can be paid by clicking the “Step 3 Pay” button after signing up, or later through your account against the appropriate property, in the right hand box, listed under “Pay”.

In the first month, you will pay the £149 registration fee and then you will be automatically subscribed to pay the on-going monthly fee of just £9.99. You can pay by Visa or MasterCard and billing is automatic, therefore, you do not need to re-subscribe every month. If you wish to cancel your subscription at any time, you can tell us using the form on the Contact Us page.

[back to top]

DO I HAVE TO PAY IN STERLING (GBP)?

Yes. The prices are all quoted in Sterling and the due Sterling amount will be taken from your account at the daily exchange rate used by your bank / credit-card company. Beat the Agent will take no additional fees for the use of alternative currencies.

HOW CAN I UPLOAD PHOTOS TO MY ADVERT?

You are encouraged to add good quality photographs to your advert in order to promote your property. These will be displayed in a standard format. When you sign up, you can add images to your property in the final stage of Step 2 of the process.

Here you can add images from your computer and add image captions to describe the contents of the photograph.

These images can be changed at any time, or you may wish to add images to your advert later. This can be done through the account screen/ Once you sign into your account, you will see your properties listed, and the option to “edit” under the image icon. The image icon will tell you whether or not you have images currently uploaded against this property and therefore acts as a reminder if you haven’t.

[back to top]

MY PHOTOS NEED TO BE IN ANY PARTICULAR FORMAT?

Beat the Agent supports most image file formats, and we advise you to use JPG or JPEG image formats as they will be shown quicker and more effectively than others such as GIF and BMP. It is obviously important that the images upload quickly and are of a decent quality. The website will automatically resize the images to fit into the spaces allocated on your webpage, therefore, you are encouraged to check that these images appear well on your page.

CAN CHANGE MY ADVERT AFTER IT HAS BEEN LISTED?

You can change your advert at any time through your account screen. Once you have signed in to your account, your properties for sale will be listed and you can edit the location or details by clicking on the “edit” link under the appropriate icons. You are not able to change the title or reference number of your advert.

I HAVE A PROPERTY TO SELL BUT THE COUNTRY/REGION IS NOT LISTED AS AN OPTION, WHAT DO I DO?

Whilst we have gone to every effort to make sure that all major countries and regions are available for you to choose from on the website, there may well be some fantastic new locations where we have never listed property before. If you need to have a country or region added to the website in order for you to list your property, simply go to our contact page and fill out the form, our team will pick up your message and add the country/region to the website as soon as you contact us.

CAN I PROMOTE MY BEAT THE AGENT LISTING IN ANY OTHER WAY?

Absolutely. Beat the Agent is one way in which you can sell your property and we firmly believe that it is THE BEST way, however we encourage you to consider other more traditional routes to market. Your Beat the Agent listing can help you to do this as you OWN the webpage that your property is listed on, therefore, you are encouraged to distribute this unique address to friends, family, potential buyers, by posting on other websites and even by posting in printed advertisements that you may take out with your local newspaper, for example.

[back to top]

I AM HAVING TROUBLE USING THE WEBSITE AND NEED ASSISTANCE, WHAT DO I DO?

Firstly take a look at all of the advice on this page, your answer may well be covered here. If you are still having problems simply go to our contact page and fillout the form. We will always respond within 24 hours and generally we will be much quicker than this.

AS AN ADVERTISER, WHAT IS STOPPING ME FROM SETTING UP MY OWN WEBSITE TO SELL MY PROPERTY?

Absolutely nothing, this can been done very cheaply and relatively quickly with a reasonable amount of technical knowledge. However, a website alone does not usually produce results, you need to market the website and this can be expensive for individual owners. The value that we bring is our ability to advertise and link to huge databases of already recognised interested investors and buyers.

AS A POTENTIAL BUYER I HAVE IDENTIFIED A PROPERTY, OR SEVERAL PROPERTIES I AM INTERESTED IN. IS THERE ANY WAY TO KEEP THE INFORMATION ON THOSE PROPERTIES?

We advise all website users to register an account with us. This can be done by clicking the “sign in” link at the top of the home page. Once you have registered your details and signed in, additional features within the website will be available to you. One of these is a shortlist function. Once you have identified a suitable property or properties, you can add the property or properties to your shortlist via the link on the bottom right hand side of the property page.

[back to top]

I WANT TO SHOW SOMEONE ELSE THE PROPERTY THAT I LIKE, HOW CAN I SHARE THE INFORMATION WITH THEM?

We advise all website users to register an account with us. This can be done by clicking the “sign in” link at the top of the home page. Once you have registered your details and signed in, additional features within the website will be available to you. One of these is a “send to friend” function. Once you have identified a suitable property or properties, you can send these property details to the email account of a friend, or even to your own email for reference, via the link on the bottom right hand side of the property page.

WHEN WILL MY LISTING APPEAR ON THE BEAT THE AGENT WEBSITE?

Once you have signed up for an account and input your property details, you will be asked to pay the registration fee. Once you have paid this registration fee, your property will be automatically listed. The listing will be visible for as long as you are a subscriber. If you cancel your subscription, your property will be taken off the website when your subscription period expires.

I ALREADY HAVE MY PROPERTY LISTED ELSEWHERE, DOES THAT MATTER?

No, not at all. We are confident that you will achieve more success in selling your property through our website, however, it does not matter to us if you have the property listed with other companies, however, we do encourage you to check with other companies who you may be subscribed to if you have any exclusivity clauses in your contract. This is highly unlikely, but you want to make sure that once you sell your property through our service, that you do not need to pay anyone any unnecessary fees.

[back to top]

CAN I STILL USE AN AGENT OR LOCAL REPRESENTATIVE TO ASSIST IN VIEWINGS FOR MY PROPERTY?

Yes, but you must be the contact registered on this website. The concept of this website is to put the owners in contact with the buyers direct. If you want to refer the potential buyers to an agent at a later date, then there is no problem with this. This agent or local representative may charge you a fee to do this, but you may wish to re-negotiate their fee.

HOW DO I FIND OUT IF PEOPLE ARE VIEWING MY LISTING ON YOUR WEBSITE?

You will know when someone makes and enquiry about your property because they will email you, and only you, directly from the website...so it’s important to check your mail on a regular basis. In addition to this you can check the “Report” section of your listing whenever you log in to your account. This will give you valuable information on visitors to your property listing.

WILL MY PERSONAL DETAILS BE MADE AVAILABLE ON THE BEAT THE AGENT WEBSITE?

You are in full control of what personal details are published on the website. We would encourage sellers to register an accessible phone number such as a mobile telephone number, and an email address which is also accessible. For example, if you are going on holiday for 3 weeks, do not register a works email. You may also want to make a comment on your webpage about your availability to answer emails and phone calls.

If buyers are very interested in your property, they may wish to call you about gaining further information quickly, or they may email you for further images, details or to make an offer. Either way, they will want a timely answer.

If your property is under-offer, you can choose whether or not to list your personal details, depending on whether or not you want people to contact you. If your property is sold, your personal details will not be listed.

We encourage you not to include any personal contact details in the body of your advert.

[back to top]

MY PROPERTY IS UNDER OFFER, DO I NEED TO DO ANYTHING?

You are encouraged to change the status of your property to “Under Offer” in your account screen. You can then choose, depending on the perceived seriousness of the offer, and your own preference, to whether or not you keep your contact details on your webpage. You can then change the status to available again, or sold, depending on the outcome. You can change the status, and you can include or exclude your contact details at any time.

I HAVE AGREED A SALE WITH A BUYER, WHAT DO I DO NEXT?

Once you agreed a sale, you may want to register your property as “Under Offer” in your account screen. Once the buyer has paid and signed contracts, you should change the property status to “Sold”. You are encouraged to contact a lawyer to arrange contracts, payment of taxes and title transfer of the property. You can choose any international law firm. We recommend the services of the law firm detailed in your sellers pack which was emailed out to you when you first registered you property.

WHEN SHOULD I REMOVE MY LISTING FROM THE BEAT THE AGENT WEBSITE?

Obviously it is important to us that you are happy with our service. You may find that you don’t get any enquiries for a month, and then in the next month you get numerous and sell the property. You are in full control of when your property is listed. There is no minimum term and you can remove your property whenever you like.

Once the property is finally sold, you will want to cancel your subscription to Beat the Agent. This can also be done through your account screen.

[back to top]

DO BEAT THE AGENT CHECK THAT SELLERS AND THEIR PROPERTIES ARE GENUINE?

Due to the volume of properties on the website, we are unable to check the validity of the sellers and their properties, however, we will respond to any reports of abuse of the website. If you have a complaint about any seller or their listing, you can report this by emailing abuse@beat-the-agent.com and we will investigate it and act appropriately.

Our web team will also randomly check listings to ensure that they are accurate and suitable, however, we cannot make any guarantees about the content published in these listings.

WHAT ARE THE COSTS FOR EXCHANGING CONTRACTS IF THE PROPERTY IS OFF-PLAN DIRECT FROM A DEVELOPER?

Purchase costs will vary from country to country and from seller to seller, therefore, both buyers and sellers are encouraged to hire the services of a lawyer for the purchase of any property whether it be on this website or elsewhere.

You can choose any international law firm. We recommend the services of the law firm detailed in our sellers pack which was emailed out to the seller when they first registered their property. Sellers may also want to share these details with the buyers when it comes to agreeing the sale. As they are independent law firm, they are able to represent both buyers and sellers if need be.

[back to top]

DO YOU HAVE ANY TIPS TO HELP ME SELL MY PROPERTY?

We have lots of great advice on our “Hints and Tips” page which will give you the best possible chance of attracting interest for your property. We would also advise you to look at other advertisements on the internet. You will find that these are mostly poor as they will have been posted by agents who have less of an incentive for selling individual properties as an owner would. They also usually list large numbers of properties, so they do not spend a lot of time on detail.

WHAT HAPPENS IF I DON’T SELL MY PROPERTY ON BEAT THE AGENT?

Naturally, as you are subscribing to the service, you will want to see results and we are totally committed to ensuring that we get enough numbers to our website that would be interested in your property, in order to sell it for you. In some cases, you may want to re-consider your offering to make it more attractive to buyers. This can be done in several ways. You may wish to re-write your description in order to make the offering more attractive, or change the images.

We encourage all sellers to read the “Hints and Tips” section of our website for ideas on how you can make your property more attractive to potential buyers. One of the biggest changes can be price and you may wish to reduce the price for a quick sale if you are happy to do so.

[back to top]

WHAT HAPPENS IF A SALE FALLS THROUGH?

Unfortunately, from time to time, sales do fall through and one of the main reasons for this is that the property details are either inaccurate or misleading. By being totally honest in your appraisal of the property, you will save a lot of time and money.

If a sale does fall through, you can make the property available again through your account screen. You don’t need to do anything else, just keep up your subscription payments and ensure that the property details are kept up-to-date and accurate.

HOW CAN I CONTACT A BUYER WHO HAS LISTED A PROPERTY AS “WANTED”?

Buyers are encouraged to tell us what they are looking for so that we can target our advertising in those areas. We share this information with you so that you know what buyers are out there and what they are looking for. These are not advertisements and we are unable to link buyers with sellers.

The concept of the site is for buyers to contact sellers direct with no middle-man involvement and that this is done in a “no hassle” fashion. These potential buyers will be checking the website regularly to try to match their requirement with a listing.

[back to top]

I HAVE REGISTERED MY PROPERTY AND HAVE RECEIVED A GENERIC SELLERS GUIDE. HOW CAN I GET MORE ACCURATE INFORMATION ABOUT THE SALES PROCESS IN THE COUNTRY WHERE MY PROPERTY IS REGISTERED?

Our recommended law firm has provided us with sellers guides for a number of different countries, however, they do not currently have guides for all countries, therefore, a generic guide is sent to those people advertising property in a country that we do not have a specific guide for.

The law firm are open to give advice over the telephone or by email to any seller in any country, even though they may not have a guide for it. Please contact the law firm direct and they will advise you on any legal matters regarding the sale of your property. Their contact details are printed on the generic guide that you have been sent.

I HAVE MY OWN LAWYER, DO I HAVE TO USE YOUR RECOMMENDED LAWYER?

We encourage you to use a legal representative that you are comfortable with. If you have previously used a law firm and you are happy with the service they provided, then we would encourage you to use them. Our recommended law firm is there purely for people who do not have a legal representative and need help in selling their property.

[back to top]

I HAVE FOUND A PROPERTY LISTED IN A CURRENCY THAT I AM UNFAMILIAR WITH. CAN I BUY THIS PROPERTY IN MY OWN CURRENCY?

The seller chooses the currency that the property must be purchased in and you can find the daily exchange rate from our currency partner, Moneycorp. Moneycorp are specialists in currency transfer and can handle all of your transactions. A link to their services can be found on the property listings. NB: Whilst we can highly recommend the services of Moneycorp you do not have to use them for this service and are totally free to find your own currency exchange partner.

I HAVE FOUND A PROPERTY LISTED IN A CURRENCY THAT IS DIFFERENT FROM MY LOCAL CURRENCY. HOW CAN I BE SURE THAT THE EXCHANGE RATE WILL NOT CHANGE BETWEEN ME PUTTING IN AN OFFER AND ME TRANSFERRING THE FUNDS?

Once you have had an offer accepted, you are encouraged to contact our currency partner, Moneycorp. Moneycorp are specialists in currency transfer and can handle all of your transactions. A link to their services can be found on the property listings.

Moneycorp are able to protect you from currency fluctuations, advise of potential fluctuations and position your money in such a way that you may make out of any fluctuations.

NB: Whilst we can highly recommend the services of Moneycorp you do not have to use them for this service and are totally free to find your own currency exchange partner.

If unexpected fluctuations occur, and you are likely to lose out of it, then you may wish to agree on a solution prior to making an offer. If you did not do so, then you may wish to re-negotiate with the seller and either postpone the sale, or agree on a price reduction.

HOW DO I CANCEL MY SUBSCRIPTION?

To cancel your subscription, simply go to our contact page and fill out the contact form, giving full details.

[back to top]

Overseas Properties for Sale with No Estate Agent Fees

Spain Spain
France France
Italy Italy
Portugal Portugal
Cyprus Cyprus
Canary Islands Canary Islands
Turkey Turkey
United States United States
Balearic Islands Balearic Islands
Bulgaria Bulgaria
Greece Greece
Australia Australia
South Africa South Africa
Croatia Croatia
Thailand Thailand
Malta Malta

Beat The Agent website is part of Overseas Homes Direct Ltd. Registered address 7 Plaza, Maida Vale, London NW6 5RP