The following article is from the Sunday Times, Money section:

Désirée Fraser, a budding property tycoon and landlady from Hackney, east London, is incensed by high estate agency fees. She recently paid £3,000 in fees to sell a flat and so decided to go it alone. She saw an advert in a paper for HouseWeb, the property website, and decided to cut out the estate agent altogether.

She says: "I bought a two-bedroom flat in Barking for £73,000 last year and sold it through HouseWeb for £84,000 less than 12 months later. I didn't even include a photo with my online advert and it only cost £47. The whole process took about four weeks and saved me about £1,500 in estate agency fees. It was just so easy."

As a managing director of a training course company, Désirée likes to be in control and happily took responsibility for the property valuation. She also handled all the enquiries and viewings. "Estate agents are just so expensive," she says. "I won't be using them again - except for research purposes."

© Sunday Times, Matthew Wall

Désirée also told HouseWeb:

"The first person who arranged to see the flat secured it on the spot. HouseWeb was very easy to use.

It was definitely less stressful than using an agent and I enjoyed being involved in the process.

HouseWeb also gave me the opportunity in my description to say more about the property which I believed led to it being sold quickly (for example transportation links and schools)."

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