Is this the way to net a house buyer?

IT has everything you could ask for.

Four bedrooms, a 30ft lounge, hand-crafted £15,000 kitchen and good sized back garden, professionally landscaped 18 months ago. It sits on a corner plot in a street just off Gower Road in Swansea.

It is also within the catchment area of one of Swansea's best schools.

The price? A not unreasonable, you might think, £265,000.

Yet still it has languished on the property market for the best part of a year. Just three people have been to view it.

Its owners have now decided to advertise it on a property website. For just under £90, they secure a potential audience of millions.

Will it work?

"We don't know yet,'' says the 43-year-old teacher owner of the property.

"But it has to be worth a try.

"Our estate agent has worked really hard to find a buyer for us. They have done everything they possibly can. But in the present climate it just hasn't been enough.''

Agents are said to be selling fewer homes than at any time since records began in 1978.

One told a survey he had "no credit, no confidence, no customers".

The latest report from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors is the bleakest picture it has ever published.

House prices are experiencing the most widespread falls since RICS started monitoring them 30 years ago.

That makes the current crisis even worse than the property crash of the early 1990s.

Some agents are shifting just one or two from their books each week.

The authoritative report says estate agents expect prices to keep on falling — their "price expectations" have also collapsed to an all-time low.

Many agents blame the mortgage drought, saying applications for "perfectly normal loans" are being rejected. And one of the most hated terms in the property market lexicon has also returned — gazundering.

This cruel trick happens when buyers slash an agreed offer, usually on the day that contracts are due to be exchanged.

One estate agent said: "It is not exactly prevalent but it is around as is a spirit of gloom and uncertainty."

Another said he knew of a case where a buyer had twice lowered his offer at the very last minute to target a desperate seller.

It just adds to gloomy forecasts and the fact that for anyone now trying to sell, these are desperate times.

Some are resorting to trying to sell their homes privately over the internet in an attempt to off-load their homes.

Paul Wilson, joint managing director of buzzhomes.co.uk says the internet has radically changed the way the industry works and put the power back into the hands of individuals.

"Hundreds of thousands of homeowners are opting to sell their own properties instead of relying on estate agents,'' he adds

"After all, who is better qualified to talk about a property than the owner — and who is most committed to selling it?"

The company's basic, eight-week web package costs £79.95. Compare that with the normal High Street estate agency one per cent cost of selling a £250,000 house, which would be £2,500. At two per cent it doubles to £5,000.

Paul, who had worked as a regular High Street agent for 28 years before setting up buzzhomes, says the sales platform is being used by growing numbers keen to drive forward property sales.

He adds: "We had 12,500 hits on the site last week alone. It shows what interest there is.''

Not everybody is convinced.

Nigel Jones, with a lifetime in the property business behind him, exercises caution.

Nigel, director of the John Francis agency network, argues they are still the people to stick with adding: "With fewer buyers out there right now, you need to go to an expert who has maximum ways to find them.

"Buyers know where to look to find a home and using the internet will always be secondary to coming through the sales office doors of an expert. We are best placed to match a buyer with the right home. If they do choose to use the internet, experts with dedicated websites, like ourselves, are a far safer bet than through someone who has tried to set up a site themselves.

"Buyers and sellers feel more comfortable dealing with a broker or third party to make a deal on such an important and emotive issue as your home. They find it difficult negotiating themselves as the stakes are so high and you need an expert who deals with it every day of their life to help you do this.

"If there is one market more than ever that you need an expert and broker, it's the housing market — when you've got your most valuable investment, you shouldn't leave it to chance."