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Get Free Advice From Real Estate Advocate

After working in Real Estate (Admin position) for over 20 years, the best advice I can give is to go to www.neiljenman.com.au There you'll find all the best tips and advice you will need. Neil Jenman is a strong consumer advocate and has looked into all private sale ideas and companies and is always happy to help anyone looking to buy or sell. You can download free brochures with tips for buying and selling. Good luck with your move.
Contributed by Kat Lambert, 26th February 2010
​ Website: www.neiljenman.com.au

​Check the Web for Selling Hints and Tips

There is a really helpful website that has all the information you need to get started. It was a private sale in the hills area near where I live and the owners had tried the usual sales route to no avail before deciding to do it themselves and save a heck of a lot of money into the bargain. Here's the web address: http://www.viacorp.com/binbrook.html
- Contributed by Chris Lees, 26th February 2010
​ Website: www.viacopr.com/binbrook.html

​Sell Your Own Home and Save the Commission

After paying the agents commission to sell our first house many years ago I vowed we would never again line someone else's pocket if we could avoid it. We have successfully sold 3 properties ourselves and helped friends sell theirs using Owner.com.au. It is worthwhile purchasing the for sale signs they offer. I keep them and reuse each time by just changing the property number. Research real estate adverts to choose your words. Don't put in too much detail, just enough to get them to want to arrange a viewing. You want buyers to come, look, love and want to buy! When potential clients call don't give away too much and don't be chatty. Ask them questions to determine if your property would be suitable for them, i.e. if they want to use public transport and the nearest route is miles away they would be wasting their time and yours by looking. Remember you are the salesperson. Clear away clutter and personal items. You need to provide the opportunity for the buyers to visualise them living there. I prefer to have open house. I research for sale properties in the area and when they are open so I know when buyers will be in my area looking and I allocate an hour around this time. Advertise the open time in the paper and on the website. Make sure you get a contact name and number from everyone that comes in for security and to follow up to see why they didn't make an offer. Good luck! Contributed by Vicki Godden, 26th February 2010
​ Website: www.owner.com.au

​Professional For Sale Sign and Open Houses

We sold our unit ourselves in two months and it was over the Christmas period. We took photos on our digital camera and then went to Signarama and designed a large sign to erect out the front with photos, details and open times. We advertised in our local paper as well and the local Chinese paper (as there was many in our area). We had a three hour open period to get more people through, printed flyers at the local library and we were prepared for the comments and criticisms of our place. In the end it was easy and we saved so much in commission, you just need to be prepared to spend time opening. Good luck.
​Contributed by Marea Cohen, 26th February 2010

​Do Research Before Selling Your Own Home

I spent about four weekends checking out properties for sale that were similar to mine. I noted the good and bad features of these properties and made sure that I added any good ideas to the presentation of my property. I also invited a couple of real estate agents to give me an idea of what I could get and negotiated down how much commission they would take. I was still going to be paying agents thousands for commission and advertising fees so that was not an option. I then took photos of my house when it was looking its best and placed an ad on owner.com.au with the best photos. I purchased a for sale sign from the owner.com.au website and after putting up my sign I sold my house within a week for my full asking price. The amount I received was over 20% more than the real estate agent's valuation and the process cost me $65 with no commission payments to agents.
Contributed by Gordon Cowan, 26th February 2010
​ Website: www.owner.com.au

​For Sale Sign Sells Houses

We have sold two properties ourselves. It was relatively easy, and we were in a remote country town at the time - population 150. If you are in a more populated area it will be easy. You can use sites like www.owner.com.au and basic newspaper ads to draw buyer's awareness - which we did. But what sold our houses in the end was a simple sign out the front - For Sale, 3 bdr etc, basic details and a phone number. When people called we just arranged a time for them to come through. Once we agreed a price, we exchanged solicitors details and were done. You will probably find you will get a better price than an agent, as you know your property back to front and can sing all it's praises and show buyer's every little perk, whereas an agent won't offer this level of service. You could also use a fixed commission agency, we have one in our area called Rhino Realty, it's about $7,000 commission no matter what the sale price. However, my real estate agent friend said they need to make more sales to make their same income level and so will often talk the seller down just to make the sale - so beware of discounted agents, you may lose on your sale price what you save on commission. Give it a go yourself first with the sign out the front - no major marketing expenses, no photographs etc. And if it doesn't work then hand it over to an agent - I doubt you'll need to though especially if you have good passing traffic. I agree with your husband - I also had an agent spend $7500 on glossy brochures, photos and 1/2 page ads and never sold the house - just sent me the bill! You can do it!
Contributed by Suzanne Robinson, 25th February 2010
​ Website: www.owner.com.au

​Real Estate Agents to do the Best Selling Job

I'm not a real estate agent, nor have I ever sold my house on my own, however I do own several investment properties and have bought and sold many along the way. My advice is to NOT sell your house on your own. I totally agree that agents are WAY over paid for the work they have to do to actually sell the house and yes you could do it for a fraction of the cost, but when it comes to crunch time, the agent will get a much better price which will far outweigh the cost to have them do it on your behalf in the first place. Its not because they are a savvy negotiator, nor because people prefer to deal with agents (both of which can be true and helpful) but mainly because agents have access to all sorts of means, advertising, networks etc that private sellers simply do not. They know the market and know the real prices and know where to find buyers...something private sellers can only try to do. This is coming from someone who was positive I wanted to sell my own house and cut out paying an agent. My husband did the research (he's a financial planner) and it was true that even though we'd like to think it would be cheaper, the truth is we probably wouldn't get the best price which would cost us more in the long run.
​Contributed by Peta Sargent, 25th February 2010

​Attention to Details Makes Selling Home Yourself Easy

I sold our home in New Zealand myself after realising that agents were not getting the house facts correct when showing the house. It was easy. Firstly I made a very detailed list of the advantages of the home which I printed out on the computer and made copies. Made sure all the gardens were up to snuff. Took excellent photos, inside and out. Had a professional sign made which was placed at the gate. Advertised in the local newspaper. Sold the house to the first people who viewed who fell in love with it. We discussed details over a cup of tea. We worked with solicitors on both sides and the sale went through effortlessly. I would have no hesitation in doing the sale again myself. I think the exercise is worth doing yourself before placing the home in the hands of an agent...depending on the urgency for a sale of course. I forgot to mention the most important aspect of selling the house privately: I got far more for the house than any of the agents recommended selling for!
​Contributed by Caroline Mar, 25th February 2010

DIY House Sale Could End Up a False Economy

I am not a real estate agent, but I do believe that trying to sell your townhouse yourselves to save on agents fees is a false economy, provided you pick the right agent in the first place. If your husband has time (which I'm assuming he does if he was going to put the time into selling himself) then use this to thoroughly research the agents selling in your area. They are trained professionals and have all the knowledge, skills and resources to sell a home, a difficult job they do every day. I know the agents fees can be expensive for what seems to be a simple job, but if you select carefully they will more than earn their commission, usually by achieving a higher sale price or by selling in a lot less time than it would take your husband. It isn't often that an untrained person can do the job better than the trained professional.
​Contributed by Rebecca Tebbet, 25th February 2010

​DIY Website Promotes DIY House Sale

We sold our house last March. We got together a website (you can get one cheaply with some hosting plans - shop around a bit - we're website designers so it was free for us). Once you've done that, go to Google and look for any House For Sale websites, or classified websites you can find and add a list. Most of them are free, and it's all most people need to sell their house online. We ended up putting our house with an agent (due to one family member being determined we must do it) and sold the house to a guy who offered us what we wanted... only to find out a day later that there were 2 people willing to pay above sale price for the house - they both found us online. Give it a try! Just be sure to keep a record of everywhere you put your ad so you can take it down later on... we forgot to do that and still get calls a year on. Good luck and happy selling!
​Contributed by Amie Etheridge, 25th February 2010

​A Different Perspective

Just want to give another perspective on selling your home yourself. A good real estate agent will use their selling and negotiating skills to market your property and get you the best price possible. By not using a professional real estate agent you are far more likely to get less money for your property. Contributed by Eirene Poulos, 3rd March 2010