Selling your own home

Has anyone had any experience with selling your own home? I can't see the value in paying over $10k to an agent just to get someone signing a piece of paper. Inclined to think buyers are in the market anyway, an agent doesn't MAKE anyone buy something they don't like - but how do you get it advertised directly to buyers on the internet??? www.realestate.com.au is only for use by agents and it seems to be the best site Aust. wide.

Hi supasquirrel,

Well we haven't sold our home ourselves (yet) but we have sold some blocks of land which we had sub-divided. We used domain.com.au as our main internet ad. but also used a few of the other realestate sites which were either free or charged a minimal fee. We got a few enquiries from domain and a few from the other sites. We also advertised in the local realestate guide, in the paper, did a letter box drop of flyers through the local area and had a sign made up for the blocks with a container for the flyer. I can't remember exactly what we spent on advertising, but it was a lot less than what the agents were going to charge us. In the end we sold the blocks to people who knew people who already lived in the area, so word of mouth was most effective.

We had a lot of agents ring us of course, and had a friend who is an agent want to sell it for us too. He kept saying we wouldn't be able to get what they would get. As it turns out his agency sold a block of land just down the road from us about the same time, and got less for it then we got for ours even though ours was quite a bit smaller. Smug?? who us?? noooo

We are yet to decide whether to go down the same path when it comes time to sell this house as it turned out to be quite stressful, not so much the selling process but the aftermath. One of the purchases had a few "issues" after signing the contract and as we had a 6 month settlement (had to wait for titles to be issued) the headaches dragged on and on. We ended up dealing with her only through the lawyers, which is quite awkward as she will be our neighbour. I don't know if by using an agent we would have avoided the situation we ended up in - who knows? But I don't think I could handle going through that again

I have sold 2 houses and didnt use an agent for either of them

Well, one was a unit which we had as an investment property and we then sold to our son so would of been silly to use an agent

The other one was our residential house which we sold to a friend of the family as a private sale.

The catch with both of these, of course, is that there was someone we knew who wanted to buy our property - I dont think I would try selling on the open market without an agent.

We used a cut price agent in Brisbane only cost $5000 flat fee that included priority listing on real estate.com.au, open house etc bargin compared to the $19000 other agents wanted.
Thats another options if your not sure about doing it yourself.
Cheers

I just sold an apartment myself.

The reasons I chose to do so were-
1. Agents wanted $10-20K to sell it, and some wanted me to pay for the marketing too
2. All the agents I met wanted to list it for $499K, but I thought it was worth more
3. I lived in the apartment for several years, so thought I would know the selling points better than an agent
4. I had nothing to lose by giving it a shot

What I did-
1. Listed it in the paper- home open both Sat and Sun for an hour, from 1-2pm. Chose this time as all others in the area were 12-1pm. Chose both days so keen viewers could come back on Sunday for a second look.
2. Did a handout inviting 100 neighbours to view the apartment. At the very least, it meant lots of people were walking through, creating the idea that it was a hot property
3. Had my husband out the front of the block of apartments directing viewers, and showing them the balcony from the street. He would then buzz me to forewarn me people were on their way up.
4. Was honest with viewers about our desired price, when asked.

We sold it within 3 weeks, for $505K. No agent fees, and $6K more than anyone wanted to list it for. Very happy.

Here in Nannup there is a realestate that caters exactly to people like you.
I must say that it was a regular realestate business before they thought of this innovation, I thought it was a great idea .
From how I understand it I think you get the benefit of what a realestate agent can offer, but sell the house yourself and save a bundle in the process.

Worth checking out for yourself anyway....

http://www.sellsmartonline.com.au/

It's not easy to sell without an agent, but you'll definately save a lot of money.

If you do decide to sell through an agent, remember you can always negotiate the agents fee. Never agree to their first offer.

I actually think it was easy to sell without an agent . The agent I would have used came down to $13K + marketing, but it was still too much for the little work it ended up being.

I had a convenyancing company do all the hard work, cost $1000.

I haven't sold with or without agent, but we might have to move and I found this http://www.place2live.com.au/html/cms/46/fixedfee4you webpage.
No idea if they are good, but they tell that they list in realestate.com.au, and that's the nr.1.
If we sell I consider as well to advertise in our local paper.
Further I would like to have one of these signs, but I don't actually know how expensive they are and who makes these. But I know that they are worthwhile.
I read buying and selling for dummies and I think there is some good advice.

having worked in the real estate industry I feel that selling your own home does not work for everyone but its worth a try to sell it your self I know many people who have tryed , but only one that manage to sell herself.The others had to list with agents.The thing to remember is to be fexible with your viewing times, But I would recommond giving it a try if you donot get any feedback you can also list it with a agent later no harm done,

Thanks for the link I will give it a good look over. The stats certainly show realestate.com.au is No.1. I know it is in my area anyway.

We sold our own house, put the sign up one day and it was gone by the following night with two couples wanting it, I then took a list of 15 people who said if it fell through to ring them no internet, no newspapers, NO AGENTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow SuH, what a fantastic result. Were you in a high traffic area to get that sort of exposure so quickly?
I have watched the market in my area (hobby of mine) for several years and at the moment houses similar to ours are selling really quickly - there is not much around, so I personally believe a house will sell itself (with no "sales" person and no huge commissions!). Give ME the MONEY$$$

The benefit of selling through an agent is that they should be able to negotiate a higher price with buyers than you could.

Not all agents are skilled in negotiation though and as a result yes you are probably better selling it yourself. A good real estate agent however should be able to get a higher price for your home than you could yourself.

In our case, all of the agents we interviewed wanted to list the property at less than we actually achieved for it. They could be the most skilled negotiators around, but I don't know anyone who wants to pay more than the asking price! In our case, we felt they were just after an easy and quick sale, plus a nice commission.

There were two open houses in our street the Saturday we put the sign out, and we do get a good traffic flow on weekends/mornings/afternoons, and it seemed that everyone wanted to live here...at that particular time. It was crazy, but great. The people who bought it, recently tried to sell it again (mortgage too high for them) and had no success for 6 months because now is the wrong time to sell, unfortunately they lost quite a bit. Our time was the right time

SuH, I think you're right. If you have a desirable home in the right market, it will sell with or without agent. I think that it is important to make a professional looking advertisement.
I am not very convinced of real estate agents. Training is minimal, maybe they do training on the job, but when we bought our house from a reputed agency, the guy couldn't answer the simplest technical questions. Internet listings are often made in a hurry with blurred pictures showing the current furniture instead of the house, texts full of cliches like "hurry this will not last long" (and this text will not be changed for month).
Doubtless there are some good ones and these really might you help to find the right price.

I sold my block of land by putting an ad in the trading post real estate section, sold the first day the paper was out! I had already listed it with an agent though so of course he took his cut

Don't know if I'd have the guts to sell our house without the advertising might of a real estate agent though....

Seems immoral they can take a cut when they didn't sell it - that's whats in the contract though when you signed it.

yeah i know, in the end i was glad to sell it so quickly, and since it was a small block his cut wasn't too large!