Anyone sell their own property (no agent)?

How did you find the experience?

Was it really hard to get interest in your property without an agent doing whatever it is they do?

Was it hard having no contacts? (some agents boast they've got lists of potential buyers on their books and such. Others don't mention this and just advertise your property the same way you would yourself - online, paper, etc)

How much did the ads cost to put into say, www.domain.com.au or www.realestate.com.au, and the papers for any open houses you held yourself?

Did you even hold open houses or was it all private inspections?

It seems to me agent fees are SO expensive these days...I wonder why anyone would use them anymore...there must be something I don't know here, which is why I'm asking.

I have used a company that is only $6000 and I also negotiated with another company for half the standard commission.

If you do it yourself expect to spend several thousands on advertsisng other wise you wont get interest

Realestate.com.au wont take private sellers, I dont think

Ok, interesting.

Wow, $6000 is considered cheap? How much do agents charge anyway!??

$400,000 house is roughly $11000
$750,000 house is over $20,000

The Queensland Government has set the real estate fees / agents fees /real estate commission in QLD at a maximum of 5% of the first $18,000 of the sale price and 2.5% of the balance of the sale price. 10% GST is also payable. This is the 'official' line

This is a site worth looking at http://www.saveoncommission.com.au/?gcl ... pAodIyNcpA

In Melbourne it can vary from 2 - 3% of purchase price - you can still neg a rate here.

Trash tonight did a story on this last week and were spruiking these web sites. If you google there's others to choose from.
http://www.buymyplace.com.au/
http://www.diysell.com.au/

I paid around $13,000 (or thereabouts) when i sold my last house and that was for $325,000.00.

I actually bought that house of a guy selling it himself. He just ran an ad in our local paper twice a week and that was it!

Totally agree about agent's commissions being too high for your return. I'm currently dealing with an agent (land purchase) who is handing out so much BS it's not funny as well as stringing me along with another 'mystery' purchaser. From a purchaser's point of view it pays to check what you've been told which has resulted in me not believing a word I'm being told. 'If' the sale goes ahead, I'm sure you can guess who will NOT be listing my house for sale!!

Don't forget you can also list it on eBay for $20 per month in the classified section. Not much to loose if it doesn't work??

A friend who owns a printing business has made a corflute sign so I can display it on the front lawn...just make sure that however you list your house that you have contracts drawn up in advance (legal requirement in NSW, not sure about other states).

To date I've heard/read mixed responses about other online DIY sites, so for the time being I'll go with the sign, eBay and local newspaper as a first option.

Resisales <http://www.resisales.com.au/> (and possibly others) have a fixed rate commission, so this may suit you too.

Personally I don't like open houses, pays to check with your insurance company in case anything goes walkabout.

Hope this helps? don't forget to report back as it helps other people.

Good luck!!

I tried and failed. We then listed with an agent out of the area as I trusted this guy to not feed me any BS, and within 3-4 weeks it was sold.

If time is on your hands, then certainly give private selling a shot but set yourself a timeframe. Don't keep it on the market for too long as buyers will start to wonder why it hasn't already sold.

Something that you may want to consider is the cost of the advertising if you were to place ads yourself. You cannot list your property privately on realestate.com, it costs about $500 for 28 days to advertise on domain.

In newspapers, Real Estate agencies will get discounts for being repeat clients - eg our company discount rates are nearly half what the casual advertising rates are. A simple ad with minimal text and one photo in papers like The Age (in Vic) would cost you up to $800, but it may only cost $500 if placed by an agent.

Then there is brand recognition. I'm sorry, but if you have to google "sell your own house" to come up with websites, then how do you think people will find your house? The most popular website in real estate is realestate.com (At least double domain's traffic), and you can't advertise on there.

Another mistake people make when trying to sell their own house is taking photos of their furniture, not of the rooms. There is a fine art in taking real estate photos - it makes me mad to look at houses on the net and see those artsy photos taken on an angle of the dining table with a bottle of wine and some glasses - I'm not looking to buy your furniture, I'm looking to buy your house.

Finally, commissions are negotiable (in Vic at least). People who complain about the commission they have to pay need to get over it. THEY chose their agent. THEY agreed to the commission charged. THEY signed the authority.

You could try to sell the house yourself, spend $6000 on advertising, have 10 people inspect your house and sell for $400,000. OR, you could list with an agent, spend $4000 on advertising, have 50 people inspect your house and sell for $430,000 because of increased interest and more offers, and pay $10,000 commission. That's $16,000 more than if you sell it yourself.

IMHO people who try to sell their house themselves are mad!

Sorry about the essay

Are you a real estate agent?

We paid from memory $6-7k to sell our home with a local agent for $469k. We asked around for local advice - luckily both my sister and our best friend had used the same agent and had nothing but glowing things to say about them. We interviewed 3 agents all up and he stood clearly above the rest.

Personally we were happy to have them do the work. They advertised on internet as well as local newspapers. We had two open houses on consecutive Sat mornings - they had a security guard on the fence to ensure nothing went astray as well as two agents inside the home. We sold on the 7th day of listing for full price - which he had made us increase from our original amount.

Personally I would never sell privately - takes a lot of work and time, something that we are extremely short of. I pay a hairdresser to do my hair, an OB to deliver my babies - why would I want to sell my home when someone has more talent in that dept then I do?

I sold my own, for $6000 over the HIGHEST price any of the agents wanted to list it for. They also wanted about $13K to sell it, and some agents wanted me to pay the advertising costs too!

I did three weekends of home opens for an hour, three ads in the West Australian. We actually sold it to a couple who my DH accosted as they were going to a home open in the next apartment block. He suggested they come and look at ours to compare it, and they loved it and bought it, even though it was out of their original budget.

So, I advocate people trying it for themselves, you have nothing to lose! We got a conveyancing company to do all the paperwork, that cost $1K.

..

Agents will always tell you their skills will get you more money. Dont beleive that to be 100%.

If you dont have the capacity to research what your house should objectively sell for and/or have the time to sell it yourself then maybe use an agent.

However if an agent is going to cost you $25000 and you can sell it yourself for $5000, then $20,000 is a nice savings

However if you are going to sell it yourself

1. Research the market
2. Dont try and over price your house
3. Spend the necessary money and advertise it with saturation advertising for 60 days

Use this link http://www.saveoncommission.com.au/sell ... pAodSlyOog

If everybody did this agents might cut their excessive commissions. In my opinion any more than $4000-$5000 agents fees is excessive. If you use an agent you TELL THEM what the commission is AND NEVER sign with an agent for more than 30 days at a time

In legal fees and advertising we sold our last place ourselves for $1600.00

It went on the market (first advert in paper) on a Thursday, open inspection on Saturday, deposit paid on Sunday and contract of sale signed on the Monday, so technically 5 days!!!

Selling your own property is easy, despite what agents tell you. We have done extensive research on this and found a couple of things that put their work into perspective.

What does an agent get paid?
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The percentage does vary state by state and according to value of your home. What is more important is knowing the hourly rate of an agent. On average an agent gets paid around $1,500 to $3,500 an hour. Not sure about you guys but I don't know any other profession that gets that much an hour.

Agents has exclusive buyers
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Here is a fact - 87% - 90% of all buyers either come via and internet search (realestate.com.au or domain.com.au) or through your For Sale board. Regardless of what an agent tells you just use your common sense, when you bought a house did you go to your local agent and register and do nothing else? No! You would still have been looking on the major realestate portals. It is a flat out lie that they have exclusive buyers, no buyer would put themselves at such a disadvantage and do that.

Agents get more buyers to the door
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Not true. Firstly volume of buyers means nothing. What is the use of getting 50 people through your property if none of them can afford it? This is why agents quote low in their advertising. I would rather have 2 qualified buyers than 50 unqualified buyers. Proof is in the pudding here - How many times have you gone to an auction and only seen 2 people bidding? Most auctions are like that. So you only really need to buyers who each want the property to a great price.

Agents don't have the time to devote to your property
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If you were selling 5 houses at once of course you couldn't devote a lot of time to just one. Why do you think agent hold inspections 30 minutes long (and sometimes 15 minutes). This is not convenient for buyers who are racing around trying to see all properties for sale, however it is convenient for the agent! When you hold your own open inspections you almost always get more people simply because you can afford to keep your property 'open' for longer. Simple! Remember your property should be convenient for the buyers not the agents.

Properties don't take 8-9 weeks to sell!
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When you sell your property yourself you find that your property will sell in less than the 8 weeks and agent tells you they need to market your property. Most people find their property sells within 2 weeks. Several people have sold their properties in a day. When it sells in 2 weeks you save almost 1.5 mortgage payments. That on its own is a good incentive to sell yourself.

Agents get a better price!
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Simply not true. What matters is not the final price but the amount of money you have in your pocket at the end of the day. Agents charge a fortune on fees and commission. You get more in your pocket when you sell yourself.

Here is that comment from the previous post I could not resist responding too (obviously an agent):

You could try to sell the house yourself, spend $6000 on advertising, have 10 people inspect your house and sell for $400,000. OR, you could list with an agent, spend $4000 on advertising, have 50 people inspect your house and sell for $430,000 because of increased interest and more offers, and pay $10,000 commission. That's $16,000 more than if you sell it yourself.


(1) No sell it yourself website in Australia I know of charges $6,000.
(2) Prove to me you will only get 10 people through, because I can show you stats that6 show the reverse.
(3) I have never know an agent to get $30,000 more than what the seller thought they could get? Where did you get that number from?
(4) On $400,000 commission is about $14,000 not $10,000.
(5) At the end of the day if you sell it yourself you will ALWAYS end up with more money in your pocket. Always! And did you know you could do both (Agent and sell it yourself). Most agents won't agree because they know that you can be just as effective as them.

Exclusive agreements
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If agents where so sure of their ability to sell or they had exclusive buyers why do they get you to sign an agreement which limits you from selling your own property? It doesn't make sense. What other thing THAT YOU OWN limits you from selling it yourself? Hmmm can't think of one! It is highway robbery and should never be tolerated. I have sold over 5 homes and never signed an exclusive agreement and never would. It is my home not theirs - I should have control not them!

You can't get on realestate.com.au or domain.com.au
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This is true in some cases, however look around their are now several sell it yourself websites that enable you to get listed with both websites. Its not hard. Mind you the only reason that a private seller can't get on realestate.com.au is because the agents have specifically pressured the big portals not to offer this to the average Australian home owner. Why would they do this if they were so sure they do more than just use the major portals. The reality is that most agents only use the portals and sit back and wait for the calls to come in. You can do that too! And not pay $20,000 for the privilege.

You do most of the work when selling through an agent!
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If you added up how much work you do when selling through an agent you would soon realize agents do a little bit extra, but not that much more. They hold open Inspections which may amount to about 1 - 2 hours work, but you do everything else. It is your conveyancer that prepares contracts and does settlement, not the agent. You clean and prepare your home for inspections, you prepare your home for sale, you hand the keys in and move out etc... What does the agent do again?

Finally and most importantly
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I would always try and sell my home first. For $200 to $400 what do have too loose? Remember what the agent tells you - GOOD HOMES SELL THEMSELVES. And in this statement they are right!!

Wow, very interesting post there.

This is why I asked in my original post…cause I honestly couldn’t quite work out what exactly the agents did that were REALLY worth all that money in their fees…

I mean, yes, they have a list of potential buyers all ready and waiting, BUT…who’s to say those sellers want YOUR property? When we were renting, our place was on the market on and off for over 2 years. 3 different agents. Couldn’t sell cause the owner wanted too much for it and refused to do anything to increase its value. None of the agents utilised over this time had any pre-arranged interested buyers come to look at the place. They had a list, sure, but…not for that particular property.

One of the agents (not sure if I can name names here, but it was VERY annoying as they constantly stuffed up times, didn’t submit the required forms for giving us notice of their entry, and basically insisted on holding their open houses each weekend even when only 1-2 people would come through for the entire 45 minutes, and one time NOBODY came through) who I’ve seen in ads and have received numerous junk mail letters from claim to have many dedicated and interested buyers for properties, but this agent tried to sell our old rented place (meaning we rented, did not own. Just in case that isn’t clear, lol) and was unsuccessful. They had nobody come through except some random people walking by in the street and occasionally, people who had seen the ONE newspaper ad a MONTH. They did NOT advertise at all. I assume this is the owner’s fault, but what was he paying them for then? No advertising, nobody interested from their list of buyers…and we overheard twice during the open house inspections, the agent telling someone who had come to look at the place that they also had a much bigger property on the beach just down the road (we were very near to a really expensive street on the Gold Coast)…so I mean, what great marketing for the owner’s money, eh? Telling a prospective buyer about ANOTHER property! lol.

Anyway…so in my mind (but I wasn’t sure, which is why I started this thread), I see it as…

- You place weekly ads in the state-wide (QLD Courier Mail), local (Gold Coast Bulletin) and very local (Gold Coast Sun) newspapers. Have open houses on the weekend and also private inspections by appointment
- You put your ad with GOOD and MANY photos (I have seen SO many ads from agents online that show a kitchen sink with dirty dishes and tea towel instead of the whole room. I mean, even if the room is a hideous BOX, at least it’d be better than looking at a TEA TOWEL! Lol) on www.realestate.com.au and www.domain.com.au
- And then…what? That’s it, I’d assume. Whenever anyone calls you or emails and expresses interest, be positive, professional and as accommodating as possible in terms of getting them in to look and answering all their questions
- Make sure your place is as neat, clean and un-cluttered as possible. Depending on your own circumstances, if you’re able to live elsewhere or move out early, this would be best (for me anyway), as you can either get some nice and minimalist rental furniture or just have signature pieces of your own furniture, but without all the clutter you have to live with
- Try as best you can to make the exterior of the property appealing…this can be hard with apartment blocks, but just try. Lol.
- No pets present UNLESS they’re…sort of…appealing pets. We have 2 lovely cats who are very endearing and welcoming, amusing…but they wouldn’t be at any open houses. Private inspections may be ok (but no cat litter trays or food visible! Or toys. Lol), but they’re inside only cats so nope to open houses. Too risky, and also not everyone likes cats. A lot don’t, so it’d put their experience off, you know?
- I’d have all the balcony doors open (if it’s a nice day), for a lovely fresh breeze. I’d put some kind of fresh scented thing on the balcony table that’d gently blow inside. Nothing too strong though.

So. Have I missed anything? I’d obviously have proper lawyers / conveyancers to take care of what happens after people submit offers / contracts.

If I’ve not missed anything…WHAT are agents for!? Lol. I can do the above, for goodness sake!

I think one of the main reasons there is so much disagreement is that we are all basing our opinions/theories etc on our own environment. I can tell by what people are saying that nobody lives in the same 'sort of place' as I do. What I said is 100% true (in my opinion) with regards to my environment. I, also, could show you (but cannot for privacy reasons) just as much evidence in my favour. Where I live, people are not very successful when trying to sell their own houses. It might be different where you all live, but I stand by my opinions - I would never try to sell my house myself. Just personal preference I suppose.

One good tip is to look at similar properties in your area, and make your home open after those. Most in our area were 12-1. We made ours 1.30-2.30pm, so buyers interested in the area were able to get to our home open. I also made a flyer, made 100 copies, and posted them in the neighbourhood. I figured some renters in the area might be interested in buying. In any case, the more viewers the better, even if it is just to suggest it's a hot property.