DIY real estate

[Wongo]

We are going to sell our Property in a few months time. I am not very keen on adding wealth to those greedy real estate agents (sorry if you are one). We have decided to do it ourselves.

Has any of you done it before? You are welcome to give me your opinion, comment and experience.

I know it is not easy but 10K or 15K is a lot of money.

Thanks

Scott

[jackiew]

my boyfriends dad had a go at doing this ... he got a couple of offers but not quite as much as he was hoping for ( it was just as the property market started to go into decline in Melbourne ) and finally decided not to move. If he'd persevered I'm sure he would have sold it.

He had a board outside his house with the phone number on and advertised on the internet and in the newspaper. It can also be worth doing a letter box drop in your local area ... lots of people move locally or may know someone who wants to move into the area.

Do get the property valued by an independent valuer. Do go and look at as many houses as possible in the local area and find out how much they sold for and compare it to yours.

A good agent will give you advice on what you can do to make your house more sellable. Its all common sense stuff though. If you have some brutally honest friends then its worth getting them to walk round and tell you what's letting the house down. If you're saving on an agent pay someone to come and give the house a good spring clean. Also put all your clutter into store.

I would recommend against having an open for inspection ... make individual appointments with people. Any reasonable person won't mind you asking to see their drivers licence .... note the number down .... if your house gets burgled it would be good to know who has been round your house recently. Having just bought a house most agents neither seem to know nor care who they show round someone's house .. at best they take a phone number which could be completely false.

For security reasons you might be better off not having your own phone number on the board ... go for a prepaid mobile and carry it with you .... Agents carry theirs all the time for a good reason.

Talk to your solicitor beforehand about the contract and stuff.

If you know someone whose recently bought a house and had a survey done before hand ask to see the survey form ... this will give you an idea of what the surveyor is going to be looking for and then you can check yourself to see that everything is ok.

In uk we show people round our own homes the agent just sets up the appointment ... there is nothing to it .... just remember not to talk too much, point out the good things, not the bad, and answer honestly if they ask a question. If you lie you can get yourself into trouble. Do offer people a chance for a second walk round without you dogging their heels, this gives them a chance to discuss the property in private. If they slag off your home when they make an offer don't take it personally, they are just trying to beat the price down.

If you've already had it valued and you know what houses in the neighbourhood go for then you should have a good idea whether their offer is silly or not.

Give them a day or so to think about it and then ring them up and ask if they are interested. If they aren't interested you have nothing to lose by asking them what they didn't like and whether there is anything that they think you could do to make the property more saleable. There are some good books available.

Good luck. From what I could see of agents when I bought they add very little to the sale process.

[Grunt]

There are a number of things you need to be wary of when selling your own property. Firstly, you need to make sure your advertising budget is adequate. This will cost you around $4,000. You would pay this to a real estate agent in any case. Secondly, the biggest problem I can see is that you need to have a presence on at least one of the realestate web sites (www.realestate.com.au or similare) and I think these sites are only available to real estate agents. Don't underestimate the importance of these sites. I sold a property last year to someone who lived in Singapore and the bought is solely on the pictures and the virtual tour that was on the web.

2 Friends and I sold properties within a few months all within the same area. One of the friends and I sold through the 2 leading agents in the area and sold for well above the reserve, the other went through one of the DIY Real Estate Companies and sold for what I considered under the market value.

In my opinion you would be best off to use the most successfull real estate agent in your area and negociate a decent percentage commission. We did 2% up to the reserve and 10% above that.

[arose62]

I bought my last property directly from the vendor, with no dramas. It was friend-of-a-friend who'd already bought their next house, hadn't sold the old one as quickly as they hoped, and were starting to panic about 2 simultaneous mortgages. I bought for the amount they "needed" right then, rather than what they'd have liked to get.

If you've got a "Jenman" agent in your area, they have a free booklet on how to sell your home without an agent.

It's also worth looking at their "Consumer Protection Guarantee" for some ideas.

I haven't used a Jenman agent, and was pretty disappointed in the one we spoke to (actually, *listened* to for 4 hours until after 11:00 PM - sheesh! Couldn't take a hint!!), but I think a lot of their ideas are good.

www.jenman.com.au

Also, it costs about $300 to get a professional valuation, and about the same amount for the section 149.2 and .5 certificates from your local council.

Then, all you need are a good solicitor/conveyancer, and a buyer.

We have 2 properties we're about to market - 1 on the Central Coast, and one in the Western Suburbs, and hope to avoid agents (and their fees!!)

My rough marketing plan for the Western Suburbs property is:
offer it to the current tenants
offer it to the immediate neighbours
offer it to everyone in the street
consider internet advertising.

This may not work for everyone, but the street is closely held, with not much turnover, and pretty good neighbourly relations. There are even several families who've moved within the street!

Cheers,
Andrew

P.S. You may even find a buyer on your favourite woodworking bulletin board! Give details of workshop/shed etc.

[AlexS]

Arose, has the one on the central coast got a shed & neighbours that are either not too near or already deaf?

Serious question.

[arose62]

Yes - the garage is about a 1 and 3/4 car size. During the only hailstorm on the coast, I fitted my inlaws old Merc and my Z3 inside.

It's also got 3-phase power, separate meter box, and (I believe) a separate phone line wired. Previous owner ran a blacksmithing business in there.

Property on the LHS is a holiday shack, only visited on occasional weekends.

On the RHS is a nearly-deaf grumpy old lady.

Serious answers.

Cheers,
Andrew

[Wongo]

Thank you so much boys,

To jackiew
The house is very tidy at the moment as I just renovated the kitchen last week and we also cleaned up the whole place(Don't know how longer would it last. Thanks to that little devil). We plan to show people the house by appointment only and I will take your advice to see their drivers licence.

To Grunt,
I’ve got to have a go at it but I’ll keep your advice in mind.

To arose62
Thanks for the web link and I will consider your marketing plan carefully

To AlexS
Do you want to buy a house?

Cheers

Scott

[JDub]

Just wondering if you had any luck selling???

[Wongo]

No, we have not started yet. We will be in the market in a couple of months. I am feeling nervous as market has been pretty quiet.

[Wood Borer]

Wongo,

Our son is part of a company who does DIY Real Estate on the net. If you want details see www.hotproperties.com.au

- Wood Borer

[Wongo]

Just did it.

Hooray. I did it. Yes I did it.

It has been a long 3 months but I have finally sold my townhouse. It is a tough market and it is stressful but I think I have done well.

Well, I didn’t do much really, I advertised on domain.com and the Saturday SMH, open house and deal with buyers. I had about 50 contacts with 4 serious buyers. I rejected a few offers which I felt they were too low and in the end I was right.

I started to worry about it approaching the 2 weeks Xmas and New Year holiday. Anyway, a young couple came to the last open house before Xmas, they liked the place and loved my work. They came again the next morning with their parents and made an offer (a good one of course) in the afternoon. One good buyer was all I needed.

There was another unit (#32) sold in our complex 4 weeks earlier. Here is the comparison of the 2. I will refer my townhouse as #24

1.#24 and #32 are identical, both were renovated but many people suggested that #24 worth 5,000 to 7,000 more.
2.#24 was sold $14,000 more then #32
3.#24 took 8 weeks but 12 weeks for #32
4.#24 costed $1,200 to advertise but $3,000+ for #32
5.#24 had no agent fee but around $10,000 for #32

What do you think?

Selling a house is very stressful (with or without a real estate agent). Ultimately a real estate agent does 3 things for you. Advertising, open house inspection and dealing with buyers. I did not enjoy being a real estate agent very much but I still won’t pay someone to do it for me.

I am just so happy right now and really looking forward to moving to our new house and setting up a “Real workshop”.

Cheers :)

[craigb]

Good on you Scott. Glad you finally offloaded it.

I don't think that I'd take on selling a house myself though.
Way too stressful for me.

Plus I'm a crap negotiator :o :D

So we'll almost be neighbours now huh?

[Wongo]

So we'll almost be neighbours now huh?

Yes and I am coming over to visit you tonight! :cool:

[HappyHammer]

my boyfriends .....
I'm crushed :( ;)

[DaveInOz]

Given boyfriends is plural and father is singular we can only assume she is dateing brothers :eek: (HEY, whatever pops your cork :D )

Congrats Wongo!

[Wongo]

OK now honeymoon is over. Let’s think about the bigger mortgage. Doh!


Mrs Wongo doesn’t want to go back to work. Oh well I will find a second job maybe in a service station or something. :(

[HappyHammer]

No more model boats for you mate :eek: :(

[Wongo]

Plus I'm a crap negotiator

Craig, I am not a good negotiator either. I only knew what I wanted was very reasonable and some offers were really way off the mark.

I had the pleasure to deal with a very keen buyer and funny enough she is real estate agent herself. She looked at our place 4 times in 2 weeks and she made a couple of offers. However, she had this “I am a real estate agent, I know what I am doing and I will not accept anything less then a bargain” attitude.

Here is one of the emails from her:

=================================================
Hi Scott

xxxx and I have discussed the property again and would like to make an increased offer of $XXX,500 subject to the contract being looked at by our solicitor, a satisfactory pest and building report, the relevant searches being completed and the mandatory bank valuation.

We have noted the property in the complex that most recently sold (number 32) for $XXX,000 in late November. The differences we can see with the 2 properties are as follows:

1. Number 32 has air-conditioning up and downstairs and a newer dishwasher
2. Number 32 is set back further in the complex therefore making it quieter and the traffic noise from the M2 not as apparent
3. Number 32 has incurred Agent and marketing fees

If our increased offer is accepted, subject to the relevant inspections and searches being carried out satisfactorily we are willing to sign a s66w waiving the right to a cooling off period. We are also negotiable on the settlement period.

Kind regards
=============================

[Wongo]

And this is my reply
============================================
Dear xxxxx,
Thank you for your reply. I have considered your offer and while I take on board your points regarding No. 32, I would like to point out the following:
•Our townhouse has a near new en suite bathroom valued at $9,000
•In addition, our garage is opposite the property, whereas No. 32's garage is under the property, necessitating a longer and inconvenient walk to the townhouse.
•We have real timber floors, while I believe No. 32 has laminated MDF floor board
•We have new timber Venetian blinds throughout
•Our carpet is only three years old
•Our kitchen has been renovated to include a new microwave oven, exhaust fan, new tiles and timber bench tops, and a more modern stove
•The interior painting was down thoroughly and professionally.
With these points in mind, unfortunately I have to reject your offer of $xxx,500. However, we would be prepared to consider an offer in the vicinity $xxx,000.

I feel that your point of our property not incurring agent and marketing fees has no bearing on the market price of our property, so we have not taken this into consideration when reassessing our counter offer to you.

As far as noise is concerned, I can assure you that the M2 has absolutely no impact on our townhouse.

regards

Scott
======================================================
:cool:

[AlexS]

Congratulations Wongo, guess you're all looking forward to moving into a new palce.

Well done.