Hi OzB's,
After advice from anyone who has bought or sold a house that's "sold by owner"
I'm selling a unit in Melbourne's north-east. I've had it valued multiple times recently and know what it's worth.
Any advice is appreciated, especially if constructive. My thinking is I can sell it for about $1k rather than about $15k quoted by an agent. I'm confident in my selling ability and have time to do it.
Yep, 100%.
As a current prospective looking buyer, as long as it shows up on Domain/Realestate, don't care which agent or no agent. Just make sure you have the capacity to answer message queries. Having said that, you can't do worse than agents anyway. Solicitor is a must of course.
100%
I think you should still get a conveyancer or solicitor.
Otherwise good on you and good luck.
Yep 100%
I sold my house myself. Was quoted 15k from an estate agent + you must engage your own solicitor or conveyancer anyway which is roughly 1.2k = total sale cost $16.2k. Well I listed it myself on Realestate.com.au for $100 and arranged a few private inspections with interested parties. Negotiated hard with an interested party sold for 10k more than recent sales. All up costed me $1.3k, saving myself 14.9k for possibly 2 or 3 hours work. People always say you wont get the best price or its such a big risk. No - demand dictates pricing and the solicitor or conveyancer has to deal with the risky part settling the sale.
P.s. I hate real-estate agents with a passion.
Haha thank you. Love your work!
Slimiest people
So good. I'm supportive that he thinks agents are a bunch of crooks.
I easily sold mine myself using salebyowner and will definitely do it again in the near future. I just went with the cheapest package that allowed me to list on realestate.com.au and domain.com.au.
I didn't use a for sale sign or anything.
Saved myself thousands.
If you have the time and don't mind dealing with people then it shouldn't be an issue.
I did employ a conveyancer as I didn't want to deal with all the paper work.
Thanks mate. I appreciate the info!
Agent simply does the sales pitch and advertising. Conveyancor/solicitor takes care of the sale and contracts.
I've bought and sold in the past without realtors.
Let us know how you go. I hate realtors making $$$ for doing monkey job,
Thanks Prison Mike…
"Cause you got a good life… you got a good life"
Not sure which state, but I would definitely use a real estate agent to auction a property in Victoria, everything is selling way over the agent price guide, not sure how you'd be able to negotiate that yourself, just don't think it would be feasible
Yep, in Melb.
I don't understand why a buyer would want to pay a premium at auction, but not do the same at a sale by set date? There's potential for them to get a property a few thousand cheaper because there's less fees for me to pay.
Buyers dont want to pay a premium - but auctions build an environment that some people fall into the trap of bidding more in case they lose out to the other bidders. That same environment does not exist in sale by set date.
at an auction you know what the property is worth based on what the last bid before yours was. sale by set date you are just bidding blind against an agent who keeps saying "we have higher offers so you should offer atleast this much…."
@redfox1200: Actually, auctions always sell at the minimum bid higher than the 2nd highest. It would be a huge coincidence for that to happen to be the max the buyer was willing to pay.
The job of the salesperson is supposed to be to find what that maximum is for each potential buyer.
Unfortunately, real estate commissions encourage finding the fastest and easiest buyer rather than the one who's willing to pay the most.
Hence the op is on the right track selling himself. He won't get the max price he could have, but nor would an agent unless he could actually find a good one, which isn't going to happen.
@redfox1200: Maybe in a frantic market. But normally, if I have $2M to spend but other bidders are only willing to go to $1.5M, I'm going to keep that extra money that I don't need to spend.
A good salesman would have got the $2M out of me.
An auction by definition will get the lowest possible price.It can't get more - noone is going to bid above the funds they have available, and noone is going to bid more than they have to to beat the previous bid.
@SlickMick: i think at auction (for a buyer) you have the certainty that you are not overpaying, or only overpaying by a small amount.
if the good salesman gets the 2 million out of you then you just overpaid for the property, if you were to immediately resell the house you might only get the 1.5 million
Most buyers I know want to negotiate prior to auctions. Vendors and real estate agents want the auctions because it encourages the bidding wars that leads to those premiums.
Everytime I have looked at those sites, either the house is way to priced or its in the middle of a country town
Basically just looking to use the site to get on realestate and/or domain. Because I agree, I'd never go look on their website.
Gumtree, but no PayPal or Bank transfers - Cash Only
Attempted joke?
And meet in a public place for pickup
In the current market houses seem to be selling for more than what is considered fair value. Sometimes a lot more!
FOMO perhaps.
I would normally agree with trying to sell yourself and save the agent's fee, but at the moment, in the current market, auctions seem to go way over reserve price. Once you have 2 or 3 buyers competing, things can get crazy.
Not sure if there is a way to organise an auction by yourself by just hiring an auctioneer.
Yes, that was my first thought.
Can one (by a default choice) miss out on the upside of an Auction?
Auctions concentrate the mind and cause people to act, lest they miss out.
How about gumtree and eBay!
(just kidding :p)
Gumtree offers for the unit will be like "$10k cash, can buy now"
I did it twice and will never ever use a real estate agent.
My steps :
Both times sold within our expected range.
On gumtree several RE agents actually saw the ad and offered their services at a discounted commission rate
There can be tyre kickers which the RE agents normally filter out but that is a small price to save tens of thousands.
Generally in the 'cheaper' suburbs it's easier to achieve a somewhat decent price selling yourself. If property is worth $1m + you'd be shooting yourself in the foot trying to save $15k when you likely would make more than that by hiring an agent/agency with above market prices for similar types of property. Generally as well, in the more expensive markets properties tend to go to auction.
In life my thinking is generally that you get what you pay for…of course there are exceptions but I wouldn't want to cheap out if selling a property worth $1m +
Agree - it's a unit between 600-700k.
Great insight. Never under-estimate the market conditions and how good RE agents can optimise those to get best outcome for seller. That being said always ensure that you speak with few agents and bargain hard on fees before signing contract. Thanks
I have sold two properties myself
First I called in several Estate agents to get their opinion on what price I should get and what their commission would be and was appalled at the tens of thousands of dollars they would get for very little work - They would have the house open for inspection for about a half hour twice a week, which if there are a lot of other houses in the area open for inspection, would make it impossible for many potential buyers to attend,
I allowed at least 2 hours to be open for inspection and was far better able to answer queries.
Basically the house sells by itself and estate agents do little to get a sale.
If you give a sole agency, the agent is not really interested to hold out for a better price, as any sale nets them a ridiculous amount for little work, plus all expenses such as Sale Signs, Ads in Newspapers, Auctioneer etc are for you. Unfortunately Ads in newspapers are more expensive than if placed by the estate agent, but offset by the tens of thousands you would pay to the agent.
I had a For Sale sign with photos of the interior of the house, pool etc made up and one should get a Solicitor or Conveyancer to draw up a Contract of Sale and get a dozen copies available for interested bidders
I am amazed that 99% of property sales are done using Estate Agents when it is not difficult to do it oneself as basically the house sells by itself
I appreciate the time and insight Len. Cheers to you
Good info dude, but stop calling them estate agents, that's an entirely different thing
Good luck on and good you.
Real estate agents rarely "sell" houses. They do some advertising and facilitate a transaction (any competent and motivated person can handle this themselves). They have market knowledge and experience but that helps themselves more than their vendors.
Houses for the most part sell themselves, especially in the current climate.
The main selling that real estate agents do is the selling to vendors for their services to get listings.
And please don't think that you will get a better price for your property by using a REA. REA's aren't interested in getting you the best price. A good price? Sure. But their motivation is in sales velocity rather than maximum value for every property they sell. The extra effort, attention and time it takes to get the best price for you can simply be spent on selling another property - and they make more bank, for example, selling two properties than selling one for a marginally higher price.
Their incentive and motivation is to sell more houses. Not fewer houses for a higher price.
Thanks! This is my thoughts exactly!
Somewhat disagree. It depends on if you're good at negotiating a tiered commission structure where they only get decent dollars if they sell for a great price. All about negotiation.
Just curious, what kind of property is this and which suburb?
2 bed unit around Heidelberg
I might be able save you the trouble.
Am in the market for a unit in the North East of Melbourne. Please turn on your pm, or pm me.
Done!
Sold my townhouse in 2015 myself for $385K. 4 years later, in 2019, townhouse with same specs in same complex sold for $375K. Who is on top?
For expensive houses, it may be slightly different. You said you determined the "value" of the property. Almost anyone, including a truck driver can sell a property at "value". The trick is to sell your property at a premium to value, like shares - this is where a good real estate agent is handy.
If they subsequently "request" you decrease your expectations to the "real value" upon listing - do not go through with it - unless ur in a hurry to sell. I am confident you can sell your property "at value" yourself, especially in the current market when it practically sells yourself. I am truly surprised how many people use an agent, especially in a strong market like now. Too much cash to burn I suppose.
Sellers market.. the house will sell itself, just make sure you list it on domain and realestate.com. make sure there is good photos and layout of property.
From my own experience you take a handful of salt with every word that comes out of an agents mouth.. seems to be the biggest con that an agent is needed to sell a house.
Some good insights here.
The only other thing to consider is a well known agent tends to do two things that an owner will struggle with.
1) bring hype to the property. For example, some agents only specialize in premium assets so using them can often add that premium range and attract the right atmosphere during the campaign.
2) having a broker deal with buyers and create competitive tension. It’s generally harder to execute that as the owner who has to speak to the buyers directly. Sometimes you need an agent to do the dirty work (aka lie)
Good luck in any event!
For those interested in how it turned out so far…
https://www.realestate.com.au/property-villa-vic-macleod-137…
Will you engage a solicitor?