Hi,
We have 2 homes on 1 block, we live in new one at back. i gave them to an agent as a dual occ and no lookers after 3 mnths, so i did a strata and he has had the front one which is a older home. Any way he had 10 people through in 2 weeks after 2 ads in paper and 2 open for inspections.
He got a buyer and after 3.5 weeks of build and pest inspections, finance, stalling to exchange they pulled out today. He was meant to ring me yesterday arvo to let me know what was going on, still no call today, my solicitor told me they had pulled out. I ring his office and he is away for a few days? He also took it off the market after we excepted the offer so we have wasted 3.5 weeks and the tenants have found another place for 2 weeks time. My question is can it be that hard to sell it myself? i live right there i can have inspections and open inspections whenever i want when the tenants have gone, i can get a sign made up and run my own ads. I have run my own sales/ home improvement business for 13 years. The house is suited for 1st home buyers or invetors. The best house in Coffs under 250k and there is not many. If it took me 10 months and $700 per month of IO i would be still better off than giving the agent his $7,500.
Anyone been there and sold themselves and have any dos and dont’s?
Thanks
Robo
ps his agreement also runs out in 2 weeks when the tenants move out. Hope he is not reading this.Hi Robo,
I say go for it! I recently sold my own home after dreadful experiences with not 1 but 2 agents.A few pointers:
– make sure you write to the agent and formally terminate your contract with him. If your agent hasn’t supplied you with a weekly report that includes the names of those people that have been introduced to the property by him, ask for one. The reason I say this, is if one of the people that came through during one of the agents open inspections he will be due commission (although you will be in a position to negotiate, which I suggest you do as you are the one that completed the deal);
– get your lawyer to remove the agents name from the front page of the contract;
– consider using your company name on the board, rather than advertising it as a private sale, however if asked don’t deny you are the owner;
– spend a bit more money on your signboard, it needs to look professional (you should OWN the board supplied by the agent [check the small print in your contract]- if there is already a picture on it, getting wording printed up doesn’t cost too much);
– the cost to advertise in real estate papers will increase by about 60% so be selective;
– you can advertise your property on domain.com.au (when I did it cost $190 for 1 month) but not on realestate.com.au (that’s exclusively for agents!!);
– make sure you have brochures to hand out at the open inspection, we did up our own on the computer and printed them out on slightly better than normal paper (again you OWN any pictures taken by the agent for their advertising campaign, if you haven’t been given a copy request one on CD or by e-mail);
– keep a record of all people that come through the property, making notes on any comments made for your follow up calls;
– don’t let potential buyers comments affect you, it can be quite difficult listening to people pulling your property to pieces! Remember they are looking for reasons to offer a lower price.
That should give you a little food for thought. I thought it would be heaps harder than it was, and it wasn’t.
Out of interest, where in Coffs is the house, what is your asking price and what rent were you receiving?
Good luck
EllyHi Elly,
Thanks for the info. The house is 500m west of coffs city, was rented for 240p/w, asking
$249,000. Its not so much saving the agents fee its having control over the sale.
RoboI knew there was something I forgot to mention, having control is great, you aren’t listening to your hyped up agent telling you how fantastic the viewing was, and consistently getting it wrong with their assessment of potentials!
I got a friend of mine (who is an investor so walked the walk and definitely talked the talked) to test my agent, and I was horrified with the blatant lies I got from him, and even more horrified with the feedback I was getting from her in relation to what he was saying to her (she mentioned a figure that she thought the property was worth and he automatically told her she could have it for $50,000 less!!!). Hence the reason I terminated the contract……
Having control gives you a huge advantage, you are hearing and dealing with potentials first hand.
Go on, jump in and have a go!!
Elly
Wow $50,000. That would of went down well. No wonder they get a bad name. My agent had only advertised it for 1 week and he was asking me to think about dropping the price from 245 to 239 and then the offer we accepted was 241. Originally he wanted to list it at 235.
They were first home buyers and got cold feet?
Robo
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