Hi, I am new to this forum and have some questions about selling our house.
We probably will move away and therefore we must sell our house.
I know it's a really bad time to do so, but as we want to buy another property at the new place, we must sell.
Our house is may be worth 300.000, maybe a bit more – the advantage there is no other house for this price in our suburb, close to the train station and amenities. On the other hand it's tiny, but nice and on a good sized block.I have got some questions:
1.) We have to do some renovations.Painting the windows, laying a concrete slab for a patio and a roof. It will be roughly
$ 10,000, I hope we will get the money out. I consider painting from inside as well (ourselves). I have a bit of fear that the market will slump down fairly quickly and we won't be ready until the end of January and maybe we'll loose heaps of money.
The other thing is how far would you renovate? Doing all the walls nice and neat or only a fresh layer of paint?
How much effort would you put in preparing i.e, buying plants etc?2.) What would you consider the best time to sell? Tidying up everything and jump in the sale now even if the windows are not painted at the moment or first doing the renovations? Or Painting the windows and selling maybe without patio cover, eventually concrete slab layed yet?
3.) I think we are able to do appropriate photos, descriptions, some information etc. Do you recommend selling with or without agent? And if you recommend selling without agent- were do you get this nice signs "sale" done with a photo?
I would list it in ourbrisbane.com, maybe trading post, whatelse do you recommend?4) Is it really true that an agent can sell your property better than we, because visitors would not criticize our house if we're there? (I read this, but have problems believing it)
Hedwig, only undertake works which will add value, if you do not believe that you will get the return + from the work eg the patio, don't do it, leave it up to the purchaser. A coat of paint won't cost much but will hide a myriad of problems.
I personally wouldn't get out of bed for what it would cost to have an agent do the running around. Think about it this way, they will charge 2-3% most likely (based on NSW rates) which equates to say $6-9k, how will you determine what your house is worth, market the property in the best possible light, be able to negotiate in a detached/unemotional manner, close a deal, follow through on instruction to solicitors, arrange for opens etc. If you are just 1 or 2 % out ie underpriced, you have negotiated down the price even before you start, if you start too high no-one will knock on your door. As for signage, tell the agent what you want: ie I want a display advert in the local paper, featured in the advertorial, colour photo of xyz of the house on the signboard etc (hint, there is no point having a photo of your front yard on the photo, possibly the rear yard, pool, landscaping, entertainment area – something you can't see from the street).
Propective purchasers will say whatever they want, an agent creates that distance between purchaser & vendor and is then able to give you the feedback positive and negative as to what people have said – they may not be as open if you are selling it ie 'the yard is awfully overgrown' may suggest to the agent that you get some trimming happening or it may be a point for negotiation whereas if they said that to you it could cause offence.
An agent is well placed to provide counter arguments to issues raised and to pass on suggestions.
Thanks, Scott for the answer. I am not decided yet if with or without agent, however in most countries no agent is used. The contract anyway does the solicitor. 2-3% of are at least $6000 after tax for this you may work nearly a month. some people even more. However if you get better results with agent then that's another thing.
When we bought, the agent didn't do much and I would have preferred talking to the previous owner as I could have asked questions about the house. The agents we met buying our house didn't have ANY idea of the houses. Which material? Don't know! When Built? Maybe ah I don't know. Asbestos? Maybe. They didn't only have any idea about the particular house, but they had NO technical idea about houses in general, all of them. We didn't receive plans, we didn't receive names of tradespeople who worked there before, we didn't see old bills what was done, nothing. Short for me it was VERY hard to see an advantage buying with an agent.
A cover of paint is maybe not a lot of money but a lot of pain, and this does not refer to the painting itself but for the preparing, but I guess it would be really value adding. On the other hand I don't like buying a property recently painted, as i may cover damages like leaking roofs. Then there is the question painting the whole house simply off-white or in a light colour sheme.
However the main question is: how quickly will the market break down?? And how quick do we need to sell?
hedwig wrote:I am not decided yet if with or without agent, however in most countries no agent is used.This is Australia, most property transactions are handled by real estate agents
hedwig wrote:2-3% of are at least $6000 after tax for this you may work nearly a month. some people even more. However if you get better results with agent then that's another thing.That is why you use an REA – they are trained in marketing, property appraisal and negotiation.
hedwig wrote:When we bought, the agent didn't do much and I would have preferred talking to the previous owner as I could have asked questions about the house. The agents we met buying our house didn't have ANY idea of the houses. Which material? Don't know! When Built? Maybe ah I don't know. Asbestos? Maybe. They didn't only have any idea about the particular house, but they had NO technical idea about houses in general, all of them. We didn't receive plans, we didn't receive names of tradespeople who worked there before, we didn't see old bills what was done, nothing.Unless you are buying a new property you will generally not get floorplans (more likely if you are dealing with the developer).
Home owners are not obliged to pass on details of maintenance undertaken so agents do not have this information.
Asbestos – you will need to engage a consultant to test the material however your building report should give you the approx age and this will indicate whether it was constructed prior to the banning of asbestos materials in construction.
Council records will indicate the age of the property however most REAs should have a good idea as to the age of buildings and construction styles.
If you are undertaking the due dilligence – get a building inspector to prepare a report, they are the expert in building not the REA (who is working for the vendor).
hedwig wrote:A cover of paint is maybe not a lot of money but a lot of pain, and this does not refer to the painting itself but for the preparing, but I guess it would be really value adding. On the other hand I don't like buying a property recently painted, as i may cover damages like leaking roofs.Get a building inspection done – this will draw attention to waterleaks or watermarks indicating current or previous leaks or structural damage.
hedwig wrote:However the main question is: how quickly will the market break down?? And how quick do we need to sell?Ask the agents what the current trend is with regards to days on the market.
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