Self Managing House Sale

Unique property to sell, 2 people involved who don't know how, without meaning to be impolite it sounds like the blind leading the blind. You could start with appraisals from 3 known local leading real estate agents, and then take at least a week choosing one. You could spend the $300 something on an independant valuation, talk to your local bank manager.  Google or other net search similar properties in other places to see how they are advertised. Sign nothing until you have discussed it with your accountant or solicitor as well. There will be sharks circling for the unwary so you need to get info to get wary.
good  luck
cheers
thecrest

As an investor I would be concerned that the shop has been empty for a few years. If I was buying commercial real estate I want to know that I can rent it out. Is the shop on a busy street? Is it close to other shops? What would make a business want to make this shop their location. If the shop was currently tenanted then the property would be a lot more attractive to me.

I think your idea of putting your property on RE.com and domain through a middleman is a good idea. This is the only way I search for property and I think the trend of people searching for property online is growing.

How big is the regional area that the property is in? I just ask because a lot of investors prefer to invest in towns of over 10,000 people. I think they see this as less risk and more chance of population growth.

My parents thought about selling their house themselves. Not because they had any idea about selling, but because they wanted to save the agent commission fee. I know that the most we could have got for that house ourselves would have been $800k, but the agent got $825k for the house. Even after paying the commission my parents walked away with more money than if they had sold it themselves. This is not always the case, but it was for them.

Another friend of mine tried to sell his block of land himself. He is a busy guy. He works 5 days a week, has a few businesses on the side and has a family. His attempt to sell the block didn’t have much interest. One of the reasons was that he was too busy to market it properly. They then got a real estate agent and sold it within the month. From their experience I can see that if you are a busy person it can sometimes be worth getting a real estate agent just to save you the stress of trying to sell it yourself.

But my 2 cents about marketing and selling the property:
– If you are selling to investors then I would try to maximise the investment appeal. Give them ideas of rent for the property and the shop. Tell them reasons why it is a good investment. What makes it stand out from the rest.
– If you are selling it as a home, then try to make it look as homely as possible. You want people to walk in and get emotionally attached to the property and thus pay more than it is worth
– Take great photos – As people can easily search through thousands of properties online, try to make your property stand out with great photos. Personally when I am searching I like listings with lots of photos, because I can take a good look at the property and decide if it is for me or not before I even have to leave the house.

Good luck with the sale.

What you need to to do is go beyond the work that real estate agents do. 

 Pile on the facts and figures of the location, the town, the history, anything.    Especially put in a plan of the place – once people hear shopfront and residence, they want to know exactly the size and placement with dimensions.        You must put the address in your listing.  Explain why the commercial part was vacant and everything else that you previously wrote about.      Post all your taxes and insurance, water bills – go bananas.     Aim to have the longest listing on the website.      Information is good and it will eliminate many tyre kickers.    

REA skimp on information because what they want are phone calls to get more listings.     You have no reason to skimp on information.  You have every reason to write a book about the property.   

I agree with Ryan about photos.   Take a lot of good ones, put up as many as are allowed on the rea website and offer to email more if necessary.

Also, when you have open inspections, have them open for hours, not minutes.     Every day including Saturdays and Sundays.     Really outdo the agents – they can't do that but you can.  

Negotiation is a different matter – and once you get an offer, this will be the tough part.   You'll need to develop a rhinocerous' hide to deal with this one.   You need to be ready for those people who come in 10 minutes after your property has listed with an offer which expires one hour later (being on the other side, this is how I put pressure on sellers).   Know exactly what you want for your property and negotiate firmly.     Read a few books on negotiating perhaps.   I don't have any recommendations but there should be some out there which give you some ideas. 

All the best, and please put your property up here on this forum when it's ready.