Spring is traditionally a time people start thinking about selling property. The days are getting warmer, hours of sunlight are increasing and after hibernating in winter, our gardens can be manicured to look magnificent.
BY PETER KOULIZOS
Over the next couple of months, I will be providing tips for vendors who are considering selling their property at this time of year.
The first consideration is, “Should I sell my property myself or should I use a r
eal estate agent?”
There are many reasons for and against selling your own home. Let’s explore some of them and then you can make up your own mind.
Reasons for selling your own home
In my opinion, there are three reasons you would consider selling your property without the assistance of an agent:
1. Save on the commission.
2. No misunderstanding or breakdown in communication.
3. Build a rapport and mutual trust with prospective purchasers.
The main reason people want to sell their property themselves is they want to save on the commission. Most sales commissions are about two to 2.5 per cent plus advertising. On a $500,000 sale, the commission would be around $8000 to $10,000.
If you aren’t using someone else to sell your property, there should be no misunderstanding in communication as there is no third party. You are communicating directly with prospective purchasers and not relying on an agent to relay information.
Unfortunately, real estate agents and sales people don’t have the best reputation in the world and some people feel better dealing directly with the owner rather than sales people.
Reasons against selling your own home
As someone who has sold property in the past without the use of agents, I know from experience what it can be like. In my opinion, there are four reasons why you shouldn’t sell your own home.
1. Takes a lot of time.
2. Need to be patient.
3. You need a “thick skin”.
4. Can’t advertise on realestate.com.au
If you aren’t using the services of a professional to sell your property, you have to do all the work yourself. This includes putting ads in the newspaper, listing on the internet, organising floor plans, brochures, “For Sale” signs, fielding questions from interested buyers, doing your own open inspections, negotiating the price and organising the contract. If you have time to do all this, good luck to you!
Selling a property doesn’t happen overnight. It can take weeks and sometimes months. The most common mistake owners make when selling their own property is to set an unrealistic selling price. This means that the property can stay on the market for what seems an eternity.
If you’re selling your principal place of residence, there’s often a lot of emotion attached. You’ve decorated it to your taste which may not appeal to many buyers. Be prepared for negative comments such as “Look at that ugly wallpaper!”, “How could anyone live in such a tiny house!”, “We’d need to rip out the garden and start again!”
One of the main advantages a real estate agency has is that it can advertise on one of the major real estate websites in the country, realestate.com.au. Private sellers cannot.
However, private sellers can advertise on domain.com.au. More and more people are searching the internet when the time comes to buy property. If you don’t have a presence on the major real estate websites, you’re not giving yourself the best chance of selling your home. There are numerous sites that are available for private sellers but domain.com.au or realestate.com.au are currently the most popular.
In summary, the choice to sell a property yourself or through an agent is yours. If you have the time and expertise, you may like to give it a go. Having been there and done that, I am happy to give my properties to a local and competent real estate agent.
Tell us about your selling experiences
Peter Koulizos is a property educator at UniSA and TAFE and the author of The Property Professor’s Top Australian Suburbs – a guide to Australia’s top suburbs for property investors and homebuyers, available from www.businessmall.com.au
