Anyone ever sold their house without an agent?

[NannyOgg]

Has anyone out there successfully sold their house with otu teh aid of an agent?

Maybe on Trade Me or some such?

How easy was it? Any pit falls?
Thanks.

[NannyOgg]

I meant in NZ

Has anyone out there successfully sold their house with otu teh aid of an agent?

Maybe on Trade Me or some such?

How easy was it? Any pit falls?
Thanks.

[bob_the_engineer]

Yup absolutely, don’t waste your money on an agent!

All you need is a friendly, cheery welcoming attitude, a reasonable expectation of what the house is worth and a trademe account!

Get some good photo’s on trademe, stick a for sale sign outside, and you must run open homes, so get a few open home signs, and point the way to your place from the nearest main road. Put them out only when the open home is running. (I know it’s a lot of tidying and organising, but do Saturday and Sunday open homes too)

Run a long open home, checkout when open homes are run in your area, open for at least an hour after everyone else.

Provide people with a flyer (just a picture of the front of your house to jog their memory), an expected price, a phone number and an email address (for those who want to make a cheeky offer, but don’t want to do it face to face lol).

Update the time of your next open home (on trademe) as soon as you’re current open home closes, that’s a must do.

This is going to cost you a couple of hundred dollars in printing, trademe payments and paint (for a few signs), at worst you’ll have a laugh meeting a few people looking to buy a home, at best you’ll sell your house and save tens of thousands of dollars,,,,,,,,,, so go for it Nanny!

Remember, when your selling your working with a commodity, so no matter how difficult it seems point out the positives, and don’t get upset when people don’t like your house or make stupid offers (we all try our luck ay)

The best piece of advice I can give is, if someone is hanging around outside, peering up the drive; get out their and drag them in with a smile, its difficult for some people to approach a self seller, so make them feel welcome, make them feel like your just another agent!

I thoroughly enjoyed the experience, and when I go house shopping, I visit the private sales first, they can tell you more about the house, and they tend to be honest too.

One last thing, make sure you point out to the buyer that it’s simple, if they want the house all they have to do is give you their lawyers name and give a deposit to your lawyer, easy as that!

(Any agents that take exception to my comments about honesty, please do post I’d be happy to discuss it!)

Good luck with it Nanny, best wishes Bob

[NannyOgg]

Thanks Bob!

[ourquest]

Three possible negatives from a purchaser's point of view.

Those selling privately are seemed likely to be trying to get more money out of their house sale than if they had used an agent, so there is often no financial benefit to the buyer to buy privately. Actually I suspect that a significant proportion are actually asking more for their property than an agent would have recommended. Some of these vendors are not actually having to sell, so they don't mind if their property doesn't sell quickly, so they have nothing to lose asking a bit more (except some advertising costs). This taints the impression of private sales in general.

Secondly, and arising from the first point, at least some of the banks require a professional registered valuation on a private sale property before approving finance...because they know that the price of the property is statistically more likely to lie outside of where it should be. This is both a subtle warning to purchasers from the vast experience of the bank as well as an additional cost borne by the buyer which negates any benefit of a lower purchase price, should it be so.

Thirdly, vendors can be notoriously stubborn, mildly greedy and personally attached to their commodity (their house), and this makes them potentially difficult to negotiate with. So it helps to have a negotiator (agent) act on your behalf as a purchaser, even if they technically work for the buyer, as it is in their interest to force a sale in order to earn commission. I should add that some agents are worth more than others, though. Some should rather have studied entomology .

Houses which appeal to as wide a market as possible usually sell the easiest, and it is my opinion that selling privately can put off sufficient buyers to not make it worthwhile in this context. But having said that, each situation is unique and you only need one buyer for one property.