How to Sell My Home

Once you’ve decided to sell you have a few options about how best to do this.

In the long run this will depend on your time, money and how confident you are about selling your own home. Essentially, your options will be:

• Private sale (by private treaty)
• A private treaty sale through an Estate Agent
• By auction through an estate agent

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While some people prefer to do things themselves, others would rather leave it to the professionals; even if that means paying a considerable sum in commission.

The Private Sale

With a private sale there is no commission, so you are not sharing the proceeds with an agent.

However, any marketing you do will have to be organised and paid for by you.

To sell your home you will need to:

1. Photograph Your Home :
   You should strive for the best quality photography you can afford. You want your home to look as attractive as possible to potential buyers
2. Marketing:
   Depending on the current market it may be enough to get a sign made and put it at the front of your property.
   However, sellers will usually do better to get their home in front of as many potential buyers as possible in the shortest time - and this means advertising.
3. Advertising:
   Depending on your area and your budget you can put an ad in the classifieds which may cost you from $50 to $5000 depending on the size of the ad.
   Or you can use an online Real Estate Guide where you will pay anywhere from $0 to $2,000 to advertise your home.

Whether these little private seller sites work, especially the little known ones, is doubtful, but putting your details on a major real estate site is a good bet.

Domain.com.au does offer a private seller package.

Auction

Essentially, there are two reasons to auction a property.

If you, or your agent, are confident you can get a better price than by listing it, or if you need to sell in a hurry for financial reasons.

There are a lot of positives about selling at auction, including:

• The purchaser is required to pay 10% of the purchase price as soon as the final bid is taken
• It creates a sense of urgency and encourages potential buyers to compete with each other.
• Unlike the ‘private treaty’ at auction, the price goes up from the starting price,
• Free exposure: auctions attract many potential buyers
• There is a fixed date for completion of the sale, which means the whole transaction is over a lot faster than a standard property sale.
• the final bid is legally binding, which means the buyer must have the money ready to go and there is no cooling off period.
• You are in control! The vendor (or seller) sets the terms of the sale
• There are three opportunities for you to sell your property: Before and during the auction. If it doesn’t sell at auction, you may have an interested buyer wanting to negotiate after wards.

Auction: be prepared for

• Potential buyers that have done their homework. They will usually order a pest inspection and building report as well as want to have a close look at the sale contract before the auction begins
• Once the final bid has been taken the seller can’t back out. So, if you get a late offer that’s higher, it’s too late to accept it.
• Paying for the auctioneer or agent similar fee structure sale fee is a commission based charge and is typically between 1.5% and 3.0% of the final selling price.
• If you don’t have an agent you will need to organize the Auctioneer and the contract of sale.

Real Estate Agents the upside

• Hiring a professional will save you time and get the job done efficiently and effectively
• An agent will take care of photos of your home and all the marketing
• An agent will help you decide on the market value of your home
• An agent will always be available to vet calls and share only the very serious propositions with you.
• An agent is detached enough from your property to negotiate well.

Real Estate Agents be prepared for

• The agent’s commission. However, if you find it too high you can always ask if they will negotiate on their fee.
• How motivated the agent is: The commission on $300k is not all that different to the commission on $400k. You need to ask for their figures on the sale price of homes in your area and make sure you trust your agent is motivated to sell for the absolute best price
• To ask how they will advertise: These days you would expect to have your property listed on a popular website as well as in a printed property guide for a start. It’s worth asking how the agent will market your property and what kind of a result they usually get.
• What have they sold recently that is comparable to your home