selling a house privately

We are going to put our house on the market shortly and DH is very keen for us to try and sell it ourselves via trade me. I am less keen and would prefer to just give it to an agent, however I have agreed that he can have 1 month to try and sell it privately and then go to an agent. 

So, I was wondering has anyone on here tried to sell a house themselves and how did it go? Any tips? At this stage our thinking is we will just try advertising it on trade me and do viewings by appointment only

 

 

My parents sold several houses privately when I was a kid. It did seem like hard work, but having sold a house via an agent, it doesn't seem like THAT much work to save the $15k commission!

I do think 1 month is awfully quick to sell it privately though. Unless you are in a rush to sell it (we were as we had a conditional offer on our next house), I'd consider giving him more than that.

Is he a decent negotiator? Perhaps you could agree that you take the kids and scarper when someone comes round and leave the wheeling and dealing up to him?

HI MUM2ET
I just recently sold my house privately.
we had it on the market last year with agents and it didn't sell

This year I did it all.
This is what I did and learnt...

MARKETING:
- Trade me advert
- adverts in the local paper in the homes area
- adverts in NZ Herald - weekend Homes
- A5 flyers printed (2000 copies) and put it mail boxes around the area.
- Sign outside the house (note - you can buy these and make them through a website that links through trademe once you have completed your listing - can't remember what it was a link you go to at the end of the listing you'll see)



We started out doing by appointment only, then I started doing open homes.
For the open homes I had some signs up on the 'main road' OPEN HOME 1-1.30pm XYZ STREET
then I had made some open home signs (arrowed) and pegged them in the ground directing people to our place from the main road (i got them from here: http://www.realestate.gen.nz/new-zealand/private-sale/real-estate-signs.html#openhomesignstands)

I had an open home sign outside the house too and had printed out a register - for people to sign in so I could call all visitors back and ask for their feedback on the property and see if they would like a second viewing.

What I learnt:
- That you have to allow a bit longer for your house to sell privately.
- That while we did have a lot of people through the open homes - it was the people that called and came through by appointment that were really interested and ultimately, a couple that booked by appointment were the ones that purchased (we had several offers also - and all were from people that had viewed by appointment).
- The open homes were good to get feedback on the property though.
- Of all the advertising we did - it was Trade me that got the best results and the final buyer for our property
- There will be a lot of real estate agents saying they have buyers for your property, if you're prepared to pay their commission on the sale then you can allow them to bring a buyer through (if the REALLY do have one) and sign a ONE DAY!!! (they will try and rope you into more only do one day!) listing for that buyer and NAME THE BUYER on the agreement - so that any other people that come through are YOUR buyers.
- Also if you decide to go with an agent - or let one of their buyers come through NEGOTIATE their rate - you don't have to settle for their commission rate :)

TIPS:
- get your LIM report from the counsel so they don't have to.
- Organise with your solicitor a sale and purchase agreement, I had a range of 'conditions' printed from them (e.g. conditional on another house selling etc) which we could add if required - if the legal side of things is 'beyond you' I'd very much recommend you get the offer and discuss verbally then get the lawyer to draw it up with any conditions for both parties to sign in person - you may want to ask your lawyer how to best do this.
- set an advertising budget for yourself and stick to it.
- Take good photo's - this is REALLY important!!!
- Look at other listings and the descriptions of those houses - much like yours and the ones you think are good are the ones you should create your marketing material from as inspiration to describe your property

Good luck and hope it helps!
thanks



Edited by AngieBaby

thats brilliant info Angiebaby- thanks for all that

Nope, I wouldn't be put off buying privately. I'd almost prefer it - RE agents are a pain in the neck

I think Angie baby has hit the nail on the head with her fab post don't think you can go wrong if you follow her advice. If we move in the future think we would try doing it ourselves first but photos are the key I reckon to getting people in the door. When we were looking to buy we always went for the ones that had good photos. Try Chris Hope from property pics he is great and really reasonable he took some for a friend and did a really good job and doesn't rip you off .. its a one off fee for pics on a disk I think :-)

We'd definitely buy private if we found what we wanted.

My only 2c worth is to clean as much out of your house as possible. My parents brought and sold more places than the local real estate agent lol and the key is presentation. Declutter declutter declutter, pack everything excess up and store it somewhere else, depersonalise and streamline. People want to see the house not scads of other peoples stuff. The bonus is that it makes it much easier to keep tidy.
Oh and always run the vacuum round, do the dishes and a general tidy in the morning, every morning, coz the day you slack off is guaranteed to be the day people want to visit

GL!!!

We're in the same boat and after meeting a REA the other day (and getting told we'll be very lucky to get back what we paid), I'm inclined to try and sell privately.

We bought privately which I had no issue with. I liked that they could give us information about their home/neighbourhood at the open home. I HATED negotiating with them (the seller was lacking a "negotiation" gene) and would have preferred to do that through a third party.

We're thinking we'll try through TM first. We've got a friend who is a great photographer so once we've decluttered decluttered decluttered, we'll get some good pics. I remember when we bought this place, when we arrived, we had those images in our mind and I think that's really important. I also think we'll do 2 open homes a weekend but I'm wondering about paying a friend to do at least one of those so we have some family time as well. DH is a lawyer so we have that covered

Good tip about the valuation. I might get another agent through to give us an opinion then get that done. JessDub - that seems a bit rude that they had an agent so YOU had to pay his commission

Some awesome advice you've had... especially from Angiebabe

Just to give a buyers perspective ....

* PHOTOS: make sure you get *really* good photos which show the room/house to it's best advantage. I know someone who can give you some tips
* PRICE: list a price. A buyer always prefers to see a price and will (if they've got any brain cells) always offer under what your asking, so compensate a wee bit for this.
* BE PROFESSIONAL: There's nothing worse (as a buyer) phoning up about a property and speaking to someone who barely registers that there's a property for sale, let alone provides any useful information.
* BUYERS PACK: Have a pack of info ready to hand potential buyers. Include the LIM and a print out of recent sales in the area. If you've done any major renos, make a point of including the Code of Compliance.

I think you've really got to give it a good shot though, and I don't think 1 month is long enough.

fire_engine wrote: JessDub - that seems a bit rude that they had an agent so YOU had to pay his commission

Yeah I remember someone brought a house of mum and dad and they had an agent but THEY had to pay her commission not mum and dad?

I had another thought too - clean your windows lol I know it sounds like extra work but sparkly windows make the whole house brighter, sunnier and cleaner looking. I know this coz DH cleaned ours the other day