barnsleymat

We've contacted an agent but as a proud Yorkshireman it pains me so see how expensive it is when I could just plonk it on Trade Me myself. She even said there's a serious shortage of houses in this area and buyers are eager to move into the area now the schools have just been zoned, the houses that have been sold recently have been snapped up with a couple of weeks. Selling it won't be an issue, but I can't decide if giving away 3.6% + costs will work out better in the long run. Especially now that KiwiSaver home starter grants have just been extended to houses at a maximum of $400,000 up from from $350,000 meaning this puts us even more in a favourable position.

Has anyone got any advice?

Kiwikaye

We have both rented and sold a property in NZ without an agent (same house). We bought the property to live in but rented it out for 6 months initially. As it was a one off rental rather than a long-term investment, I couldn't see the point of paying what amounted to several hundred dollars for the agent to do what I could.

We also sold without an agent, but in the interests of full disclosure, this was a post-earthquake property in Christchurch and we were selling to people we knew. We did it all from Oz though through the solicitors and via email.

It is doable but you need a good solicitor. I have worked in both legal and real estate in NZ so had some idea of the general process.

MOSO

We bought our current house without an agent, their neighbour told us they were selling, so it was easy. We negotiated a price face to face as they weren't paying fees and we negotiated a mutually agreed moving date so there was really no need for an agent. As long as you've got a decent solicitor for the legal part it isn't a problem, in fact it was easier than trying to go through a third party all the time.

I've noticed an increasing number of houses near us are selling privately and i can't say I blame them given the huge fees.

Snap Shot

It seems like a gamble to me.

There's the upfront due diligence costs. Then there's the cost of marketing the property, not just on TradeMe. Paying for the 'For Sale' sign to go outside your house to indicate which house is for sale, plus property particulars including photos to hand out.

Unless you could print some property particulars on the quiet at work.

I assume you've had your free no obligation valuation from at least one Estate Agent.

Being at home to show prospective purchasers around could be inconvenient. OK, nobody knows your home like you do but with the best will in the world, few people have the sales skills of a professional Estate Agent. (Yeah, it's probably money for old rope but hey.)

Being thick skinned when listening to any critiques of one's property by the prospective purchasers. As well as putting up with timewasters. You'll get those anyway but selling it yourself it's your time they will be wasting.

Personally, my concern would be getting screwed over by the prospective purchaser trying to somehow get a share of what you're not paying in Estate Agent's fees by using that as leverage regarding their offer.

People do sell their homes privately and Estate Agents are aware of this but they are not about to drop their exorbitant fees anytime soon.

FWIW there's a radio advert for a local Estate Agent around my way presently saying that sellers who sell privately are underselling themselves, i.e. they could have got more if they sold through a professional Estate Agent. IMO any gain would have been negated by the Estate Agent's fee but anyway.

There's still fees to be paid, as well as conveyancing, and, um, I couldn't shake the feeling that there's something I've missed. Personally, my concern would be that there could be capital outlay, the house not sell, then end up going to an Estate Agent to sell it. Leaving me feeling like we should have got an Estate Agent to market the property in the first place.

chocolate cake

Given the high costs agents charge here, were I selling the idea of selling privately would very much appeal. Estate Agents must be the only ones making mint out of the ridiculously high prices in the NZ house market at the moment, making more yet doing no more work.

Re: radio ads, the agents are obviously going to make a case they can sell for more money, so wouldn't read too much into that.
The key would be to price right, with most going to auction (certainly in Auckland anyway), it can be difficult to get a good idea of the market, and also with virtually no two properties being identical either (most houses here seem different, instead of in the UK, where you get estates of similar houses)
That said info on prices is available, do the research, maybe get a few no obligation quotes too!

leandra21

We sold our apartment ourselves trough Trademe. I bought the "For Sale" sign on the internet and I put it outside to try to catch the eye of passers-by. We had open homes during the weekend and we sold it in no time for thousands more than what the Estate Agent valued it initially. It was a very easy process and I would recommend it.

jmh

I think it's a good idea to give it a go - it's pretty cheap to do so. You can always switch to an agent later if it doesn't work out.

I see a lot of boards for these guys: Homesell � New Zealand's private sale property experts � 0% commission

Might be a compromise option.

Kiwikaye

TradeMe has sold property prices on its website now too, so you can check the sold price of properties in your street/area.

TBH I was a little grumpy to discover that ours was on there, despite having been sold privately to someone we knew, with no advertising whatsoever, so I think they're getting their info from QV.

jmh

Where did you find that? I can only find rateable values which is also available from the council website at no cost.

A Rush And A Push

There is a Trade Me app which has a "sold" filter that shows you recent sale prices. I think they only do it for the bigger cities.

Also homes.co.nz - it has an estimated sale price for each property (debatable how accurate these are, of course) but also lists recent sold prices. Estimated prices are in grey, sold prices in red.

Genesis

Indeed it is easy. Very easy. IMO realtors are not necessary. They do very little for their money. I would not mind if they actually did something but they even want advertising costs up front and charge you for 'professional' photos!!

I have heard the agent mentioned harking how those that sell privately are under selling their properties. They may well be true but it is very easy to get your house valued properly so this does not happen.


In this market agents are money for old rope. Anyway I don't believe anyone is ever 'sold' a house. They buy is cos they want it. And a final point I have honestly found agents an actual hinderance in the past.

escapedtonz

A colleague of mine recently sold a house using the "Home Sell" way. All in all with the TradeMe advert, a for sale board and an open home it cost around $1200 and he sold it within a week and for a slight profit.
Seems the thing to try to save some cash.

Justcol

Had a good mate flog his himself, saved him a fair few bob and cost him a few weekends in open homes but
the saving was probably around 20k. He did the homesell thing, think it cost him a few hundred bucks, he did
have to get a lawyer for the legals which is a couple of grand, but worth it for him.

I considered it when selling my place, but I know for a fact I would probably have missed out on around 60k
had I done so. I had in mind a price that I thought was more than pushing it a bit, but thought I'll aim high
and give myself plenty of wriggle room for negotiating. The agent got me 80k more than my top price

Agents are trained in getting the best deal and closing deals. A buyer will probably not tell you what they dont
like about the place and as such there is a good chance they will walk away. They will however tell an agent,
and a good agent will keep them on the hook and reel them in, offering options and solutions.

get some appraisals from 2 or 3 agents, they're free and none binding, then see where you want to go from there.


You moving house or going home ??

LittleGreyCat

On the other hand, if the going rate is 3.5% and you are selling a house for $100,000 you could spend $499 on a colour laser printer

HP M277dw Colour LaserJet Pro Multifunction Printer | Harvey Norman New Zealand

and special perfumed paper, and print all you own particulars. That still leaves $3,001 to spend on a computer (if you haven't got one) to work up your particulars. You will need all the particulars anyway for TradeMe.

If you are lucky enough to have a house worth more than $100,000 the savings are even larger of course.

I think I could make a For Sale sign from $10 worth of timber and a couple of small cans of paint.

The market has tightened up in the UK a lot, and you can sell for around 1% including VAT in most areas.

A lot of agents do fixed price deals to grab market share which sets expectations and brings all rates down.

There are plenty of web based agents who just come round to measure up and take photographs. They then send you a For Sale sign, publish your details on all the big web sites like RightMove and they organise the viewings which you conduct.

3.5% is money for old rope.

Woodlea

Agents aren't interested in getting the best price for your property, they are only interested in the sale. After all what is another $200-$300 to them to get you another $10k when they are already going to grab maybe $20K in a sale. I definitely felt that the agent was not on my side when I was selling, but only interested in me taking the first offer that was presented, so they could grab their money and run. I only used an agent to try to speed things up, if I had more time I would do the home sell thing.