AlliF

We are currently looking to sell our house (northern suburbs of Melbourne) and have had a few market appraisals from various estate agents in the last couple of weeks. We haven't started actively marketing it as yet but yesterday had a letter-drop from a company (Chestertons is the name)in the area looking to buy a property.
We have spoken, and the person I spoke with at the agency said the house ticked all the boxes in theory so we made an appt for them to come round and speak to us tmrw night.
We haven't sold a property in Australia before so was just looking for any tips to get the best possible deal if they are interested in buying.
Certainly given the current state of the market the idea of not having to do open for inpsections/marketing and so on appeals.
The company advertises itself as just quoting one price to a buyer and that is the price you pay - but obviously they would try and negotiate with us as the seller to get the lowest price possible.
Anyone else been in this position? Hubby is doing the cop-out thing oh you are the better sales person you should deal wth them

RedDragon2008

Dont necessary look for easy is better option (it could cost you tens of thousands rather than a few hundred dollars).

Get 3 agents in for them to provide you with a market appraisal. They will come back with a document that provides you with evidence to support that appraisal.

Determine your price based on these appraisals. Be careful to listen to the agents and remember the house is worth what the market is willing to pay not necessarily what you have spent on it or wish to obtain.

Get your conveyancer sorted along with your section 32 if not already.

In your next meeting if you have one with the buyers agent have these 4 documents. Section 32 shows your prepared and ready to go. The appraisals will assist you with market range.

When they talk about the saving in agents fee - offset that by the risk of not going to a wider market.

I would keep your options open as much as possible. Dont accept offers on the spot, they need to be in writing. And of course take the offer back to other agents to cpmpare.

But most of all dont cop out because you think it will save time or be easy. Very dangerous way to loose money. And thats why you pay an agent.

Good luck

AlliF

Thanks Red Dragon, very helpful. The market is not good here at the moment according to the estate agents we had round/research we have done. But we are quite happy to turn them down if they don't offer us a fair market value on this place.

Buzzy--Bee

If you go to Residex.com.au you can obtain a fair market value on your property for $65. While the actual market value is of course what some random person is prepared to pay, this will give you an objective close estimate.

BB

GarryP

From what I can see these act as an opaque intermediary - they sell at a firm price, and they negotiate with you what I assume is a firm sale price. So before any sale is even lined up, they know exactly what profit they will make. If they don't sell, then all it costs them is the advertising cost (minimal).

Some obvious points:

1. They are better negotiators than you, and have a built in requirement to make sure the gap in prices is as big as possible. If it's not big enough, they don't take it on. That means you are always going to lose a certain amount out of it, and possible more, but never less.
2. There is no chance of 'they love it, you can get the upper end of your expectation' - since your price is agreed up front (and pushed down).
3. If there is no sale, they aren't going to push for the sale by squeezing the price down.

As such they aren't 'agents' - working to make a sale by negotiating with both sides. They are rent seekers (in the economic sense) who only do even the minimal amount they are talking about AFTER sewing up their profit on the deal.


It's an interesting business model, designed to look as similar as possible to the existing one, but in reality being quite different. The whole 'negotiating' part is missing, except in their 'take it or leave it' valuation.


I'd be VERY careful of the small print - I'd expect a gotcha in there somewhere.

AlliF

Some good points there. Thanks everyone. Will def check out that website BuzzyBee, thanks.
Was actually just thinking i'm not sure if i'm a good enough negotiator to pull it off and get a decent price from them. We are not expecting to make much profit anyway but as we are going to be buying in another suburb we need to make enough cash to cover the stamp duty and a decent deposit or it's just not worth doing. The massive stamp duty in Vic sucks

asprilla

If you aren't confident that you know the value of your property.... don't go down this path. You'll lose out, big time.


You need to work out what is a reasonable sale price for your property (use actual comparable sales data from recent transactions). Listen to what they offer you, it'll no doubt be 15% or 20% lower than what they will sell it for.

Then just go back to them with your asking price, which will no doubt be equal to current market value, or maybe 5% lower at most.

Just be firm with what you want, and be prepared to say "sorry I'm not interested. But if you change your mind... call me back".