xpat19

Hi there. We're making the move from Auckland to Christchurch soon and want to sell our house as quickly as possible.
There's such a huge difference in cost between selling your house yourself and paying many many thousands of hard earned $$$$$ to an estate agent, it's very tempting to put the house on Trade me with a sale sign outside the house and see what happens.
Has anyone else sold their house themselves ?

brackley

my friend lived in hamelton and she sold her house privately. when she saw others were having open houses sown the same road, she went and put her sign outside she did manage to sell it. hope this helps

annaerb

I haven't sold a house on Trademe but I like looking at the Houses on there.

Tradme is getting very popular. I would put your House on Tradme and put a private For Sale sign outside your house and see what happens.
The fees that the agents charge are heaps so anything is worth a try first.

Good Luck

extrameant

We sold our house ourselves inside three weeks and got $50k more for it than the estage agent was going to put as the max price (he lived 6 houses down our street, so you would think he might have a better idea). However, we had spent years renovating it and had it looking really well and was in a great location. If you just have a normal house in the usual state of kiwi repair, then it will be harder.
You get loads of estate agents calling at your door and phoning, trying to be all smug (even if you say no agents on all adverts). It is amazing the pressure you begin to feel even after a week. They tell you all sorts of lies like they have just sold the house down your street when in fact it never sold, etc. We had to move quick also, but had looked at 30 houses in our area and knew everything else was really cr@ppy so we kept telling them to get stuffed. They will even phone up saying we have a buyer and when can they bring them round. Tell them to get stuffed or they will expect the comission. For your own sanity, keep looking as new houses come on. Its probably the best way to judge how easily you will sell your house, just get out and look at others at your price range and see if you would like any better than yours.

xpat19

Thanks for that, I appeciate the advice. I can imagine agents not being too happy about us going independant !

How did you manage the legal stuff that the estate agents normally handles - mainly the sale and purchase agreement & did you hold open homes ?

Thanks again

extrameant

Newsagents usually have a standard sale and purchase agreement which is the basis for a contract. People usually add phrases such as depending on building inspection etc. They had sold out when we were looking and there was non in auckland aparently (forms, not houses) but we found somewhere to buy it online for $10 (I felt ripped off when I saw it!). The buyer turned up with their own, already filled in. We took it to our lawyer who did all the conveyancing for about $700. You should probably chat to a lawyer in advance to let him know the situation (plus agree a price for when you get a sale, there was quite a variation) and I think they will give you a form. Pretty simple. Its the same form the estate agents use anyway. They don't actually do any legal work at all and are a complete waste of space imo. I wouldn't trust an agent as far as you can spit them, so you need a lawyer before commiting to a sale or purchase anyway.

I think its worth holding open homes. We did a 1/2 hour one on sundays, so's not to conflict with sport. Usually only a few couples each week, so don't panick. One weekend (after we were waiting for the sale to complete) we had about 7 lots through which seemed hundreds. We actually used homesell.co.nz and they give you a form for people coming through to fill out (their name and phone) so you can call anyone interested back if you get an offer. Very easy to make your own. I would say intenet advertising is good (you get this with home sell, I think its about $700 package all in though). If you know how to do a web page, or even if you have free web space with your ISP and have word (which can create an html page) then I would just do it all myself. Just put the link to your web site with each advert. We got some enquiries with the the herald but sold it through the western leader. They were terrible to deal with but you don't really get a choice as all local papers are run by the same lot as far as i can see. We got loads of hits with the web site so worth doing.

The way we decided on a price was by looking at rateable values and what things were selling for. We had some agents round to give us a sales speech before we decided to go with homesell. I felt obliged to be polite to them later on though which was a real pain. They gave us a list of the houses in our area which had sold in the last year which included rateable value and what they actually sold for. We also looked at our LIM when we bought and saw how much over the rateable value we paid back then (9 years ago) Everything was about 20~30% over the rateable value (for the three houses we knew were in good condition and sold quickly) which is how we came up with a price. Might not be very sound way of doing it, but it worked and convinced our buyer to go up another $25k, because they were able to look up this info and check it out for themselves. Its quite hard to decide on price in NZ because all the houses are different, not just big estates where everyone knows the value already.

xpat19

Hi. Thanks for that, I'll check out Home.Sell too.
As you said, it's hard to put a value on your house as each house is so different. We've got 2 x agents coming round next week to give valuations..... I know they'll haunt me to my grave !!