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Let's say your home sells for $700,000, but your real estate agent gets a commission of 2%. That means the agent gets $14,000 of your property's sale price.
Selling your own home privately, without the use of a real estate agent, could save you thousands of dollars.
This is a tempting amount of money to save. But be prepared to work for it. Selling your house without a real estate agent really requires you to become your own agent. It takes a lot of time and effort.
Could it be the right move for you? If you think it is, here's how to do it in six steps:
This is something you have to do whether you have a real estate agent or not. To leave the best impression with potential buyers you should do the following:
Research the market thoroughly to arrive at a realistic idea of your property's value. Do this by looking at recent sales prices in your area.
Make sure you compare similar properties to your own. To do this, look at:
Having a solid idea of the market value of your property helps you advertise your property correctly, attract the right buyers and gives you an advantage when it's time to accept offers from buyers.
You can also get a professional property valuation conducted.
Once you're ready to sell your property you will need a way for buyers to find your property.
You could make a sign and put it out the front of your house, but you should also get your property listed online.
There are many websites and businesses that will list your property for a fee, or organise listings for you. These include:
This can be the only way to get your property added to the larger property sites, like Realestate.com.au and Domain, because they don't allow individual members of the public to list properties on their site.
There are some listing sites that don't charge anything, but you might not reach as large an audience.
To make your listing stand out you will need some high quality photographs of the property and a clear, detailed written description of the property's features and benefits.
Hopefully your property listing will attract interested buyers. You will need to organise times for people to come and view your home and see it for themselves.
You should:
When you find a buyer they will offer you a price. There may be some negotiation involved. This entire process will be easier if you have a clear idea of your home's value and a firm minimum price in mind. Don't go below this price in negotiation (if the price is realistic).
Other aspects of a sales contract can be negotiated later, such as the cooling-off period and settlement date.
Which brings us to the last point.
Once you've found a buyer and agreed on a price you need a solicitor or conveyancer to organise the contract.
The conveyancer draws up the contract and makes sure everything is legal when settling the property and exchanging the title.
Nothing is legally binding until the contract is signed, and there is room for negotiation.
As this is probably the most crucial part of the process (the conveyancer usually holds the deposit and makes sure the contract and the sale itself is all legal), it's vital to get professional legal help.
Conveyancing fees range from $500 up to $1,500 or even more.
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Save on agency commission fees by renting out or selling your property through buyMyplace.