Why Should I Hire A Real Estate Agent To Sell My Property? | Jhai Mitchell

With so many how-to art­icles instantly avail­able online, home sellers often ask me “Why should we hire a real estate agent?”  

To some, it just doesn’t seem worth it.

So, I’m sure you have caught your­self think­ing “why can’t I just sell my prop­erty myself?

All I need to do is whack it on Domain and RealEstate.com.au” and might even go on say­ing “surely it’s not rocket sur­gery?” or is it?

Well some sellers do OK, how­ever many don’t.

So if you’ve ever caught your­self won­der­ing the same thing and you’re yet to be con­vinced that real estate agents are worth their com­mis­sion, please read on because this could save you over $6000.

The Pittfalls Of Selling Your House Yourself

The advert­ising is a problem.

“All I need to do is whack it on Domain and Real Estate.com.au”.

Well you’re in for a shock!

31.4% of buy­ers don’t go past the second search page on prop­erty web­sites (almost the same stats for Google searches) but what if your prop­erty list­ing starts on page 3?  “Why does my prop­erty start at page3?” I hear you ask­ing? It is the old up-sell approach that news­pa­per com­pan­ies have used since 18 dic-a-ty 6.

Have you ever put a per­sonal ad in the news­pa­per? Do you remem­ber them try­ing to up-sell you by bold­ing or cre­at­ing bor­ders around your ad?

Well news­pa­per com­pan­ies have bought them out and are up to the old trick-a-rooney again.

Now just to guar­an­tee your prop­erty appears on the first page you have to pay extra.

Domain is the second largest real estate web­site in Aus­tralia.

They will charge $550 for only 28 days and that is without pic­tures. Not to men­tion what RealEstate.com.au charge you and up-sell you to be on the first page.

You can try local news­pa­pers.

It is cheaper but fewer people are read­ing local news­pa­pers these days.

Another option is to use social media to let your friends, fam­ily, work­mates and neigh­bours etc know.

See if any of their friends and fam­il­ies etc are look­ing to buy prop­erty in your location.

You can also try and print a few thou­sand fly­ers pro­mot­ing your prop­erty with your per­sonal details on it and put them in your entire area’s mailboxes.

A good agent will be doing all of this for you and will already have a social media following.

The Time Trap

With the eco­nomy the way it is, now likely both of the par­ents in  a house hold are employed, but if you are lucky enough to not be work­ing, are you real­ist­ic­ally going to be able to take on all the stress?

Are you going to be able to spend your time dili­gently on the prop­erty in-between the kids and hav­ing a life?

Do you have a life now? You get my drift?

Let’s not for­get, what if you are try­ing to sell quickly because you have already put a deposit on your new home?

Do you have the con­fid­ence that you can sell your biggest asset quickly and get the highest pos­sible price without compromise?

Agents Know The Legislation

Assum­ing that you choose to sell your prop­erty without the aid of an agent, you will need to do a lot of research before tak­ing it on yourself.

The main thing you have to know is that a Con­tract of Sale needs to be pre­pared in advance before a prop­erty can be pro­moted for sale.

You will need to know the ins and outs of Prop­erty, Stock and Busi­ness Agents Reg­u­la­tion 2003 (NSW).

“Why?” you ask?

Well you can actu­ally be sued for simple little mistakes. E.g. you can­not, at any time, use or dis­close any con­fid­en­tial inform­a­tion obtained while selling.

This can include other peoples offers, so in turn you can­not play other buy­ers offers off each other.

You must have com­pre­hen­sion and be famil­iar with the Act and the reg­u­la­tions under the Act and the other sig­ni­fic­ant laws, such as ten­ancy laws, fair trad­ing, the Trade Prac­tices Act, anti-discrimination laws, The Pri­vacy Act and dis­close laws.

Ignor­ance is not a defense in the eyes of the law.

Real Estate Sales Experience

I’d be cau­tious with doing your own nego­ti­ations. I know if I was a buyer deal­ing with a private seller, I would expect at least 10% off the mar­ket value right off the bat.

Some­body who’s gone out­side the frame­work of things will look like a huge tar­get for someone try­ing to score a cheap deal because of ama­teur mar­ket­ing and neg­a­tion.

This is what buyer agents do all day long (it’s what they get paid for).

Buy­ers want a sound, safe buy­ing exper­i­ence, not Joe Blow talk­ing up his home while you wander through alone with the seller defend­ing why his home is the best in the world. Buy­ers like to feel secure.

That’s why they are buy­ing a home in the first place.

In a seller’s mar­ket, where buy­ers are crawl­ing over them­selves to out­bid each other, this may be okay, but in a buyer’s mar­ket, you can’t afford to frighten away the people try­ing to work within the framework.

Think about this…

If online and print media advert­ising costs around $8000 (for six months wait­ing for a good buyer) + $2000 to $3000 for pre­par­a­tion of con­tracts of sale, con­vey­an­cing and set­tle­ment + whatever the cost you put on your own time, the real estate agent’s com­mis­sion is start­ing to look pretty good.

Also don’t for­get, if you don’t sell your prop­erty, real estate agents don’t cost you a thing. They are free!