Residential Real Estate For SaleFor prospective sellers three options exist: you can use an agent, sell it yourself or sell it with some professional help. Click Here to Find A Residential Real Estate Agent You Can Trust The first and arguably the biggest is time. The time need to sell a house is enormous. Agents with extensive experience in the field are able to shorten the time taken, but without their knowledge and expertise it will be difficult to do likewise. Many busy people could do a superb job of marketing their own property if they could dramatically reduce their work hours for a month or two. The second is personality, for want of a better word. Salesmanship, as anyone in the real estate business, will tell you, necessitates personality. Think about it without personality how are you going to really sell your property. As can be seen at residential-realestate.com we tend to recommend individuals sell with agent. This is in part because we have seen too many enthusiastic sellers go solo and give up in the face of the enormity of the task. Residential Real Estate For Sale with an AgentIf you decide to use an agent, as noted earlier choose wisely. An agent needs to exhibit professionalism, honesty and commitment. If possible, pick the agent as well as the agency. There are usually huge differences in ability between people working for the same firm. f you are selling at a preset price, the inspections will continue until you exchange unconditional contracts with a purchaser a process that may require less time invested but, on average, takes longer as a whole. For a $300,000 home the cost of selling through a real estate agent would be around $2000 to $3000 in advertising and marketing costs. Commission will add a further $6000 to $9000 to your bill. Finding the right real estate agent can make up to a 5 per cent difference in the price you will get for your home. And given an agent generally charges between 2 per cent and 4 per cent in commission, every dollar counts, particularly if you are looking to purchase a house at a later date. Of course the more your house sells for the greater the commission, but a higher price will still deliver more. Say your house sold for $300,000 through one agent and you paid 2 per cent commission. After the deal you would end up with $294,000 in your pocket. If the agent had managed to squeeze 5 per cent more out of the buyer ($315,000) then after 2 per cent commission of $7,300 you would have $307,700. "I do believe that a good estate agent can deliver up to 5 per cent more than an average one because they have better negotiating skills and experience so won't give away your property too early," says Patrick Bright, a buyers' agent with EPS Property Search. The question is how do you know whether you have a good real estate agent or not? Bright reckons that one of the best ways is by referral. And one of the worst ways is probably plumping for the agent telling you your property is worth the highest price. Independent valuation Before you choose an agent, residential-realestate.com suggests you get an independent valuation of your property. An independent valuation represents an important safety net against dishonest and disingenuous practice. "An independent valuer has no vested interest," says Bright. By taking away the vested interest, you can get an accurate valuation of your place. Once you know the true valuation of your home then you can approach agents in your area. It is important to go to agents with both objectives and knowledge of how these objectives are to be fulfilled. When they give you a price, ask them how they have reached that figure. They should give you a comparative market analysis showing you the sales of several similar properties in your area. Remember there are a number of different methods that can be used to determine the value of a property – the main is to compare to local estate prices. You might be given a single figure but more than likely you will be given a range for the expected selling price. By law a range cannot have more than a 10 per cent spread so they might say it is in the range of $500,000 to $550,000 where the $50,000 difference is 10 per cent. This law ensures that agents don’t include gross over-estimations with realistic ones to hock clients in. An independent valuation should mean you can recognize when an agent tries to win your listing by over quoting. But undervaluing can also be an issue, according to Bright. "If you have an agent with no local knowledge then they can under market your property as they are not familiar with the area," says Bright. As such residential-realestate.com recommends that you select an agent, if possible with knowledge of the local area. That said an experienced agent will be able to do the necessary research to determine a value for the property, even if they live outside the area. Fees When you are choosing your agent, you will need to take into account the fees and charges and what they exactly entail. Agency fees are negotiable as are any associated advertising and marketing costs. Knowledge of standard fees for the area and in light of market conditions will give you added bargaining power. Some agencies charge a flat rate while others a percentage of the sale price. Neither is better, what really remains important are the quality of the agents that work there. Either way the amount must be recorded in the authority-to-sell contract that you will sign before your home is put on the market. GST is payable on the fee. Total costs can be calculated by adding together these figures. Advertising and marketing costs are usually over and above the commission although in some cases you may be able to negotiate no sale, no fee. |
Thursday, 09 February 2012
