Real Estate Private Sale

Have you got the Real Estate For sale By Owner blues?

When people are suffering from the Real Estate For sale By Owner  blues they really aren't.

What they are suffering from is actually a case of the house sale blues and that's quite a different animal. The cause is something quite diferent from what it feels like.

People tend to get dejected when their house doesn't sell immediately. It's human nature and the upheaval that people go through when first listing their home for sale leads to a common roller coaster effect on their emotions.

Their minds are already focusing on where they are going next, new schools, new shops, new friends,new activities and sudenly things don't instantly materialise.

This doesn't mean that it's because you are doing a private sale real estate transaction as opposed to using an agent, so don't confuse the issue. Houses sit around for a long time with agents and house can sit around a long time with private sellers also. It's just as accurate to restate things this way - some houses with real estate agents get snapped up before they even hit the open market and some private sellers achieve sales higher than the price they listed at. Neither thing in isolation proves anything.

Both positions are true, both are correct. What isn't true is the extrapolation people make based on their own single experience of selling either way. That's why I find it so ironic that sellers leave agents and also come to agents for the very same root reason and that is because they have failed to sell their house either by themselves or with a real estate agent, as the case may be.

So don't fall into this trap. Understand that if a house doesn't sell its almost always about just two things, market exposure and price.

Both of these things need not be related to whether a person is undertaking their own sale or not.

Real estate private sale - Is it right for you?

Lets be clear about three things.

1   A Real Estate Private Sale is entirely feasible for anyone

2   Selling your own home will be just as hard or just as easy as it would be by using a real estate agent

3   While private selling is quite simple and potentially easy it is categorically not for everybody.

Let me explain. First, as I stated a real sestate private sale is no magical thing. You can achieve it and you can secure as fast a sale as an agent could and you can get just as much money in your pocket.

BUT it's not for everybody.

If you are going to get stressed taking phone calls and meeting people and negotiating then by all means pay an agent and be done with it. Of course you should remember that employing an agent won't really alleviate much of the stress of selling.

You see instead of negotiating directly with the buyer, you will instead find yourself in a negotiation with your agent instead and that can even be more stressful.

I sometimes think people imagine that when they employ an agent their sale problems will magically disappear.

But that's wishful thinking. You see, you will still get offers, still have to potentially do price reductions, still potentially need to negotiate, still need to be interrupted for sales inspections, still need to keep the home tidy etc etc.

So why would you use an agent then? Well the stock reply from the agents has always been because they are professionals and they can expose you to more buyers. Well maybe and maybe not.

It all depends how you go about private selling and which agent you use if you don't sell by yourself.

You may actually be able to do far more promotion by yourself working solely on your own property as opposed to an agent who may be trying to sell 50 different homes. Have you ever wondered how much service you will get every week from an agency with 50 listings and 5 sales staff?

The agents again will tell you that because they have many listings and you have just one, they will get more enquiry. This sounds logical but in practice it doesn't work that way. Remember an agent might get more enquiry but where will it all go? The answer is you don't really know. Enquiry will be spread across several listings and will be somewhat at the mercy of the listing agent.

I can show you private sellers who've been on the market for a year and then give up and go with an agent. I can also very easily show you people who went with an agent for 2 years without selling. In fact they may have gone through 3 or more agents in that time.

So, if I can show you private sellers who can't sell their own home AND I can just as easily show you homes that agents can't sell then what's going on? Simple - its almost always about the price. That's the thing that stops most properties from selling whether with or without agents.

But then if price is the primary concern wouldn't you be better off saving the commission so at least you could lower the price if needed right ? Absolutely!

But you also need to make sure that you get exposure for the property.

Now I did mention in the first blog entry that I am heavily biased towards selling without an agent because you truly can compete in this arena now thanks to the net.

If you'd like to be listed on at least 7 major real estate websites in an effort to sell your own home then hop on over to  propertynow  for details about how real estate private sale system operates.

Private sale real estate

This blog is mainly about  Real Estate Private Sale in Australia and about worldwide real estate matters in general.

I'd like it to be a discourse about how people can effectively sell a home without paying a huge commission. I'd like to let it be known from the outset that I am a Licensed agent who makes a living from helping private sellers.

So I make no apologies for upsetting any agents out there. I welcome other real estate agents to add their opinions to the blog as well the fsbo ( for sale by owner ) people out there.

I'd like to hear real life stories about how people have tried to sell without an agent.

Tell me your successes and your not so successes. The point is to help educate others about what can be done in trying to sell private. To do that we need to talk about the pros and cons.

Certainly I'll be coming at you from a Can Do attitude but just remember that I'm biased.

Well that's it for the first post but I'll be back quite soon with some initial observations about the real estate for sale by owner industry in Australia

Andrew Blachut

PropertyNow

www.propertynow.com.au