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 Do you really need an estate agent to sell your home? Surely you can save on the commissions by selling it yourself, right? Well, private selling could be an option but it does come with its pros and cons. Here’s all you need to know about selling privately.
You Have Your Own Interests in Mind When selling privately, you get to cut out the middleman. All the decisions you make are on you. We’ve found that many vendors find it extremely hard to negotiate the sale when it comes down to the crunch. It does get ugly and very personal. Also, many deals fall over not because of the house but because of the negotiations got personal and someone took offence leading to the deal falling over. By comparison, agents don’t take offence as its not their property. Agents Have the Experience The commission you pay is for the experience and skills of the estate agent. This is a person who has sold homes before, and if you pick a great agent, you’ll have someone who has sold a very similar home as yours in the past. The agent will know how to get buyers to say yes, and how to get them to offer more. They’ll know the signs of the market, and be able to play the negotiating game confidently and calmly. There’s no emotion. While emotion can help you sell, it can also lead to you losing a sale because you’re so invested in getting the higher price or selling to the perfect buyer that you let the negotiations crumble. You Don’t Get Full Access to Advertising The multi-listing sites are usually only available to those with multiple houses to list. If you’re selling privately and only have the one property, you won’t always get access. As these are the sites where buyers are going to be you want to make sure your house is going to be seen. Trademe.co.nz is about the only place or you can use or Homesell.co.nz. Most agents have access to Realestate.co.nz, which has the lion’s share of the market. And yes, don’t forget the printed medium property press. Many agents still tell us buyers come around to open homes with these tucked under their arms. Even if you do get onto the sites and in the newspaper, you’ll then have to deal with multiple phone calls and viewings a day. Do you really have time for that? And don’t forget the open homes too…. Should you sell your home privately? Consider the pros and cons and make the best decision for your needs and preferences.  If you are a home owner you most likely would have asked yourself this question at some point. If you are asking yourself this question, your answer will depend entirely on your circumstances. For example:
Let’s look at these questions in more detail. Do you like your location? If the answer is yes, this is something that won’t change if you decide to renovate. So, if your family enjoys the current location and neighbourhood you may wish to consider renovating. However, you need to think about the future needs of your family – will it still be an appropriate neighbourhood in five to ten years’ time? Something to also think about is whether or not there are features of your home that you dislike that cannot be changed. If this is the case, you may be best to sell and relocate. What is better for you financially? It is important to think about the costs of a renovation before you begin and compare this to the cost of upgrading to a new home. In the realm of renovations, overcapitalising is a common occurrence as people can spend more than originally budgeted. A handy hint is to look at prices in your neighbourhood and what price you could likely get for your home if you had to sell it tomorrow in an emergency – would you recoup your costs? In terms of selling, there are also costs to consider such as the cost to sell your home with real estate commission and advertising fees, legal fees, the cost of transporting your possessions to a new home and for most, refinancing costs. These expenses can all add up and should be compared to the likely cost of renovations. Can you handle the renovation process? The answer to this will depend upon your patience and the scale of renovations. Living in a potential construction zone can really wear on some people’s patience, especially if children are involved. However, we have heard of some people actually enjoying the renovation process and ensuring that milestones are met within predefined time by scheduling and project managing contractors. So, the answer to this question really depends upon your personality type and family situation. Bearing all of these questions in mind, deciding to whether to sell or renovate is still an entirely personal decision. However, before you make your decision it is important to consult the experts so that you can more accurately weigh up the costs, pros and cons of both and make an informed decision. If you are thinking of renovating then look at REFRESH  Real estate agents are often asked by their clients if home staging is worth it. As home staging is fast becoming popular with sellers it is now highly regarded as a clever marketing tool.
As those in the industry know, home staging can help you show your home in the best possible light. Essentially, home staging can make a house ‘look better’ and showcase possibilities to potential buyers. The benefits of this may be attracting more buyers, achieving a faster sale and achieving top dollar which can far outweigh the cost of staging – some stagers even estimate that using their services can achieve a 10% higher sale price. Another way to think of home staging is this: if there were two homes in the same neighbourhood which were very similar in price and one home was clutter free, clean and nicely decorated, which home do you think they would be more attracted to or see themselves living in? So how much does home staging cost? With home staging prices in New Zealand varying from just under $1,000 to around $2,000 for a two bedroom home, it does pay to shop around. However, your Top Agent may be able to recommend a home stager who is suited to your type of property and has a proven track record because with all services, there are those who know what they are doing and those that don’t! It is also important to note that there are the options of a partial staging or even a design consult if you are a more price sensitive seller. Many stagers will be happy to discuss their range of services and work with you to get your home looking the best it can be within your budget. So if you are thinking of selling your home, don’t dismiss the services of a home stager as they may make the selling process less stressful and attract just the ‘right’ buyer. The latest QV House Price stats are out and there are some signs of values slowing in Auckland, Hamilton and Tauranga, but Wellington hasn’t paused for breath as values continue to rise there – at a rate of 21% annually which is faster than at any time leading into the last peak of the market in 2007. Meanwhile Christchurch is still flat and Dunedin values continue to rise at around 3-4% quarterly.
The first of which is our weekly tracking of Bank-ordered valuations, most often to support lending decisions. This provides us with a great pre-sales measure of market demand. In Auckland these remain flat compared to activity prior to the LVR announcement in late July. This is seasonally very weak as we would have expected activity from mid-Winter to pick up in September. Outside Auckland, activity hasn’t been quite as subdued with a small lift from Winter but nothing like the lift we saw last year and that we would typically expect in September. Looking into the main centres, activity has slowed in Hamilton where volumes are about 5% lower than witnessed in Winter. In Tauranga, activity has been a bit more volatile, but after strong volumes through August and most of September we’ve seen a significant drop away in the last two weeks. The Wellington region remains relatively busy – most recently in the more affordable outer cities of Porirua and Upper Hutt. Christchurch remains flat but Dunedin is certainly enjoying a healthy spring lift with the last two weeks up at record levels for the City. According to our Buyer Classification series, where we quantify the influence of Auckland based investors around the rest of the country, we have now seen them increase their presence in Dunedin too, with 6% of sales to them in Q3 – up from a recent average of only 3%. Previously they hadn’t ventured too far from the top half of the North Island in any significant numbers. This change could be due to the much more appealing rental yield in the University City combined with solid recent capital growth. Around the rest of the country it’s a bit of a mixed bag. The South of the North Island (including Palmerston North and Kapiti Coast) has seen increased activity, while many cities across the middle section of the North Island (New Plymouth, Rotorua, parts of Hawke’s Bay) are flat or slightly dropping. Whangarei in the North, is well down on Winter volumes. Jumping to the South Island and activity is similarly mixed – Queenstown had a bumper Winter which it has not been able to sustain, Nelson has sprung out of a moderate Winter and Invercargill was trending down until the last two weeks where it has seen a lift. Secondly, the listings side of the equation is also very telling. Almost all regions are more than 20% down on total listings when compared to the same time last year. Auckland is one of the few regions to buck the trend as a weak sales period has meant total listings are 2% higher than the same time last year, although it’s worth noting this is off a low base with low stock levels existing for a couple of years now. Now the question in Auckland is centred on the quality of stock, with good properties still selling quickly and older stock perhaps going a bit stale as active buyers in the market continually pass them by. A slight lift in new listings coming onto the market recently ill help improve supply in some areas like Otago, Waikato and Wellington but many regions are still near all-time low stock levels which will continue to put pressure on the property market. Looking to the future then, let’s take a quick look at the economic factors affecting the demand and supply drivers in the market. While demand has been hit by the latest round of LVR limits the low interest rate environment still makes borrowing attractive for those able to get the required deposit. And while the net migration ‘tide’ had started to turn, including back across the Tasman, the latest figures showed a flattening of migrants into the country and stalling of those leaving. This means we’re still seeing a strong overall inflow and therefore more people looking for homes. Then on the supply side, specifically in Auckland, the Unitary Plan should start to have an impact but as with any development/regulatory changes it’s going to take a while for processes to catch up so options for buyers will remain constrained for the time-being. All of this means it’s unlikely that values will be heading south any time soon, which will no doubt continue to draw the attention of both the Government and RBNZ. My pick? More intervention to come. |
AuthorLisa McCarthy Founder of MyTopAgent. Archives
July 2018
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