some good tips there, thanks so much team, thats great, anything i learn here is of a great asset.

should point out my house was only on the market for about 12 days.  auction was bought forward by 3 weeks.  so yeah, dont always go for the cheapest real estate agent, go for one that you think has the best marketing and contacts.  in fact pretend to be a buyer for a few and go to a few different open homes to see how well they chase you up as a buyer on those houses to get a feel of what they will do for your property.

I managed to get a fixed rate of 30k to sell the house (which is good, commission on percentage would of been more), I had to pay $3900 up front for marketing (this was online, TM, realestate.co.nz and a chinnese website I forget the name of, banners, print advertising in the property press for 4 weeks) etc.  so yeah print might be a waste of money, but at say $1000 for it, who really cares?  It might get another bidder in, more bidders == bidding war.  The other real estate agent I was considering had no upfront costs and marketing was included including a gardeners that would of come to the house, but would of be about 36k to sell.  

so yeah not cheap to sell a house, but I got more than 30k extra than i would of selling privately and no hassle and in 12 days.  i was considering private sale but yeah, lots of hassle.

dejadeadnz:

 

I can't believe nobody has mentioned this point. Please check the Real Estate Agents Authority website: https://portal.reaa.govt.nz/public/register-search/

 

If an agent you are thinking of using has had complaints upheld against him/her in the last 3 years, this will show on the search. Google the person as well. 

 

 

 

 

 

That isn't necessarily a reason not to use one that has had a complaint upheld against them, otherwise they wouldn't be allowed to continue trading.  But it potentially means that they are now a lot more careful, and could now be a far better agent.  

You use a full service agent, if you don't want to do any of it yourself. But even when using an agent, you can find yourself showing people around the house, as the agent can sometime call up at any time and say they need you to show someone around. Or they need you to leave the home while they show someone around. IMO it can be a real PITA using an agent, rather than doing much of it yourself, if you have the time. Some of the photos they take are also terrible. Poor HDR, wide angled rubbish. Some I have seen look like paintings, due to the HDR being done so badly.

I the current market, in much of NZ houses are pretty ,much selling themselves, so you can easily save 20-30k by using a cut price fixed fee agent. 

mattwnz:

 

dejadeadnz:

 

I can't believe nobody has mentioned this point. Please check the Real Estate Agents Authority website: https://portal.reaa.govt.nz/public/register-search/

 

If an agent you are thinking of using has had complaints upheld against him/her in the last 3 years, this will show on the search. Google the person as well. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That isn't necessarily a reason not to use one that has had a complaint upheld against them, otherwise they wouldn't be allowed to continue trading.  But it potentially means that they are now a lot more careful, and could now be a far better agent.  

 

You use a full service agent, if you don't want to do any of it yourself. But even when using an agent, you can find yourself showing people around the house, as the agent can sometime call up at any time and say they need you to show someone around. Or they need you to leave the home while they show someone around. IMO it can be a real PITA using an agent, rather than doing much of it yourself, if you have the time. Some of the photos they take are also terrible. Poor HDR, wide angled rubbish. Some I have seen look like paintings, due to the HDR being done so badly.

 

I the current market, in much of NZ houses are pretty ,much selling themselves, so you can easily save 20-30k by using a cut price fixed fee agent. 

 

Now that is I would say useful advice !!

reven:

 

 

 

so yeah not cheap to sell a house, but I got more than 30k extra than i would of selling privately and no hassle and in 12 days.  i was considering private sale but yeah, lots of hassle.

 

How do you know you got 30k more? That is often what agents will tell a seller, that they can make their money back by using an agent, but there is actually no way of knowing this, unless you had a fixed selling fee in mind

A lot of it also comes down to the method you use to sell your house. Tender is used a lot in Wellington, but not so much in Auckland, who use Auctions. I hate tenders as a buyer, but they are great for the seller, especially when there is a lot of demand for a property. You can do a lot better with a tender than at an auction, because a tender, people submit their top price they would pay for it. With an auction, the winning bid may not have been the winners top price.  

mattwnz:

 

reven:

 

 

 

so yeah not cheap to sell a house, but I got more than 30k extra than i would of selling privately and no hassle and in 12 days.  i was considering private sale but yeah, lots of hassle.

 

 

 

 

How do you know you got 30k more? That is often what agents will tell a seller, that they can make their money back by using an agent, but there is actually no way of knowing this, unless you had a fixed selling fee in mind

 

A lot of it also comes down to the method you use to sell your house. Tender is used a lot in Wellington, but not so much in Auckland, who use Auctions. I hate tenders as a buyer, but they are great for the seller, especially when there is a lot of demand for a property. You can do a lot better with a tender than at an auction, because a tender, people submit their top price they would pay for it. With an auction, the winning bid may not have been the winners top price.  

 

cos I would of asked for 20k less than I got, and no one ever pays what you ask, and usually negotiate 10-20k less than asking price.