Selling Home - Tips ?

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sep11guy

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#198491 11-Jul-2016 14:22

Hi Team,

Due to change in family circumstances, we have to sell our home .

I was wondering if anyone who has gone thru the selling process can offer general advice, like choosing sales person , how to go about picking the agent / the office.

Any tips or advice in general which we need to look out for. We are not selling in urgency so we dont mind waiting to get the right agent / right price etc

The home is in a good location - Waitakere region, Akl , handy to busses trains shopping mall - 5 min walking distance.

Will appreciate any help :) Thanks

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#1589705 11-Jul-2016 14:25

Use a lawyer not a conveyancer to make the sales process slightly easier - only lawyers can give undertakings, which is done when a property is sold. Don't let an agent do a contract without a lawyer reviewing it, or just have the lawyer do the contract, some agents will try to force theirs on you and they're not always optimal.

sep11guy

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#1589707 11-Jul-2016 14:28

timmmay:

Use a lawyer not a conveyancer to make the sales process slightly easier - only lawyers can give undertakings, which is done when a property is sold. Don't let an agent do a contract without a lawyer reviewing it, or just have the lawyer do the contract, some agents will try to force theirs on you and they're not always optimal.

when you mention a contract - are you talking about the s & p agreement ?

or is this the contract b/w us and the agent to sell the home i.e the one which says we are employing the agent to sell the home

Sideface

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#1589709 11-Jul-2016 14:32

Presentation is everything.

De-clutter the house - I have seen otherwise presentable houses for sale that are full of junk - makes the house look smaller and grottier.

Sideface

sep11guy

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#1589716 11-Jul-2016 14:46

Sideface:

Presentation is everything.

De-clutter the house - I have seen otherwise presentable houses for sale that are full of junk - makes the house look smaller and grottier.

yes, i agree, i will have 0 furniture and 0 personal belongings, so that shud be ok. Only thing is i am not sure if i want to pay for the "pop up / hired " furniture which is being used a lot these days.

muppet

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#1589726 11-Jul-2016 15:17

sep11guy:

Sideface:

Presentation is everything.

De-clutter the house - I have seen otherwise presentable houses for sale that are full of junk - makes the house look smaller and grottier.

yes, i agree, i will have 0 furniture and 0 personal belongings, so that shud be ok. Only thing is i am not sure if i want to pay for the "pop up / hired " furniture which is being used a lot these days.

If you have nothing, then yes, get something.

People need to be able to mentally imagine living there. If you've got nothing, that's very hard. If it's cluttered, that's very hard too.

You need to find a middle ground - things that people have, but minimal. It really helps.

bobnz

9 posts

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#1589727 11-Jul-2016 15:17

Do check that you really, really do have a Code Compliance Certificate for any Building Consents issued on the property - including those 'optional' ones under the original 1991 Building Act. You do not want the stress of having an offer go on hold as a LIM reveals that you don't have a Code Compliance Certificate.

An agent is most likely not going to check Council records for CCCs as they must then disclose any missing ones to a prospective buyer and perhaps lose a sale before its under contract.

ben28

190 posts

Master Geek

#1589733 11-Jul-2016 15:28

remember you won't sell for the best price if no one knows about it. So don't scrimp on the marketing spend. And it's difficult to work out what any house is worth in today's market, so auction through one of the larger real estate agents may be the way to go, even if the thought of paying all that commission is hard to swallow.
Selling in better weather is usually better as the place looks nicer and people are more likely to visit open homes if the weather is nice.
But waiting does expose you to risk of a price fall, then again maybe more chance of a price increase.
Good luck, if you are buying again then reduce the time between houses so you are buying in the same market.

If you aren't selling by auction, in my experience selling twice, the actual purchaser usually first sees the house within the first 2 weeks, but that's from last century

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tchart

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#1589737 11-Jul-2016 15:37

sep11guy:

Hi Team,

Due to change in family circumstances, we have to sell our home .

I was wondering if anyone who has gone thru the selling process can offer general advice, like choosing sales person , how to go about picking the agent / the office.

Any tips or advice in general which we need to look out for. We are not selling in urgency so we dont mind waiting to get the right agent / right price etc

The home is in a good location - Waitakere region, Akl , handy to busses trains shopping mall - 5 min walking distance.

Will appreciate any help :) Thanks

Just going through the process for the first time. Although slightly different as our house is tenanted - and I feel terrible for the tenant :(

We spoke to Tall Poppy (fixed 10K+GST) and Harcourts (~3% commission+GST). We went for auction with Harcourts.

As others have said exposure is key - although we have opted not to do printed media (its expensive!)

andrew027

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#1589790 11-Jul-2016 16:25

Having bought a few houses (8) and sold a few (5), these thoughts are my own, but based on some practical experience. Disclaimer: I have never bought or sold at auction though and, as you're in the Auckland area, that's probably a good way for you to go.

If you have your own lawyer/solicitor, consult them throughout the process. Have them look at your contract with the agent, at the sale and purchase agreement, etc. It will cost money, but they are the only people you can trust to be working for you.
Use one of the bigger agencies. The small ones will tell you they can give you more attention, bigger ones will have more contacts, more agents, more presence, more potential customers.
You may want to place a couple of newspaper ad.s, but ensure you list online. We had heaps of views on TradeMe - way more than I thought we would, and quite a few on realestate.co.nz.
As @sideface said, declutter. A cluttered room, or wardrobes or kitchen cupboards, makes it look like the house doesn't have enough space, and nobody wants to move into a house that's too small. As you said you don't have any stuff, this shouldn't be a problem!
If you don't have any stuff, I would recommend getting some furniture in to "dress" the house. People buying the property to use as a rental probably don't care, but it will make a big difference to anyone looking for something to live in. You don't have to do the whole house, but the lounge, dining room, master bedroom, and maybe one other bedroom should do. Your estate agent will probably have a preferred place to get this stuff from.
Look at any maintenance that might need doing. If it's small and cheap (a cracked window, a lick of paint, some new curtains from Briscoes) do it, or get it done, as it will give the impression that you keep your maintenance up to date so people won't think there are bigger jobs you've neglected that they can't see (rewiring, leaky roof, etc.) If it's a bigger job (recarpeting the whole house) it might not be worth doing. You don't want to spend $10,000 to make the house look $2,000 better. But get quotes for these things, in case they become bargaining points later on.
Kitchens and bathrooms sell a house. Make sure they're clean, tidy, light, mould and smell-free, don't have any obvious issues, etc.
Keep it tidy. Once it's listed, the agent could call at any time to ask if they can take someone through. Especially make sure it looks great from the street (trees trimmed, lawn mowed, no junk in sight) as a lot of people will drive by before an open home and many won't bother coming through if they get a poor first impression.
Keep it clean. When I see a house with filthy floors, dirty windows, an oven that looks like a pig exploded in it, damp laundry piled on the floor, rubbish (including food containers) stacked in the hall, fresh cat sh!t in the litter bin (yep, seen all those things at open homes) it says you don't care about the house, and people want a house that's been taken care of.
Talk to your neighbours if you need to, and you get on with them, to make sure the immediate neighbourhood also looks good. The last house I sold, the guy next door didn't mow his front lawn very often, and when he did he used a line trimmer so it looked awful. I offered to do it for him, and did - every week before the open home. And when I moved out, I sold him my mower as I didn't need it any more!
They're cliches, but things like fresh flowers, the smell of fresh coffee or baking, etc. do create a welcoming atmosphere.

sep11guy

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#1589792 11-Jul-2016 16:28

excellent tips andrew, thanks a lot.

mattwnz

20177 posts

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#1589804 11-Jul-2016 16:44

Sideface:

Presentation is everything.

De-clutter the house - I have seen otherwise presentable houses for sale that are full of junk - makes the house look smaller and grottier.

Although don't make the house look too much like a showroom, and unlived in. Many house that agents 'dress to sell' are poorly done, and often cheap rented furniture is used. Good photos are essential, but try not to make them too wide angled, as it distorts everything, and can make rooms look far bigger than they are. This often disappoints people who go and view, and you often hear them saying, it looked bigger in the photos. You can save heaps by using a real estate agent like 200 square. My family has sold 2 houses this way, and achieved good prices. It is the negotiation between the agent and the buyer that is where a good agent is worth their money. But agents are essentially working for themselves, so don't get them to pressure you into accepting a lower offer than you wanted .

reven

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#1589805 11-Jul-2016 16:45

sold my house last night at auction. south auckland area. basically what it came down to was 2 bidders the real estate new and where looking at it as an investment property so it got into a bidding war. so yeah, +1 for more contacts == better outcome. sure this isnt always true but it worked brilliantly for me.

make sure the house is very well presented, very clean, turn key ready basically if possible as that would get a higher price. if its brick and warm in winter it will sell well, if its cold in winter, best wait for summer or when it gets warmer if you can (this is what I was told by realestate agents I spoke to, but my house was 4 year old brick house with heatpump/gas fire). I went to the warehouse/briscoes and spent about $500 on stuff to pretty up my house, some things were really cheap ~$10 canvas art for walls etc. just made the house look very cosy and inviting (instead of all the superhero stuff i had up before).

a few real estate agents have told me its surprising how many people use property press and its worth the money, but that could just be them selling it. trademe had about 8-10 times as many views as realestate.co.nz. look at homes.co.nz for a pretty accurate valuation of your house as to what you should get, my new house was 15k over what it said and auction and my old house was 20k over.

mattwnz

20177 posts

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#1589806 11-Jul-2016 16:47

tchart:

sep11guy:

Hi Team,

Due to change in family circumstances, we have to sell our home .

I was wondering if anyone who has gone thru the selling process can offer general advice, like choosing sales person , how to go about picking the agent / the office.

Any tips or advice in general which we need to look out for. We are not selling in urgency so we dont mind waiting to get the right agent / right price etc

The home is in a good location - Waitakere region, Akl , handy to busses trains shopping mall - 5 min walking distance.

Will appreciate any help :) Thanks

Just going through the process for the first time. Although slightly different as our house is tenanted - and I feel terrible for the tenant :(

We spoke to Tall Poppy (fixed 10K+GST) and Harcourts (~3% commission+GST). We went for auction with Harcourts.

As others have said exposure is key - although we have opted not to do printed media (its expensive!)

Pretty much most of the traffic for selling properties comes from trademe. I think print advertising is a waste of money these days, in terms of return for the money spent. Better to get an escalated online listing IMO.

Wheelbarrow01

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#1589871 11-Jul-2016 18:07

There are several schools of thought on marketing, and some (in my experience) are rubbish....

After my mother died, we listed the house with a local (not national) agency after my sister met one of their agents sitting next to her on a plane. I was a bit reluctant, but my sister said the agent was very nice and seemed to know what she was talking about. As it turned out this was NOT the case. After the house was listed, not much happened. This particular agency do not do open homes at all, their reasoning being that open homes only attracted sticky beaks. They said their preferred method is to qualify every enquiry, and only do private viewings to qualified purchasers. This angle of attack proved to be severely flawed as in the 2 months they had the property on their books, they showed just 1 (YES, ONE) potential purchaser. This was at the start of last year so the market was already pretty heated. We subsequently found out the agent was going through divorce proceedings during our listing, so the sale of our house took a backseat to her personal life apparently. This goes some way in explaining why she never returned my calls, so I suspect interested buyers couldn't get hold of her either. On that basis I terminated the contract and withdrew the property from the market.

Once the sole agency contract had expired, we completed some renovations over last winter then relisted the property with Harcourts in January this year with no price. The difference was amazing. The Harcourts agent had a very clear strategy which included 45 minute open homes on both Saturday and Sunday, and also a 30 minute open home on Wednesday evenings. He also covered the additional cost to have a 900x1800 sign (with large photos) put up at the gate. The massive sign no doubt got a lot of hits as it was on a main road so in 5pm traffic, commuters were able to read about it as they sat in the gridlock. It was a 4 week marketing period with a deadline, and on that date we got no less than 6 offers. One was significantly higher than all the rest, and this was because the agent knew these particular people had missed out on a couple of properties already so he used his best skills to ensure they put in their very best offer.

We were very happy with the agent and also Harcourts in general. The marketing only cost us $1000+gst and that included professional photography, and spots in the Harcourts Bluebook + Trademe and realestate.co.nz. The commission structure was something like 3.95% for the first $300k, then 2% thereafter (+gst). All up it was less than $20k on a house that went in the late $400k range (in Christchurch). This was a good outcome for us as the house was on a main arterial road, and it was always going to be a hard sell on that basis alone, but having it all wrapped up in 4 weeks was fantastic.

We sprung for interior staging - we got a bargain on that as well - $1000+gst. Some of the quotes I got were 4 times that! Every room had basic furnishings including beds, chairs, wall art, floor rugs and a few ornaments, but it wasn't over the top. Definitely worth doing as we were targeting family buyers. If you are targeting investors I'd say it's probably not necessary.

So all in all, I'd suggest a good agent from a national chain. Ask for a list of recent sales for that particular agent, and ask for testimonials as well. Our agent was actually a husband and wife team which I think is also a plus (but only if they are both good agents). It means they may be more prepared to do the double open homes on Saturday and Sunday, so more people through the door.

dejadeadnz

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#1589872 11-Jul-2016 18:14

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.

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