[holdencommodoreMember@holdencommodoreJoin Date: 2003Post Count: 88]

August 19, 2007 - 2:18 pm

Anjiep, I'd be interested to know the value of your home. For $14,300, at 2.5%+GST, thats over $520,000. Considering you need a conveyancer or solicitor anyway, let's leave that aside for a second; and lets take the $1,500 that you see as value off the agent's fees, leaving us at $12,800.
I am yet to see a property worth around 1/2 a million dollars that I can't add over $12,800 worth of value to; whether it be through introducing another genuine competing buyer and letting the competition drive the price up, increased exposure as opposed to small websites only a fraction of the market have ever heard of, or a combination of other factors, including giving the vendor time to do what they do best, and letting us handle their home with inspections etc. There's also a feel from buyers that if you're skimping on selling and advertising costs to sell your most prized possession, what else have you skimped on when there were maintenance issues or other problems while you lived there.
I don't mind, and selling privately is perfectly justifiable on some properties, but unless you're retired or time is not an issue for you, or your property doesn't have the capacity to potentially draw more than one serious buyer through a marketing campaign, then I certainly question your logic.
If your house is worth anywhere near the $520k calculated above, then I would put it to you that you may not have interviewed the right agent for your home yet. They can make up their commission and more, which is better than penny-pinching, because it's more of a profit for you!

[holdencommodoreMember@holdencommodoreJoin Date: 2003Post Count: 88]

August 19, 2007 - 2:06 pm

You're right, people won't pay more for your place when in 6-8 months time, they can build the same thing for less on the block next door. All you're really offering them is time: time saved by not having to build.
Because of the general constant supply of available land in these areas, you really won't be offering anything that someone can't build or buy from someone else, so it makes it tough. The reason you see builders doing it though, is the GST margin scheme benefits (or adjustments/calculations I should say), and the fact they get builders terms when purchasing land from developers; meaning they don't pay the full price of the land once titles are released, so their interest payments and holding costs would be no-where near what yours or mine may be. Depending on the developer and builder negotiations, they may have 3, 6, 12 months or some other length of time after titles are released in which they build the house, then sell it, upon which time they pay the purchase price of the land to the developer. Unless you can structure your purchases in the same way, I can't see a way that you could make a consistently decent profit from such a proposition.

[holdencommodoreMember@holdencommodoreJoin Date: 2003Post Count: 88]

August 19, 2007 - 1:54 pm

Jenman agents… dont start – one of the posts above claimed that normal agents were interested in building their databases more than selling houses… I challenge you to call a Jenman agent. Last time I called one, from a landline phone, before I was even able to talk to an agent, the secretary bugged me for my details 'just in case we get cut off'… So I told her I was calling from a landline, she persisted, and eventually I got through… who's interested in building their database did we say?!

And I know the original post was a while ago, but on a $1.2m property, asking for an investment of under $10k is cheap. If you change your mentality, and have some input with your agent that you feel comfortable with, then as a team you're guaranteed to make that $8500 in marketing back in no time – all it takes is one other buyer and you could make 10s of thousands pretty easily on such a property. I know because I've done it recently on one worth less than $1m. Seems like cutting corners may cost you more than $8500 in the end; but hey, it's your house!

[holdencommodoreMember@holdencommodoreJoin Date: 2003Post Count: 88]

August 19, 2007 - 1:43 pm

Tools,
There are plenty of properties that sell by either Sale By Set Date (R) or private sale with conditions attached. As to whether the vendors accept your offer, depends on the competition you're up against, vendor's motivation, whether other components of your offer suit the vendor, whether you're paying the vendor a premium for the conditions that you want, and how firm (or flexible) your conditions are – I am yet to have a sale where a vendor has signed anything that virtually allows the buyer to walk away at their discretion, so you'll need to keep that in mind when attaching conditions.

[holdencommodoreMember@holdencommodoreJoin Date: 2003Post Count: 88]

December 6, 2006 - 4:03 am

Originally posted by wolverine80:

I’ve found a new aussy website that lets you list your property for sale/rent for free.

http://www.listnow.com.au

I’ve listed a few of mine there. It’s pretty good and my listings been viewed 100 times since I put it up.

Anyone know this mob? Why would they let me list my properties for free when all the other websites like domain.com.au or realestate.com.au charge hundreds? Is there a catch? Let me know if you find one.

Thanks.
Joe.

Only catch is that no-one’s ever heard of it compared to re.com/domain etc… think about how many buyers you might be missing by not listing on the bigger sites.

(“,) $$$ HoLdEnCoMmOdOrE $$$ (“,)

[holdencommodoreMember@holdencommodoreJoin Date: 2003Post Count: 88]

August 6, 2006 - 9:18 am

Quick question kmiddlet, you mentioned you had sold before, but let me put something to you to highlight the point I was making:

If you’re the vendor faced with two offers that are identical (or relatively so) in every aspect except for the deposit, which one would you as the vendor pick out of these two:

a) $1 deposit, remainder payable on settlement; or
b) 10% deposit showing you that the buyer is serious & ‘putting their money where their mouth is’ – you could access the deposit (less agents fees & marketing – even if you were ripped off at a high commission from the agent, you’d still be left with at least 5% of the purchase price to now use at your will), and remainder on settlement.

Not sure about you, but I’d rather access the deposit early rather than having it in an agent’s trust account, and rather than waiting until settlement, I now have some spare cash that I can use before settlement.

Just food for thought – I’d be interested to hear your views on it.

(“,) $$$ HoLdEnCoMmOdOrE $$$ (“,)

[holdencommodoreMember@holdencommodoreJoin Date: 2003Post Count: 88]

July 23, 2006 - 1:38 pm

Vendor would have to be keen to accept that offer… they probably won’t because ( as your question was about 14 days subject to finance), they have to take the place off the market and pretty much wait on you. Do things like the building & pest inspection before signing or during the cooling off period, and show your solicitor before signing – or if you’re using that just as an escape route, then don’t – if you can submit an unconditional offer you’ll have a better chance at getting the property if there is another offer on it at the same time.

(“,) $$$ HoLdEnCoMmOdOrE $$$ (“,)

[holdencommodoreMember@holdencommodoreJoin Date: 2003Post Count: 88]

July 21, 2006 - 10:52 am

What suburb in Melbourne is the property?

(“,) $$$ HoLdEnCoMmOdOrE $$$ (“,)

[holdencommodoreMember@holdencommodoreJoin Date: 2003Post Count: 88]

June 14, 2006 - 1:17 pm

As another agent (see my earlier replies to this post), I completely agree with you cjm.
Buyers: get cashed up and tell the agent – you’ll find that although the agent is paid by the vendor, they won’t get paid at all unless they make deals. Be creative like cjm mentioned, but make sure the agent’s you’re dealing with know that you’re pre-approved and ready to buy. They’ll find you what you were looking for.

(“,) $$$ HoLdEnCoMmOdOrE $$$ (“,)

[holdencommodoreMember@holdencommodoreJoin Date: 2003Post Count: 88]

June 11, 2006 - 11:34 am

That agent wasn’t from a company with the initials R W were they? (R.. W….) Haha, we have that a bit around here.

(“,) $$$ HoLdEnCoMmOdOrE $$$ (“,)

[holdencommodoreMember@holdencommodoreJoin Date: 2003Post Count: 88]

June 10, 2006 - 9:55 am

Same with my agency – we have listing territories – where we can only list certain things, but I can sell anything with our company logo on it – anything Victoria-wide. Works well as agents are able to offer more to the buyers, and gets a better result for vendors as there are more people working on their property.

(“,) $$$ HoLdEnCoMmOdOrE $$$ (“,)

[holdencommodoreMember@holdencommodoreJoin Date: 2003Post Count: 88]

June 9, 2006 - 1:08 pm

Most of the time it will mean the person who listed the property from that agency – i.e. the person from that agency that signed up the authority to put the property on the market. Most of the time the listing agent then manages the listing – does the open for inspections, presents offers etc.

(“,) $$$ HoLdEnCoMmOdOrE $$$ (“,)

[holdencommodoreMember@holdencommodoreJoin Date: 2003Post Count: 88]

June 6, 2006 - 2:37 pm

Everyone is given an equal opportunity though… their best price. I know where you’re coming from jneale, in that there should be more communication, because as the agent with an offer on the table but not being the actual agent presenting the offers, we’re stressing too.
The problem I’ve encountered with it the other way is that you end up ‘shopping’ offers around, in that no-one knows where its going to end, and considering the buyers weren’t prepared for an auction, they both ended up pulling out because they were sick of the process.
Where does it end? If both (or all) offers are presented at the same time, who cares who put the offer in first, the fact is the vendor will chose one of them. What we do is call each buyer to make sure that it is their final offer, then that’s it. It’s a tough call as to when you draw the line, but unless you do it in that way, it goes on forever, or else stalls – buyers become angry (again, from personal experiences) – ‘I told you when I signed it that it was my final offer!’ is a common line.
This is the case in Vic anyway.

(“,) $$$ HoLdEnCoMmOdOrE $$$ (“,)

[holdencommodoreMember@holdencommodoreJoin Date: 2003Post Count: 88]

June 6, 2006 - 2:26 pm

So you’re saying that every agent in town would rather not get any money at all than drop it by even just 0.5 or 1%? There’s a clear market there for one of the agents to cut their commissions and really boost their market share. You should try to sell that to them, see how they respond. Either that or get them to pay for all advertising and get a really well presented package.

(“,) $$$ HoLdEnCoMmOdOrE $$$ (“,)

[holdencommodoreMember@holdencommodoreJoin Date: 2003Post Count: 88]

June 4, 2006 - 5:00 am

In Vic it’s allowed -s27 application. Your accountant doesn’t sound too savvy with the property side of things – might want to get a new one just to get this project over the line.

(“,) $$$ HoLdEnCoMmOdOrE $$$ (“,)

[holdencommodoreMember@holdencommodoreJoin Date: 2003Post Count: 88]

June 4, 2006 - 4:53 am

Amanda is spot-on. I’m an agent, and I can pretty comfortably say that if someone doesnt give you a range at all, they’ll sit in your database forever – whats the point – they might be after a 3bed with 2 bathrooms etc… but they vary from 200 to 700k.

Like Amanda has said, give a range, or a figure that is flexible and see how you go. I know personally I’ll show people anything within their range if it meets their criteria – I hate waiting on finance etc – I’d rather get the deal done, so if something ticks a few boxes, it’s definitely worth giving the buyer a call – you’ll find buyers are happier and will come back to you in the long run if you find them something for LESS than what they wanted to spend.

Maybe I’m not considered the norm as an agent though?! Good luck, and I would take Amanda’s advice

(“,) $$$ HoLdEnCoMmOdOrE $$$ (“,)

[holdencommodoreMember@holdencommodoreJoin Date: 2003Post Count: 88]

June 4, 2006 - 4:47 am

Would I be right in saying your ex-girlfriend’s father had been in the industry for a while, maybe a director, but probably not? Go into any agency and pick out someone who lives or has done business locally, relatively young or noticeably keen, and take them out for a coffee (not to bribe them or anything, and not for too long, because at that stage you’re not dollar-productive to them). Once you get chatting and you become a prospect, watch your phone – it should be ringing a few times a week!

(“,) $$$ HoLdEnCoMmOdOrE $$$ (“,)

[holdencommodoreMember@holdencommodoreJoin Date: 2003Post Count: 88]

June 4, 2006 - 4:42 am

The agent did the right thing, asked for your best offer, and you had every chance, just as the other buyer did, to put in you best offer. Maybe you’ll listen next time.

The agent would have presented those offers to the vendor, having said ‘this is the best we’ve got at the moment’ and the vendor gets the final say. They acted accordingly.

Basically, the agent gave the same right to every buyer that came to the property. It’s comments like yours that give agents a bad name when they clearly aren’t to blame.
(Yes I am an agent – and you get good and bad in every job, but if an agent isn’t to blame, don’t dish out your anger on them just because you lost fair and sqaure.)

(“,) $$$ HoLdEnCoMmOdOrE $$$ (“,)

[holdencommodoreMember@holdencommodoreJoin Date: 2003Post Count: 88]

June 4, 2006 - 4:13 am

Think about it though – you want to have a good fight with your agent – if they end up getting you to pay what they wanted, they’re good – and you know they’re going to get the best price for your property. They’re in sales – if they can’t sell themselves to you, then they’re not worth it.

(“,) $$$ HoLdEnCoMmOdOrE $$$ (“,)

[holdencommodoreMember@holdencommodoreJoin Date: 2003Post Count: 88]

June 4, 2006 - 4:10 am

Depends where it is – in Vic, comm’s are completely negotiable. if thats the case, write it on the authority that 1%+GST if tenant or any associated party buys it, or 2%+GST if any other party (something to that effect anyway – you call the shots)

(“,) $$$ HoLdEnCoMmOdOrE $$$ (“,)