PHOTO: You’ll need to be ready to juggle a lot of things at once – including marketing and negotiation – on top of your usual responsibilities.
I’m a self-employed contractor and my work usually tails off a bit over the summer months (which is handy when it comes to school holidays childcare, but a bit tough financially sometimes). We are planning to put our place on the market early in the new year and I’m thinking about using my time to sell it myself rather than using a real estate agent. It would give me something to do and save us money on the commission. My wife is dubious but I’m confident that I can do it. Is there anything special I need to know?
Selling a property is easy, right? All you need to do is stick a “for sale” sign out front, put a few photos online and hold a couple of open homes. Job done! Why wouldn’t you do it yourself?
The fact that private sales made up just 10 per cent of all residential property sales in New Zealand in the year to July (down from 13 per cent in 2017 and 17 per cent in 2014) might be a clue that it’s not as simple and straightforward as you might think. Research by the industry membership organisation Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ) found that the median price for properties sold by real estate agents was 10.9 per cent higher than private sales.
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