SELLING YOUR HOUSE? NAME THE 5 MOST IMPORTANT THINGS TO MAX YR PRICE

[adrianh]

...are you still at it...dude, you need to eat a Prozac...and I am not your son...

[Doug B]

sorry sun,haha

[Justloadit]

DECKS....how many times do we see flaky decks,off coloured where the sun has begun to effect the varnish? Get some temp labour,give it a light sand,buy some decent deck varnish,hire a painter and you will be amazed at the difference it makes both to your house and it's value.

Doing all this maintenance, then why sell the house, just keep it, it's looking damn good.

[Nigel Hamilton]

Not going to get involved in this particular argument, however will tell you my experience a few years back.

We decided to sell ours and the agent commission i think was 6% To complicate matters though was that we were also looking to buy a new one. The purchase of any house was conditional on the sale of ours. We gave the mandate to one estate agent to do both.

We also were trying to get a 10% premium on the value of our house!

As you can imagine, the sale of our house took 6 months. I would say that the estate agent must have held at least 12 show days, and had personally showed it to 50 couples, before we had any offers. Most were below what we wanted. In addition we were also looking.... unfortunately the first 2 we liked were sold before we could sell ours, and not too many were interested in the deals we were making.

The estate agent also advertised our house in all the local mags, the free sites, newspapers etc for the entire 6 months at her cost.

She also had to collate our likes/dislikes/budget/location etc then wade through who has th mandates, do a deal maybe etc etc, then go and see the house..decide for herself if she would waste our time or not, and if she thought it fitted our parameters she would then have to arrange an appointment between all the parties..then show us the house. She showed us around 15-20 houses over a 6 month period.

Eveentually she got us the price we wanted on our house(at the 10% premium) we... within a week of accepting an offer, she showed us a house we loved..she didn't hold the mandate so did a discounted deal with the other agent.

The deals were done, she arranged the lawyers, the timing between deals..the flow of money etc etc etc.

Was very complicated, we worked out she must have spent over R20k on advertising alone, never mind the petrol and time it took for her to get this all right...working i would say every weekend. And we were only 1 of her clients!

Could we have done this ourselves..sure, but if i take into account what i charge for my own time, as well the immense learning curve and leg-work it would have entailed..i would never have done it..take into account we got a 10% premium by getting the right agent, who knew what they were doing, advertised correctly...so didn't cost us a cent, actually made an extra 4%

So my experience tells me, most estate agents are worth it.

If you have had a bad experience with one, don't lump all of them into the same basket. Same as a dentist, lawyer etc etc

[adrianh]

So my experience tells me, most estate agents are worth it.

If you have had a bad experience with one, don't lump all of them into the same basket. Same as a dentist, lawyer etc etc

But the converse is also true:

If you have had a GOOD experience with ONE, don't lump all of them into the same basket. Same as a dentist, lawyer etc etc

Look, the point is this: Of course there are good people and bad people in any industry. How can one seperate the good people from the bad people up front without asking lots of questions? Yes, sometimes the questions are prevocative, but I would far rather discuss the questions in an open forum than find out R2mil down the line that my brand new second hand house has all sorts of issues that nobody takes responsibility for.

[Nigel Hamilton]

But the converse is also true:

If you have had a GOOD experience with ONE, don't lump all of them into the same basket. Same as a dentist, lawyer etc etc

Look, the point is this: Of course there are good people and bad people in any industry. How can one seperate the good people from the bad people up front without asking lots of questions? Yes, sometimes the questions are prevocative, but I would far rather discuss the questions in an open forum than find out R2mil down the line that my brand new second hand house has all sorts of issues that nobody takes responsibility for.

I agree with you 100%

It all depends if your glass is half empty or half full

In my experience the guy who's glass is half full always attracts the good ones

[adrianh]

If only it were true ;-)

[Doug B]

Enjoy

[Doug B]

bye

[IanF]

Doug
This could be a keeper of a thread. I am in the process of doing neglected maintenance of my house as my youngest daughter is in her final year of varsity and will probably move out within 2-3 years. Then the house will be too big for 2 people. My own plan is to fix up all the little things and chop down some overgrown trees, then call in agent once the house looks good. So this thread could help.
Adrian does not believe agents earn their keep, accept that move on, and rather prove to the rest of us how agents earn their keep.

[samanthaflax02]

Firstly, De-Personalize & De-clutter your home
Rearrange Bedroom Closets and Kitchen Cabinets.
Remove/Replace Favorite Items

[Phil Cooper]

Agent says a newly painter or fresh exterior worth a lot.

It is the first impression.

[samanthaflax02]

Home Selling on a Budget Starts With the Exterior. Keep your exterior clean
Remove Excess Clutter and Furniture
Thoroughly Clean the House Before Selling
Updating the Kitchen on a Budget
Painting the Interior