The role of a real estate agent is to sell your home for the best price possible, as quickly as possible. Agents act in your own interests, delivering a range of crucial services from the early stages to the final settlement. These services include:
Since for most Australians, property is their single largest asset, it’s important to deal with an agent you know you can trust. When choosing an agent, remember to check whether they are a member of the respective Real Estate Institute in your state or territory. REI members have a commitment to service and professional standards, and are bound by strict codes of conduct. In addition, REI members have access to a wide range of professional development opportunities enabling them to enhance their skills and offer quality customer service.
Every agent you approach should provide you with a quote to sell your home, setting out a predicted selling price and the agent’s fee. Remember to ask for exactly what the commission buys you: some agents will offer newspaper advertising alone, while others may organise open house inspection days, letterbox drops and other effective forms of promotion. For this reason, the agent with the lowest commission fee is not necessarily the wisest economic option.
One decision you will need to make when selling your property is the type of agreement between you and the agency selling your home. There are several possible options:
One of the most important decisions you will make in the course of selling your home is to decide on its asking price, or if selling at auction, its reserve. If selling privately, your asking price will usually be treated by potential buyers as a starting point for negotiations, and you may end up accepting an offer significantly lower. It is important to set a price that reflects the full market value of your property, yet is realistic and remains attractive to buyers. To determine how much your property is worth, you must take into account location, size, age and extras. The next step is to find homes with features similar to yours and check how much they have sold for. Looking in real estate agents’ windows, or searching the past property sales databases on the Internet will give you a good indication of how much other home owners are asking for their properties in your area. But remember, these prices may not accurately reflect the price at which the homes are eventually sold. Remember that changes in the state of the economy and the property market may affect the value of your home. Ask your real estate agent how the sale of your home may be affected by:
Not confident that you can come up with a good estimate of how much your property is worth? Your first step should be to obtain a market opinion from a real estate agent. Real estate agents will inspect your home and offer an estimate of its worth based on a working knowledge of the local property market and recent sales prices. There is no obligation to engage the agent who gives the market opinion, and many who intend to sell property obtain more than one opinion.
Sometimes, agents may overestimate the price of your property. Make sure you get them to go over their analysis of the value of your home compared with what similar homes have been selling for.
From the moment your home is put on the market, potential purchasers will be driving by to look it over. Your agent will also arrange for prospective buyers to inspect your home at short notice, and you may decide to hold one or more Open For Inspection sessions, where your home is open to the general public.
If these prospective buyers fall in love with your home at first sight, they may be willing to negotiate immediately. It is therefore essential that you get your property looking as attractive as possible.
Renovating can be a great way to add value to your property. But it is important to keep in mind that the cost of renovations may not always be covered by the corresponding increase in sale price. Don’t ‘overcapitalise’, or spend a lot of money on expensive renovations - like building on a new bedroom or re-tiling the roof - which you won’t get back when the house is sold. Talk to your a registered valuer if you are unsure whether a major improvement, such as repainting the outside of your home, is worth your while. Some tips when preparing your home include:
Once your home has sold it means, a buyer has agreed to pay your advertised price for the property or you have negotiated a price. Your agent will guide you through this process. Before the home is legally sold to the buyer there are a few steps that take place: