Selling your house privately

[Byrd]

I don't think there is enough houses being sold to accommodate more agents. that is why not everyone is doing it.

It is my understanding the the lawyers does all the hard work? That is how it worked with my house buying experience.

Hahaha - Lawyers do all the hard work. Hahahaha

[kamikazi]

Hahaha - Lawyers do all the hard work. Hahahaha

+1 rofl 

[tangmonster]

What I mean is they do all the admin of payments and deeds office stuff. Am i correct to say this? the agent does nothing further

[Atjan]

Lets say you call an agent, you want to sell your house at Rx. He puts the phone down and someone walks in off the street without seeing any ads etc. Wants to buy a house for Rx. He takes the person to your house, they like it, sign the contract and off to the lawyers. Yes, lots of money for little effort. In reality though, a good agent will assist you with determining a price, set up ads which he pays for, contact prospective buyers, make appointments and take at least 5  to your house before 1 is interested. In many cases he will not make the sale in about 4 months of being in your 'employment'.They will negotiate on your behalf, collect all the relavent docs from you and the buyer and chase the transfer process through. All the while acting as middle man between all parties involved. It takes setting up shop and carrying expenses with little hope of income for the first 6 months of work. Thats why more people are not cheerily running around showing houses on weekends and after hours.

[tangmonster]

Agreed

It takes a long time. An agent has to get a large amount of money for each house he sells a house. I am questioning the amount he is doing for the loss you will be making on selling your house

1) I saw the advert for our house in thegumtree (free advertising)
2) He said the owners wanted RX I said OK I want to start at x-R50000 , He said there is no way ,I must start at Rx-R30000 , I said lets start with Rx-R50000
    the owners went onetime for Rx-R40000
3) He drives to owner Owners signed a contract to agree with cost and rental agreement
4) he drives to me and i sign contract
6) i go to bank and apply for loan , I get this within 2 weeks
7) Everything goes to laywers I have not spoken 1 word with agent. He phoned to ask if we got the keys from the owners  when we moved in on 30 December and i said yes ,thanks



I am sure there are instances where the agent does a little more , but i'm saying 5.5% for placing an add on gumtree , meeting prospecting buyers and showing them the house
driving back and fourth a few times with some paperwork to get signed  , and then leaving the rest to the lawyers  ....   really??

Luckily I was the buyer so I don't care.



I am also one of those guys who don't use dealers when i buy a vehicle because i refuse to pay R145k for a car that is worth R120k.
I am willing to deal with getting the owner to take the car through to Decra AA for thorough road worthy and paying R150 for number plates and spend 20 minutes to register the vehicle and organizing my own financing.

[Rodney_gold]

Property sales are filled with obstacles and potholes and scamsters and suchlike , 1 may go smooth but the next might go awry - beware - this is not for the faint hearted in these times.

[Daniel Weston]

http://www.privateproperty.co.za/katdoringplace-the-reeds-m17791.htm

So here is the link to our property! I have asked a number of agents to help sell it and since it was listed on Tuesday we have had 4 couples to visit with one couple very excited so hold thumbs for us!

If you know of someone looking for property in our area and you introduce them, I will gladly cut you a finders fee

Obviously on PM only so we don't engage in 'price discussions' openly hah hah

[audiomuze]

Bathrooms and kitchens sell houses - no pics?

[Daniel Weston]

There is a kitchen photo and one of the en-suite bathroom?

[audiomuze]

aah, see it now - didnt show up on the iphone

[Daniel Weston]

Bloody Apple
PP also has a 12 photo max policy so we have tried to choose a bit from everywhere and to be honest, in my house its the living areas and the garden that should bring in the punters! We also have a fairly unique sun lounge that has a full roof skylight and was one of the reasons we purchased this home!

[kamikazi]

Nice photos and a very nice house!

Good you took your own photos.. We ended up doing the same with our place! I had a good chuckle about the photos the first estate agent posted of our house and placed in an ad.. Man, were those horrific! Horribly blurry and completely random stuff, you would have had no idea what the house looked like...

Bloody hell if your livelihood depended on good advertising and photos to sell a house you might as well bother to figure out how to do that properly.. Seriously most estate agents are in dire need of photography courses and should have a clause in their employment agreements to spend at least more than R600 on a decent digital camera! Reminds me of car salesmen who can't tell you engine power figures or the number of airbags on the car they want to sell to you... WTH

[Byrd]

What I mean is they do all the admin of payments and deeds office stuff. Am i correct to say this? the agent does nothing further

Sorry bit of a joke. An acquaintance of mine works for a conveyancer. She is the secretary and she does most of the actual work. The "lawyer" spends most of his days on the golf course. This is sadly a true state of affairs.