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When it comes to selling your house privately, a bit of get up and go and Comfree know-how can mean big savings and a perfect result on your sale, according to first time private home seller Fraud Shokair.
Comfree - a company born out of Canada where an estimated 25 per cent of houses sell privately - provides vendors with advice, training, materials and sales tools to help them sell their house quickly and effectively.
Mr Shockair, who sold his family home using Comfree, said he was not only able to sell the house quickly but was also able to sell it at 97 per cent of his original asking price.
"I first came up with the idea of using Comfree when I saw one of their signs outside a house in Merrylands," Mr Shockair said.
"I have used real estate agents before, but I really liked the idea of selling your house privately so that you don't have to pay the commission fee to the real estate agent…it seems to me that real estate agents get paid a lot of money for what they do.
Comfree's service, which is provided for a $899 one off cost, includes information on legal requirements, training and ongoing support, a historical report of property sales in the area, "Open for Inspection" and "For Sale" signage, magazine and internet advertising, discounted legal and property evaluation, and photography.
"When I decided to go ahead with the idea - and found the process to be very simple - I just rang Comfree and they walked me through the program, gave me the materials and training and the rest was left up to me.
"I ended up getting $435,000 for the house and my original asking price was $450,000, so it was a good result."
Mr Shockair's house was on the market for six months, in that time he had thirty enquires, 10 percent of which made serious offers. |
Because he wasn't using an agent as a buffer between him and his potential buyer, he was left in a much better position to negotiate the selling price.
"A lot of people went through the house while it was on the market and I found that by being present at the inspections I was able to sort the genuine offers from the people who were just looking around," he said.
"It also allowed me to interact directly with potential buyers and I was able to give them a much more personnel and in-depth account of the house, that's something that I don't think real estate agents do well.
"Also I was able to make sure that the price being negotiated was the price I wanted, and not just the price the real estate agent thought it should be."
Mr Shockair said he felt that he had achieved a better result than using an agent as the asking price for a house was inflated by the commission and that this often resulted in a longer sale time and a lot more haggling is done between the buyer and vendor.
"In turn you probably find the house is eventually sold considerably under its real value," he said.
And while selling your home privately does take some leg work, Mr Shokair said that the benefits far outweighed the added work.
"There is a bit of work to do, taking phone calls, making appointments…but for me it wasn't too bad, and I was able to work around my schedule fairly easily"
"But at the end of the day, you're saving over twelve thousand dollars, so why wouldn't you do it? I am definitely going to use Comfree again."
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