(Well, we do but you’ll see what I mean shortly!)

Since the advent of social media, and in this case, I’m referring to Facebook, our news feeds are hijacked daily by numerous ‘sponsored’ posts not only from a myriad of real estate agents but also from those companies seeking to ‘clip the ticket’ by assuring you that, by using their website, the very ‘best’ agents in your area will throw themselves at your feet for the privilege of selling your home.

All of which can be confusing, monotonous and annoying – or potentially all 3 at once.

But for me, being in the industry, I encourage them all so that I can keep an eye on what various agents, private sale companies, and ticket clippers are offering the market by way of promises, assurances, special offers and other promotions.

But also of interest to me, as well as the posts themselves, are the variety of comments made on these posts – both positive and negative. Although, as I’m sure you can imagine, they’re usually negative.

One of the most common comments made is along these lines, “You don’t need an agent to sell your home – especially in this market where there are so many buyers looking. It’s so easy to do it yourself and you’ll save money.”

Guess what? It’s true! You don’t need an agent – it’s easy to sell a house yourself.

But not just in this market. It’s easy in any market. It’s easy in ALL markets.

Selling a property is easy.

However, and this is the very important bit, selling may be straightforward but getting the best price for a property in all markets is most certainly not.

It can be the difference between ‘Selling at any price’ and ‘Selling for a premium price’.

That’s where a good real estate agent comes in useful. Yes of course they’ll sell your home, but they should also get you the very best price for it in the process.

But of course, I’m bound to say that aren’t I? Where’s the proof?

You see, what many people won’t admit, and perhaps many don’t fully appreciate, is that a property doesn’t have a Recommended Retail Price (RRP). The value of your home is not fixed – it’s different for each potential buyer.

Often by tens of thousands of dollars. And sometimes a lot more.

Many items that you buy regularly at the supermarket certainly will have a RRP. Some of them you might find ‘on special’ occasionally and you’ll know you’ve got yourself a good deal.

But not on property. Never on property.

Funnily enough, it’s in this current market – the one where more people are saying that it’s so easy to sell a property – that the most money could potentially be lost.

In such a volatile market, where some extraordinary results are being seen, it’s imperative that you extract every last dollar from your sale as you’re probably going to have to buy in the very same market.

Imagine this: you’ve had your property appraised by 3 agents and the highest of these comes in at $750,000. You’re delighted with this, as it’s a lot more than you’d expected, and you decide to follow some advice and sell privately.

You quickly get an offer of $760,000 and happily accept it. How easy was that!

You achieved a higher price than all the agents suggested you would, and you’ve saved all that commission too. You walk away happy.

But now imagine that you listed it with an agent and that agent created the competition required for multiple offers to be made. Most in the mid $700,000s, as you’d really hoped for, but you also received one offer that the agent had negotiated that was closer to the mid $800,000s.

How would you feel about that? Over the moon I would expect!

If you’d sold privately then you could potentially have left more than $60,000 in your home for the new owners to enjoy and benefit from.

That would have been very, very generous of you indeed.

Well, you don’t have to imagine this as the above sale actually happened recently.

The vendors were excited at the prospect of achieving mid $700,000s but actually sold for closer to the mid $800,000s using our professional marketing & negotiation. This is happening on a regular basis.

You should ensure that your property is never ‘on special’ in any market.

A good agent will protect your home’s value, minimise any risk, and get you sold to a buyer prepared to pay that premium price.

Remember, selling a property is easy…

James Abell  | Licensed Marketing Consultant  | 021 843 235