Many people think that selling a house is quick and easy. Just put up a For Sale sign outside your home and then the offers will come pouring in. The reality, however is very different!
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A patient is willing to pay a much higher fee to a surgeon who has years and years of specialist experience, than they would to a GP whose knowledge and experience in this specialised field is limited!”
I used to be one of these people. Back in the day I had a flat that I was living in while I was still a student. I thought that I could quickly just sell my flat on my own without an agent’s help, and in turn save some money on agent’s fees. Boy was I proven wrong! My flat sat on the market for 6 months without even one viewing. I received a handful of calls but no one even bothered to turn up. I had put a For Sale sign in the window and told some mates about it thinking that it would be an easy sale. This was the full extent of my amazing “marketing”.
Finally, I decided to get hold of an agent. The agent came around and then gave me a free valuation after he left. We decided on the fee and he said he would start marketing it within a few days. Less than a month later it was sold. Yes, it cost me money, but it was a small price to pay to get it off my hands so soon.
So what do estate agents do for their fee?
First and foremost they market your property. They will come and take professional photographs (or get a professional photographer to do so) of your property. Photos are vitally important as human beings are visual creatures. Photographs taken on a Smartphone or a small digital camera do not do justice to even the most modest property. If your photos are not taken professionally then I would employ a different agent.
They will then load your property with the photos and description onto the various online portals, newspapers, local advertisements and social media. I am sure at this stage you are saying to yourself… that is easy I can do that. What you don’t realise is the cost and time involved in doing all this.
Sellers also forget that when they employ an agent and agree to a professional fee, they are tapping into years of experience and an enormous database of buyers and clients which has taken many years and lots of money to develop. Paying a commission to an experienced and active agent also means you will be plugged into an extensive database of contacts and active buyers, both locally and internationally, which means the property will be marketed not just locally, but also internationally.
Let’s look at the analogy of the patient and the doctor. A patient is willing to pay a much higher fee to a surgeon who has years and years of specialist experience, than they would to a GP whose knowledge and experience in this specialised field is limited.
Because of their expertise, estate agents will have developed the skills of selling and negotiating over time. They are polished in their skills of negotiating and re-negotiating on your behalf which can add lots of extra rands to your pocket.
An experienced estate agent is backed by a wealth of information about the housing market, both their own recent sales prices, competitors’ sales prices, and the statistics offered to estate agents on the online portals. Estate agents live and breathe houses every day, which makes them well-equipped to know the “do’s and don’ts” like the back of their hand. Estate agents are required to continuously improve their skills via estate agency seminars and briefing sessions.
Estate agents are experts in the preparation of their sales particulars, and a DIY approach could put off a lot of serious buyers or make others think ‘where else in the house has the homeowner cut costs’. Estate agents invest heavily in maximising the potential reach of their audience to give them, and you, the best possible chance of finding the right buyer for your property at the best possible sale price, and to sell the property as quickly and efficiently as possible.
If you are still unsure of whether or not to use the services of an estate agent, send me an email and then we can discuss this further.