The contract is now unconditional and we have the balance of the deposit sitting in my conveyancer's Trust Account. As soon as I find a new place we'll move out and bring the settlement forward. We have a 60-day settlement period, so there should be plenty of time.
It took me just over a month. The total cost to me of selling my apartment was under $400, including advertising, the For Sale sign and an ad for which I paid $15. Conveyancing was for a fixed fee of $750 (plus disbursements).
If I had paid an agent a commission (assuming they would have worked hard and got my price for me) I would have paid:
At 2% - $9,200;
At 3% - $13,800.
So I have saved somewhere between roughly $9,000 to $13,500. That money is far better in my pocket than some bastard agent's. And that is what this exercise was all about.
***
I saw an ad by a Real Estate Agent in a local paper yesterday. There were pictures of about a dozen properties with "Sold" splashed across each picture, diagonally in large letters. He proudly stated that he has sold over $11 million worth of property recently, and was hungry for more.
At a rate of commission of 2% (which would be the minimum, I would imagine), that is a cool $220,000 that he made; even if "recently" was the last 4 months (although I think it would have been the last 2 months), that is very, very good money.
What makes me sick is that not only is this easy work, this prick probably undersold the properties at the expense of the vendors.
Surely that $220,000 would have been better off in the pockets of vendors (and buyers) rather than that sleazy bastard Real Estate Agent.
I hope people start going away from agents and selling properties privately. There is nothing to it, really. I've done it. Anybody can do it. There is no law requiring you to go through an agent. You just need a conveyancer or lawyer and to have the contract ready prior to showing your property to potential buyers.
Should you decide to sell properties yourself, good luck. If you still go through an agent after reading my blog, just remember - you are pissing thousands of dollars away.
© All Rights Reserved
