In Stuff
"On December 15, the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand released analysis showing that on average, sellers who use a real estate agent can expect 15 per cent more than those who sell their house privately."

“A really good sales person will find more buyers and market it in such a way that will generate the most competitions and therefore drive the best sale price. So, I’m unsurprised by REINZ’s figures.”

Does this mean that If I want a bargain, to look for private sales? Not true- I recall that the private ads in Ruapehu District were .....simply higher.
Better chance of a bargain in mortgagee sales? Don't know- the few that I have come across is buy "as is where is" with no viewing/inspection.

aklreels - 2020-12-21 13:51:00

Flawed analysis. Not worth wasting brain cells on this one.

sparkychap - 2020-12-21 13:54:00

FSBO's would be a great place to start if you are looking for a deal but remember price is only one term in the sale and purchase of property. Plenty of vendors will leave money on the table if the other aspects of the agreement suit them.

superdave0_13 - 2020-12-21 14:14:00

Yep, used to be like that 20-25 years ago . House got listed with an agency did not sell it, then another one , and before you knew it, every agent in the hood had it listed, few month later usually all signs got roped out and a private sale sign went up .... and month later it showed up in the stats ( and you wondered why on earth did I not buy it at that price myself ???????. Nothing wrong with selling privately if you are good at haggling over a price or know how to get the most out of a buyer , on the other side not many agents are good at it either

argentum47 - 2020-12-21 15:01:00

Saw that, did not take long to figure it.

Bear in mind the use of average.

High end properties are much more likely to use an agency. Low end properties, not so much. Many low end ones may well be word of mouth.

Given that, I would expect more than 15% difference in the averages. Maybe own goal, higher end ones would also benefit from a private sale.

tony9 - 2020-12-21 18:42:00

sparkychap wrote:

Flawed analysis. Not worth wasting brain cells on this one.

Agreed.

johnston - 2020-12-21 19:12:00

Well, they would say that, wouldn't they? How can you analyze hypothetical situations? What was the control group?
The 'potential' return could have been even higher if agents lowered their commission.

amasser - 2020-12-22 08:52:00

An analysis conducted and funded by a real estate institute finds that it's better to use a real estate.

mone - 2020-12-23 16:39:00

A snippet from one News
For Xxxx, selling her house without a real estate agent was a bigger job than she expected.

“There are people who would ring in the middle of the night, come to your door and ask if they can come through and look at the house… people that waste your time,” Xxxx told 1 NEWS.

And when it came to negotiating a price, she said it was difficult to say no.

“It's hard telling people your offer isn’t quite good enough, you felt like you were letting down people - a lot more personal than an agent.

But, Xxxx says, the savings were significant.

“I did save around $30,000 which is huge, especially in this market."

aklreels - 2021-01-25 08:30:00

aklreels wrote:

“I did save around $30,000 which is huge, especially in this market."

Or so she thinks.

sparkychap - 2021-01-25 08:41:00

Sounds like RE talk.

masturbidder - 2021-01-25 09:19:00

aklreels wrote:

In Stuff
"On December 15, the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand released analysis showing that on average, sellers who use a real estate agent can expect 15 per cent more than those who sell their house privately."

“A really good sales person will find more buyers and market it in such a way that will generate the most competitions and therefore drive the best sale price. So, I’m unsurprised by REINZ’s figures.”

Does this mean that If I want a bargain, to look for private sales? Not true- I recall that the private ads in Ruapehu District were .....simply higher.
Better chance of a bargain in mortgagee sales? Don't know- the few that I have come across is buy "as is where is" with no viewing/inspection.

i dont know how anyone can prove using an agent is going to get them a better price , how could you quantify it? its not scientific ,its a subjective opinion.

using an agent immediately puts you on the backfoot , you lose 3 or 4 % with commission .

there is only one person who has your best interests at heart - you , rejecting an early offer for the possibility of a slightly higher one 6 weeks down the track is not in an agents best interests , this is far more likely to happen with a private sale IMO

agree that not everyone should sell their own house , but all it needs is a good dose of common sense - the lawyer does the rest

Edited by bergkamp at 10:59 am, Mon 25 Jan

bergkamp - 2021-01-25 10:57:00

bergkamp wrote:

but all it needs is a good dose of common sense - the lawyer does the rest

Common sense is a myth. You don't know what you don't know.

I know of a Uni lecturer who had a small oil fire in her fry pan. Common sense says put a pot lid over it and turn the element off. She threw a jug of water over it, moving the now burning oil up the wallpaper and setting it on fire.

sw20 - 2021-01-25 11:19:00

I know of 2 people who have successfully sold their properties privately here in Christchurch and got more than what they wanted. Only spent about $2000 on Lawyers fees.

turbogtx - 2021-01-25 11:24:00

mone wrote:

An analysis conducted and funded by a real estate institute finds that it's better to use a real estate.

A bit like cell phone companies paying researchers who find no health risk of cell towers and cell phone use.

committed - 2021-01-25 11:30:00

aklreels wrote:

A snippet from one News
For Xxxx, selling her house without a real estate agent was a bigger job than she expected.

“There are people who would ring in the middle of the night, come to your door and ask if they can come through and look at the house… people that waste your time,” Xxxx told 1 NEWS.

And when it came to negotiating a price, she said it was difficult to say no.

“It's hard telling people your offer isn’t quite good enough, you felt like you were letting down people - a lot more personal than an agent.

But, Xxxx says, the savings were significant.

“I did save around $30,000 which is huge, especially in this market."

Well, she doesn't know how much she saved given that an agent didn't sell it. Of course, she may have been sleep deprived from all those buyers ringing while she was trying to sleep. Being sleep deprived may have affected her ability to negotiate.

committed - 2021-01-25 11:37:00

The member deleted this message.

committed - 2021-01-25 11:37:00

There are ways one could do a genuine comparison - if you had two basically identical apartments for sale in the same block (on the same side of the block, same floor, etc) and one was sold by an agent and the other by private sale, at the same time, that would be a pretty good indication.
Except the problem there would be that the private seller would likely benefit from the exposure to people who came to look at the other place and saw the private sale sign up.
A perfect study would see a bunch of people recruited who were planning to sell their properties, have all the properties valued, then randomly assign some to private sale and some to agent sale, and see which group on average got a higher sales price compared to pre-sale valuation, compared with the other group.

luteba - 2021-01-25 11:51:00

luteba wrote:

Except the problem there would be that the private seller would likely benefit from the exposure to people who came to look at the other place and saw the private sale sign up.

True, but a prospective buyer of the property being sold privately might say to the seller that they are "saving" commission, so the buyer factors that into their offer.

committed - 2021-01-25 12:04:00

committed wrote:

True, but a prospective buyer of the property being sold privately might say to the seller that they are "saving" commission, so the buyer factors that into their offer.

Yes this is what is generally the tact potential buyer take... but really what the seller does with the proceeds of the sale are of no business of the buyer.. in a buoyant, willing seller, willing buyer market a fair buying price should be indepenant from the sellers financial position. Nobody suggests that you should offer less for a property because the seller does not have a mortgage to pay off from the proceeds !!

onl_148 - 2021-01-25 12:31:00

onl_148 wrote:

Yes this is what is generally the tact potential buyer take... but really what the seller does with the proceeds of the sale are of no business of the buyer.. in a buoyant, willing seller, willing buyer market a fair buying price should be indepenant from the sellers financial position. Nobody suggests that you should offer less for a property because the seller does not have a mortgage to pay off from the proceeds !!

But the buyer is trying to purchase a property for as little as possible. And given that the private seller isn't paying fees, an astute buyer will remind the seller of that fact.

committed - 2021-01-25 15:33:00

committed wrote:

But the buyer is trying to purchase a property for as little as possible. And given that the private seller isn't paying fees, an astute buyer will remind the seller of that fact.

And an astute vendor will tell the buyer that if they were buying elsewhere they'd be paying the market price as well.

sparkychap - 2021-01-25 16:58:00

luteba wrote:

There are ways one could do a genuine comparison - if you had two basically identical apartments for sale in the same block (on the same side of the block, same floor, etc) and one was sold by an agent and the other by private sale, at the same time, that would be a pretty good indication.
Except the problem there would be that the private seller would likely benefit from the exposure to people who came to look at the other place and saw the private sale sign up.
A perfect study would see a bunch of people recruited who were planning to sell their properties, have all the properties valued, then randomly assign some to private sale and some to agent sale, and see which group on average got a higher sales price compared to pre-sale valuation, compared with the other group.

Not sure you could have a perfect study, as you have natural variation of valuations to start with, differering (and incorrect perceptions of the value of the property by the vendor as well as differing capability.

sparkychap - 2021-01-25 17:08:00

Friend just sold her 3 bedroom in Sandringham (?) for $2,332,000 by auction.
She was quite happy to sell it to us a few weeks earlier for $1.75m

So, in this case, auction worked best.

About $100k in fees!

smallwoods - 2021-01-25 17:08:00