There can be many reasons why people decide to sell their house privately. When I say “privately”, I don’t mean a private sale, as opposed to an auction - I mean selling without an agent.

It could be an attempt to save money on agent’s fee, especially if you’re selling because you’re downsizing for financial reasons (so every dollar counts), which is not uncommon in this recession. Or it could be lack of belief in the real estate agencies’ system, especially with people who were burnt once, who had an agent betray their trust and not live up to their expectations, or else… Many, many reasons.

If you’re asking yourself - what is it that agents do and I can’t do - well, a number of things:

First, they don’t have to answer all the difficult questions, they can say “I’m not sure” and that will be it. If you’re not keen to reveal the real reason why you’re selling, or have anything else to hide like a flaw in the house, then agents do a good job on “not knowing” things.

Second, they have access to a source of “traffic” (meaning potential buyers) that we, ordinary people, don’t have. They have their own network with a clientele and can streamline people who come asking for a particular house to yours, simply by saying “have you seen the house we just listed on Such And Such Street?”

Third, estate agents are the only ones with access to realestate.com.au, where they don’t accept private listings and your only chance to advertise on this website is via real estate agent. There are only two websites where advertising brings results, domain.com.au and realestate.com.au. Domain.com.au will let you advertise your home for $500 a month and Realestate.com.au will not, which means that your audience shrinks to 50% as compared to the agent’s.

You will find many other websites selling advertising space for real estate ads, but the sad truth is that only the first two in Google get 70% of the attention. If you do a Google search on “buy house”, or “buy home” or similar keyword, you will find that Domain and Realestate websites are always on top of everyone else. I can’t say that the rest don’t matter, but if I were to sell my house, I’d definitely go for the 70% rather than for 30% of the buyers.

What options are there for people who are reluctant to paying $5000 - $6000 for a promise of maximizing their profit? The answer will be in my next post - stay tuned!

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