How to sell your own house in New Zealand without Real Estate Agents.

If you sold your house without real estate agent's involved you could save over $20,000. All you need is a little bit of time. This is a step by step guide that we hope makes this process easier.

Set Your Price

Set the price by attending open homes in the area then find out how much they sold for.

A couple of website's that you can visit to find out some information for you to work out your price are;

http://www.qv.co.nz/valuations/valuationtypes/councilratingvalues.htm

https://www.property-guru.co.nz/gurux/

Once you have worked out your price the best place to list your property is on Trademe at http://www.trademe.co.nz

Presentation of you house

When taking photos of the house make sure you use a wide angle lens camera

Make sure you have removed all clutter

Put a nice professional sign outside,  ask what you local sign writer can provide. 

The Complete Idiots Guide to Staging Your Home to Sell

Open Home Time

Have a few open homes and keep them close together.

Have a book to record the name and numbers of open home attendees as they arrive beside a bowl of lollies.

Make every part of your house clean and tidy including all the cupboards that will be opened and closed.

Clean, polish and tidy (use citrus based cleaner for a fresh clean smell).

De clutter, de clutter and de clutter.

Make sure the house is bright. Take out all the energy saving light bulbs and put in normal 100 watt bulbs.

Choose some relaxing music the kind of you would expect to hear at a popular cafe.  Maybe some mid tempo, Classical, jazz, or easy listening. Choose music where the vocals don't feature too strongly.

Don't have appliances like washing machines or dishwashers going and defiantly remove dehumidifiers

Makes sure you have no squeaky doors or windows that whistle in the wind.

The house has been well aired; it must have no cooking smells

One good idea for that fresh baking smell without being overpowering is to sprinkle a teaspoon of cinnamon on a baking tray and heat it in the oven for ten minutes prior to the open home.

Fresh flowers are always good but choose lightly scented flowers that appeal to mainly sight rather than to smell

If you have pets make sure they are away for the time and that all evidence of them in the house is hidden, all hairs removed and odours removed. They may be well loved family pets but your house must appeal to both pet owners and non-pet owners.

When people leave let them have a pack with everything there is to know about the property. (Rates, CV, insulation, features, heating, renovation work) and /or an independent report about the house.

On a more negative note remember your insurance will not cover the theft of anything by anyone invited into your home, which includes open homes.

The Sale

Once you have negotiated a price and agreed verbally on price time to do the paperwork.

You can either fill out the sale and purchase agreements yourself by purchasing two forms from the Auckland Law Society

You will need your certificate of title, the offer and any conditions, plus initials next to every entry. 

 Here is the link to purchase contracts.

http://www.adls.org.nz/resources/product?Category=1a43d7a2-af29-4836-b374-47d6f9da0e5f

Or if things get a bit tricky you could let your lawyer to act as your real estate agent and check over the contract that has been written up by the purchaser,  or ask the purchaser to have their solicitor draw up an offer, and get it forwarded to your solicitor. Don't sign anything unless you are sure what you are signing.

The whole process should cost you under $2000 including lawyer fees.

Book to Help

How to Sell Your Home in any Market: 6 Reasons Why Your House isn't Selling and What to do to Fix Them by Loren Keim. Loren is one of America's top real estate professionals with over twenty-five years of experience, she explains these six mistakes and challenges in detail and teaches you how to avoid making them. 

This is a guide only with suggestions, you may have better ideas or there maybe things we have missed, please let us know.