Costs Involved in Selling Your Home

THE costs involved in selling a house can range from about a thousand dollars to tens of thousands of dollars, depending on whether you appoint an agent, the value of your property and the kind of marketing campaign you undertake.

For suburbs within 10 kilometres of the Melbourne CBD for example, an agency will typically charge a commission of between 1.5 per cent and 2.5 per cent of the home’s eventual sale price.

Some agents may also negotiate a variable commission in effect a bonus paid to the agency for any amount the property sells above an agreed amount.

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Sell or Extend?

ACCOUNTANTS say it can make financial sense to reinvest in your home, than buying another – particularly if you are in a good suburb.

Agents agree, saying the value of property goes up by more than the sum of its parts when owners reinvest in extensions, kitchen and bathroom renovations, paint and flooring.  Coupled with the fact the tax office does not impose capital gains tax on an owner’s main place of residence, investing in your own home sometimes make more sense than buying another.

An extension has the potential to add the greatest value to your home, particularly if it creates a larger open-plan living area or increases the number of bedrooms.

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Maximising Technology to Sell Your Home

YOU KNOW you are well and truly in a new century when selling your home requires a web designer and domain name administrator.

Many new campaigns – including that of the $18 million Melburnian penthouse, and Clinton Casey’s outgoing $21 million Avon Court mansion – incorporate movies and require the expertise of a production company!

The advent of gadgetry such as portable MP3 players, 3G-capable mobile phones and satellite navigation systems is changing the way real estate is bought, sold and leased in Australia. It’s not just about the internet or SMS alerts any more. Today, the traditional print media campaign is backed by podcasts and interactive TV.

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Methods of Buying and Selling a Home

DECIDING what method of sale to adopt to sell your home has become more difficult.

Here’s a list of sale methods and how they work.

PRIVATE SALE:

Private sales are most popular in middle and outer-ring suburbs, where competition for stock is generally less manic than for inner-city properties. Relatively straightforward, prospective purchasers are aware of a vendor’s asking price and make an offer based on that. As well as price, prospective purchasers can negotiate deposit and settlement terms, which often sweetens a deal.

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Tips to Spruce Your Home Before Sale

HAVE you done all you can to maximise the potential of the home you are selling?

Agents say that buyers are so often excited at the prospect of buying a new house that they don’t invest the time doing little things for their existing homes, which could reap up to tens of thousands of dollars.

The Sunday Age talks to industry insiders about how to make your property stand out from the rest during the campaign and on sale day.

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Online Videos, Websites and Other New Marketing Techniques

SO you’ve appointed a marketing agent and your house is presentable. Now, how do you make that translate to a higher sale price?

Several real estate agents have jumped on board a technological initiative: online videos, which they say generates strong interest for featured homes.

The videos enable real estate agents to show off a property in a very professional manner and to deliver an immense amount of information and detail very quickly, Melbourne agent Rocco Montanaro of Morrison Kleeman says.

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