No More Estate Agent Fees

Follow a few simple guidelines, and marketing your own home can be easy. And it will save you thousands.

The recent property boom has a lot of people thinking of selling. Unfortunately, the costs of selling can really eat into your profit. There's nothing we can do about stamp duty, but one cost we can avoid is real estate agent fees. By selling your house yourself rather than paying a real estate agent, you can save you around $20,000 on a $500,000 sale.

So what's involved in a do-it-yourself sale? The two main ingredients are time and advertising. A quality ad and a couple of hours each week fielding phone calls and managing inspections can mean the difference between a healthy profit and disappointment.

Many people are intimidated by the marketing aspect of selling their home. But there's really not that much to it. You just need to write a description of your property, organise photography, and place an ad. Simple!

Perhaps the most important thing to remember when organising your own sale is you're not selling a building - you're selling a home and a lifestyle. Here are 10 Tricks of the trade to get you started?

1) Jot down your favourite spots in the house and what you like to do in them.

2) List your favourite local restaurants, cafes, and beaches - especially those in walking distance.

3) Note any pleasant fragrances - plants like jasmine and gardenia, or evening sea breezes.

4) Mention your favourite spot for a morning coffee, an afternoon snooze, or an evening wine.

5) Write about 150 words.

6) Don't include cars, garbage bins, or the road in your photos.

7) Tidy your house and remove any clutter before taking inside shots.

8) Capture colour both inside and out, but keep it simple.

9) Take digital photos and save to CD so you won't need a bureau for scanning and production.

10) Invest in a prominent newspaper ad and make use of the Internet.

Even if you don't feel up to the challenge of creating a masterpiece ad, you can employ the services of a professional for far less than the cost of a real estate agent. A professional copywriter will write an engaging description for as little as $250. Professional photographers do real estate all the time. Neville Prosser can give you all the captivating photos you need for just $330. You can get a glossy 1/8 page ad in the Central Coast Express Advocate for $628 or a ½ page ad $2514. And to advertise online at Domain.com.au will only cost you $165 for a full month.

Whether you do all the creative work yourself or employ a professional, you'll still save thousands. What's more, with great advertising, you'll interest more potential buyers and maybe even sell your house for more.

The most important thing to remember at every step along the way is? Average advertising conveys a building. Quality advertising conveys a home.

About The Author

* Glenn Murray is an SEO copywriter and Article Submission Specialist. He is a director of PublishHub and also of copywriting studio Divine Write. He can be contacted on Sydney +612 4334 6222 or at glenn@divinewrite.com. Visit http://www.divinewrite.com or http://www.publishhub.com for further details, more FREE articles, or to purchase his e-book, 'SEO Secrets'.

More than 40 states signed onto a proposed $25-billion deal with major mortgage servicers over faulty foreclosure practices. New York, Nevada and Delaware joined California in holding out for better terms.

More than 40 states signed onto a proposed $25-billion settlement with major mortgage servicers over faulty foreclosure procedures, but California, New York and other key states were still not among them.

California has until Monday to share in a multi-state deal with banks to obtain mortgage relief and reforms. Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris, who walked away from talks last year, says the door remains open.

With a Monday deadline at hand, California officials have resumed direct talks with the Obama administration about joining a multibillion-dollar, multi-state mortgage settlement with the nation's largest banks, a source said Sunday.

The talk show host pays $12 million for the 4,088-square-foot house with four bedrooms and four bathrooms. The ocean-view home sits on 1.26 bluff-top acres with beach access.

In one of the more talked-about transactions in town, actors Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have sold their Malibu beach house to daytime host and comedian Ellen De Generes for $12 million.

The four-bedroom, five-bathroom house built in 1920 for industrialist James Wigmore lists for $2,875,000.

A decorative cast stone entrance opens to this restored Spanish Colonial Revival-style house in Pasadena's South Orange Grove area. Built in 1920 for industrialist James Wigmore, the house retains such original details as coffered wood ceilings and arched doorways.

They don't believe they can sell their property for what it's worth, so they're spending money on making their homes more comfortable.

Do you fit any of these descriptions?

A biennial research report by the National Assn. of Realtors indicates that a handful of real estate agents and brokers and their clients either don't know the law or don't care to follow it.

When it comes to lawsuits, real estate agents and brokers tangle mostly among themselves.

The president aims to help about 3.5 million people with good credit who are unable to refinance at historically low rates because their homes are worth less than their mortgages.

 

The White House hopes to help millions of homeowners lower their monthly mortgage bill with a $5 billion to $10 billion plan to set up a streamlined refinancing program for people who are current on their payments.

The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller index of 20 large U.S. cities fell 1.3% in November from October as foreclosures continue to drag down the housing market.

Three straight months of home-price declines in the biggest U.S. cities showed that foreclosures remain a significant drag on a housing market that is entering its fifth year of deterioration.

L.A. Clipper Chris Paul may be quick down the court, but he moves pretty fast when it comes to buying multimillion-dollar real estate too.