“Being the owners, we could give an honest account of the property and answer people’s questions immediately”
Read Jeff and Kerri’s story on how they sold their Walcha property online, despite not having a computer and still learning how to use their new iPhone.
What services did PropertyNow provide that assisted you most?
Encouragement and motivation by Andrew to have a go at selling the property ourselves through PropertyNow. Andrew was friendly and supportive.
The initial help from support staff in uploading photos and information relevant to the property was also necessary (for non-tech. savy people like us).
We also appreciated advice from Andrew and PropertyNow support staff regarding changes to the list price over time. Specifically not dropping the price too much too soon. It potentially saved us from selling it for less.
The online enquiry system worked very well. Put us in contact with prospective purchasers via phone, email, or both. Very fast turn-around on this. Cast the web for buyers over a large distance. We had a serious enquiry from SA after an offer had been made on the property. The property was sold to a purchaser from Sydney.
For Sale signs on front and back of property also worked well. We had a large number of enquiries from locals as well as people passing through the town.
What was the hardest part for you personally. How did you overcome it?
Overall the process wasn’t difficult. We had some early issues uploading details because I was without a computer and not used to using my “new” iPhone. I overcame this by requesting and getting significant help from PropertyNow Support staff.
Not being an agent, I became annoyed with some locals making ridiculous offers of 100K (25%) lower than our advertised price. I pointed to the obvious invalidity in their comparison to other “like” properties in the area. My wife was also surprised by the number of people who seemed to show significant interest in the property but didn’t make an offer. They also kept silent about the work that still needed to be done to complete renovations to the property.
We overcame this by not worrying over it because we were confident in the property’s value and that it was continuing to get good advertising, especially beyond Walcha through PropertyNow.
What did you like most about the online sign-up and listing process?
The support from PropertyNow staff to facilitate this.
The ease of being able to change the ad to suit us over time.
Also, that prospective buyers came to us (from near and great distances). We didn’t have to chase them up. This saved us a lot of time and money and ultimately put us in touch with our buyer.
How did buyers react when they found out you were selling this way and not through an agent?
It wasn’t a problem at all. People seemed comfortable going through us directly. We organized and carried out several inspections with buyers.
Being the owners, we could give an honest account of the property and answer people’s questions immediately. This worked particularly well with the subsequent buyer.
Selling without an agent may have hindered people commenting on renovation needs because they were dealing directly with the owners. As time went on, we acknowledged work that remained to be done, stating that we would like people to make an offer taking account of these considerations. We also added “Offers Invited” next to our list price.
How did selling the property yourself make you feel? What do you intend to do now?
We felt great! It was empowering. Seeing interest in our property by so many people contacting us via online or advertising signs made us feel comfortable that our property would sell. We were very pleased with the choice we had made to advertise through PropertyNow. We were able to get a more personal connection with people who enquired about the property. This meant a lot to us because we cared about the property and our neighbours. We are now going to take a break and do some traveling.