# General Business Category > General Business Forum >  SELLING YOUR HOUSE? NAME THE 5 MOST IMPORTANT THINGS TO MAX YR PRICE

## Doug B

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## adrianh

The headline should read:
*Name the 5 most important things to maximize your PROFIT*

1. DONT EVER USE AN AGENT.
2. DONT EVER USE AN AGENT.
3. DONT EVER USE AN AGENT.
4. DONT EVER USE AN AGENT.
5. DONT EVER USE AN AGENT.

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tec0 (03-Apr-12)

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## Doug B

:Zzzzz:  :Zzzzz:  :Zzzzz:  :Zzzzz:  :Zzzzz:  :Zzzzz:  forgive him for he sleeeeeeep...th.Love to see you Adrian taking people through your house while they are ripping it apart with snide comments LMAO..never pays to be too sensitive,lol

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## Doug B

You should build your house as well Adrian,but dont use labour,only you,lol, :Helpsmilie:  (To *MAX* profits), then sell it yourself an "hey presto" our man is on the QE2 on a world cruise! :Rockon:    sound thinking,especially with the Consumer Act   HAHA

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## IanF

first impressions, get entrance looking spectacular!

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## Petrichor

First impressions are 70% of the sale...
1) a well maintained and neat front garden,
2) Then the entrance, kitchen, and living room should be neat and tidy, with nice furniture. 
3) Decent cupboards in the bedroom lastly

If the above appeals to the prospective buyer, small issues elsewhere may be overlooked by them.

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## tec0

Sorry I do agree with adrianh  :Rofl: 

Correct me if I am wrong: 

1> Get your home in a good condition this will include:
a> Get your home inspected by a certified electrical company. 
b> Get your home inspected by a plumber.
c> Get your home inspected for anything else that comes to mind the more the better. 

All these inspections will help you when something goes wrong and the new owners want to sue you for damages.  :Yikes: 

2> the outside appearance must be immaculate this will include:
a> small but manageable garden
b> a clean driveway
c> a sprinkler system "working one"
d> automated gates and so on 

3> Get your home evaluated by more than one entity and correct any problems they might have spotted.  :Huh: 

4> Shop around and see how much other homes have sold for in the aria and have a look at them. 

5> Keep it clean (very important)  :Wink:

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## adrianh

@Doug - so tell me, exactly what does an agent do to earn a fat commission? 
How much comm. do estate agents make these days; say 5% - So they get R50k on a R1mil house - no training, no skill, nothing, just talking a bit of rubbish.

Estate agents, insurance salesmen and secondhand car dealers fall in the same category in my opinion, they do squat except talk rubbish and then get paid. I would have a lot more regard for the entire lot if they were held liable in the event of a deal turning out bad.

BTW: I couldn't give a toss about people making snide remarks about my house, my house is simply an asset any other, it holds no personal value.

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## Doug B

No need to be so huffy Adrian!  :Mad:  A  :Mad:  N  :Mad:  G  :Mad:  E  :Mad:  R.........ISSUES,phew its getting hot here:  To the guys who have answered without the venom,all are right, I remember a house that was beautifully decorated,the buyers bought the decoration,failing to see through the facade. When all the furniture was out they were pretty dissapointed (wasn't me Adrian,promise  :Cool:  )so my point is there is no doubt a tastefully decorated house is a big help as first impresssions opens the buyer up to other nice features the house may have.  

There are plenty more tips and aids, and in today's market ALL the boxes must be ticked for the house to sell ~we all know money is tight and people want the max for their buck. It's a pain in the proverbial as you have to maintain your home in show house shape as you never know when a call may come through requesting a viewing.Leave you guys a tit bit, DECKS....how many times do we see flaky decks,offcoloured where the sun has begun to effect the varnish? Get some temp labour,give it a light sand,buy some decent deck varnish,hire a painter and you will be amazed at the difference it makes both to your house and it's value.

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## adrianh

No, I'm not angry at all, I'm simply expressing an opinion.

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## Doug B

So you "express' an opinion 5 times,rip my industry off,...remember :Offtopic: try stay with the topic and keep it positive,it really is far more constructive. Thanx  :Embarrassment:

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## adrianh

You asked a question and I made a statement that I honestly believe to be true.

Let me understand this; I make a comment and you throw all your toys out the cot and insult me...and you wonder why I don't like estate agents. Don't you think that you would have been better off selling the services that estate agents offer rather than carrying on like a child. You made yourself look like a fool by not defending your position in a civil manner. Think about it, what do I stand to lose by needling you, nothing, (ok, to be fair, it does annoy Dave at times), what do you stand to lose, a hell of a lot more. So please don't preach to me, rather learn to defend your position without throwing a tantrum.

Anyway, I will concede this round as well, it was fun but its far too easy to get you all worked up. You need more practice in the art of 'keeping all the toys in the cot' Drop me a mail when you feel like playing again.

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## Doug B

Check the doc for obsessive compulsive behaviour,tricky that one  :Taz:

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## adrianh

Good one, I have no idea what that is, is it like an estate agent that doesn't know when to call it quits and keeps digging the same hole over and over again, never learning that he is standing in the hole?

We can go round and round forever but its getting boring because its just too easy. Anyhow, it was fun but all good arguments have to come to an end.

I thank you for your indulgence....

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## Doug B

Now doesn't that feel better Adrian? All that venom and anger offloaded..gee, I'm  :Blushing:  from taking all the credit for making you feel better..GO GET 'EM  :Cowboy: ......meanwhile us penniless  :Devil:  will carry on eating baked beans.....sigh...what a life  :No:  lighten up son,this is a forum not some childish platform where you can express your obvious frustrations  :Banghead: .....c h i l l ~ o u t.

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## adrianh

...are you still at it...dude, you need to eat a Prozac...and I am not your son...

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## Doug B

sorry sun,haha

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## Justloadit

> DECKS....how many times do we see flaky decks,off coloured where the sun has begun to effect the varnish? Get some temp labour,give it a light sand,buy some decent deck varnish,hire a painter and you will be amazed at the difference it makes both to your house and it's value.


Doing all this maintenance, then why sell the house, just keep it, it's looking damn good.

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tec0 (04-Apr-12)

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## Nigel Hamilton

Not going to get involved in this particular argument, however will tell you my experience a few years back.

We decided to sell ours and the agent commission i think was 6% To complicate matters though was that we were also looking to buy a new one. The purchase of any house was conditional on the sale of ours. We gave the mandate to one estate agent to do both.

We also were trying to get a 10% premium on the value of our house!

As you can imagine, the sale of our house took 6 months. I would say that the estate agent must have held at least 12 show days, and had personally showed it to 50 couples, before we had any offers. Most were below what we wanted. In addition we were also looking.... unfortunately the first 2 we liked were sold before we could sell ours, and not too many were interested in the deals we were making.

The estate agent also advertised our house in all the local mags, the free sites, newspapers etc for the entire 6 months at her cost.

She also had to collate our likes/dislikes/budget/location etc then wade through who has th mandates, do a deal maybe etc etc, then go and see the house..decide for herself if she would waste our time or not, and if she thought it fitted our parameters she would then have to arrange an appointment between all the parties..then show us the house. She showed us around 15-20 houses over a 6 month period.

Eveentually she got us the price we wanted on our house(at the 10% premium) we... within a week of accepting an offer, she showed us a house we loved..she didn't hold the mandate so did a discounted deal with the other agent. 

The deals were done, she arranged the lawyers, the timing between deals..the flow of money etc etc etc.

Was very complicated, we worked out she must have spent over R20k on advertising alone, never mind the petrol and time it took for her to get this all right...working i would say every weekend. And we were only 1 of her clients!

Could we have done this ourselves..sure, but if i take into account what i charge for my own time, as well the immense learning curve and leg-work it would have entailed..i would never have done it..take into account we got a 10% premium by getting the right agent, who knew what they were doing, advertised correctly...so didn't cost us a cent, actually made an extra 4%

So my experience tells me, most estate agents are worth it.

If you have had a bad experience with one, don't lump all of them into the same basket. Same as a dentist, lawyer etc etc

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Doug B (05-Apr-12)

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## adrianh

> So my experience tells me, most estate agents are worth it.
> 
> If you have had a bad experience with one, don't lump all of them into the same basket. Same as a dentist, lawyer etc etc


*But the converse is also true:*

If you have had a *GOOD* experience with *ONE*, don't lump all of them into the same basket. Same as a dentist, lawyer etc etc 

Look, the point is this: Of course there are good people and bad people in any industry. How can one seperate the good people from the bad people up front without asking lots of questions? Yes, sometimes the questions are prevocative, but I would far rather discuss the questions in an open forum than find out R2mil down the line that my brand new second hand house has all sorts of issues that nobody takes responsibility for.

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## Nigel Hamilton

> *But the converse is also true:*
> 
> If you have had a *GOOD* experience with *ONE*, don't lump all of them into the same basket. Same as a dentist, lawyer etc etc 
> 
> Look, the point is this: Of course there are good people and bad people in any industry. How can one seperate the good people from the bad people up front without asking lots of questions? Yes, sometimes the questions are prevocative, but I would far rather discuss the questions in an open forum than find out R2mil down the line that my brand new second hand house has all sorts of issues that nobody takes responsibility for.


I agree with you 100% 

It all depends if your glass is half empty or half full

In my experience the guy who's glass is half full always attracts the good ones  :Smile:

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## adrianh

If only it were true ;-)

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## Doug B

Enjoy

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## Doug B

bye

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## IanF

Doug
This could be a keeper of a thread. I am in the process of doing neglected maintenance of my house as my youngest daughter is in her final year of varsity and will probably move out within 2-3 years. Then the house will be too big for 2 people. My own plan is to fix up all the little things and chop down some overgrown trees, then call in agent once the house looks good. So this thread could help.
Adrian does not believe agents earn their keep, accept that move on, and rather prove to the rest of us how agents earn their keep.
 :Lttd:  :Kissing2:

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## samanthaflax02

Firstly, De-Personalize & De-clutter your home
Rearrange Bedroom Closets and Kitchen Cabinets. 
Remove/Replace Favorite Items

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## Phil Cooper

Agent says a newly painter or fresh exterior worth a lot.

It is the first impression.

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## samanthaflax02

Home Selling on a Budget Starts With the Exterior. Keep your exterior clean
Remove Excess Clutter and Furniture
Thoroughly Clean the House Before Selling
Updating the Kitchen on a Budget
Painting the Interior

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