Why myhouse sales?
Welcome to myhouse, where "we sell your house like it's our house..."
Come on over to myhouse and experience the myhouse difference.
Here at myhouse, we do not charge our sellers for any upfront marketing or promotional costs. When we sell your property and you are happy with the outcome we have achieved for you, we pass on the costs of marketing and promoting your property at settlement. In the unlikely event that we do not sell your property, or you are unhappy with the outcome we have achieved for you, then we cover all the marketing costs. Our "No Sale, No Fee" policy ensures our clients 100% peace of mind throughout the sale process, as we take on the risk rather than you.
It is accepted practice for Real Estate Agents to charge their clients for advertising regardless of whether they sell the property or not. Here at myhouse, we not only believe this is wrong but immoral, because like any service, why should you pay for something you haven't received? As a myhouse client, you do not pay for any advertising or promotional costs unless we sell your property and you are satisfied with the outcome. Should you decide you no longer wish to sell your property, you may give us notice to withdraw your property and still pay nothing.
Our combined real estate sales experience and knowledge has taught us that expensive newspaper advertising is more about promoting the Agents profile and less about marketing your property. That is why our capped marketing fee, which is the most competitively priced in Toowoomba, consists of all internet advertising including realestate.com.au, photography, for sale signs and pointer signs, promotional mail outs, sponsored Facebook page and window signage.
Our aim is for you to receive a superior Real Estate service while reducing the individual marketing cost to each client. We reasoned that we are not employed to advertise; we are employed to FIND BUYERS AND NEGOTIATE THE SALE.
myhouse staff understands the emotions home owners experience when they are selling their homes. From excitement and joy, to frustration and uncertainty. This understanding is what drives our ethos, "To sell our client's home, like they are our homes".
Located on the corner of a high exposure, major traffic route at 227b West Street Toowoomba (cnr West Street and Drayton Road), our team of experienced agents work together for our clients to sell their properties, guaranteeing the best outcome each and every time.
Not all real estate agents and their services are the same, so "come on over to myhouse" and let us show you how!
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Why myhouse?
.1. "no sale, no fee, that's the myhouse guarantee"
We do not charge our sellers for any upfront marketing or promotional costs, only at settlement do we pass these costs onto you. If we cannot sell your property or you change your mind and no longer wish to sell, you pay nothing.
.2. Fair Go Fee!
If you are not satisfied that we as your agent have made our best efforts on your behalf once a buyer is found and a sale price is agreed, or if the property sells below the price quoted by the agent, you can negotiable our fees DOWNWARDS!
.3. Best Service - Guaranteed!
We provide you with a written service guarantee when you sell your property with us. You are guaranteed to receive the highest level of service and commitment from us when we are selling your property and if you are not 100% satisfied with us at any point throughout the sale you can simply cancel the agreement.
.4. Best Price Possible
We have several tools that we use when negotiating with buyers to get you the best possible price for your property. These tools are tried and proven to work and encourage buyers to firstly commit and secondly to offer you the highest possible price that they can afford to pay for your property.
.5. We Sell Your Home - Not Our Agency
Profile, profile, profile! This is a word that is used a lot with agents in real estate. The more seller paid advertising they can get, the more profile exposure they personally receive to help sell themselves. At myhouse,when you list your home with us, you can be guaranteed that it is your property we will be selling and you will not be paying to advertise our agency.
.6. The Agent You List With, Is The Agent You Work With
We offer you a personalized level of service from the first moment we meet right through until settlement. Many lead agents will list the property and then palm off the selling of the property onto a junior or assistant. This is an important time for you and we want to be there every step of the way, so you can be assured that the agent you list with will be the agent you work with and will be your one and only point of call.
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The myhouse guarantee
Most agents talk about honesty, integrity and high customer service....at myhouse we put it in writing!
For too long it has been an accepted practice that home sellers need to pay for the cost to advertise, irrespective of whether the sales agent is able to fulfill his/her role, which is to find a buyer and sell the property.
We are not saying that marketing and promotion does not cost money because it does. At myhouse, what we are doing is questioning this practice, because when did it become acceptable to pay for a service or product before you have received it? When you appoint an agent to sell your property, it is their job to find you a buyer and sell your property, this is the service that they are performing for you. Marketing and promotion is a part of this service performed by an agent and plays a crucial role in finding prospective buyers, however unless a buyer is found and a sale achieved why should you pay anything? What service did you receive? That is why we offer all of our clients our "No Sale, No Fee" guarantee.
Another common practice amongst real estate agents is to tell you just about anything to win your business, including the biggest lie of all - how much 'you will get' for your property, which is called 'buying the business'. They will over promise to win your business and under deliver when it matters the most.
At myhouse, from the time your property is listed, we will be doing everything possible to achieve a sale for you at the highest possible price in the shortest possible time. If at any time throughout the agreement you are not 100% satisfied with the service you are receiving and the agent cannot rectify what you are dissatisfied with, you may simply cancel the selling agreement by writing to us.
Once we do find you a suitable buyer and they have offered you a price you are happy to accept, if you are not satisfied that we as your agent have given satisfactory effort on your behalf at any stage throughout our agreement, you can discuss our selling fees with us and negotiate them downwards prior to acceptance of the offer.
The reason we offer this to our clients is because 'cheap' agents get cheap prices. You should be careful choosing an agent purely on their fees, because if an agent gives their own money away, what do you think they will do with your money when negotiating your sale price?
There is no fine print or catch, the myhouse guarantee is that simple!
If you are hesitant or sceptical, this Guarantee will put you at ease, because if at any time you do not feel like we are doing everything we said we would, you can simply terminate our agreement!
Of course, we wouldn't make such a Guarantee unless we were certain that you will be satisfied with our performance.
At myhouse, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain!
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myhouse and Advertising
Advertising and marketing are often confused in the minds of both sellers and agents. Many people believe that advertising is marketing and without it, the property will not be promoted and will not sell.
In fact, advertising and in particular print advertising which is extremely popular amongst most agencies, only plays a very tiny part, if at all, in the promotion of a property. With the advent of the internet, consumers today from preteens to retirees and beyond, search and purchase items and services online from groceries to dance lessons, 24hrs a day, 7 days a week via their smartphones, tablets and laptops. Real estate is no exception to this rule, with buyers searching online to find their new home or investment property and open home viewing times, so unless you are looking at marketing your property to the 1-2% of the market that does not search online, why would you spend thousands of dollars to advertising through a media that is only available on Saturday and is in the rubbish bin the very next day.
The quality and effort of the salespeople, the location of the office, online presence, the referral business and reputation of the office, high exposure of the office to the public, signage - all of these things play a part in marketing toward buyers 24 hours a day, seven days a week - not just one!
The agent's job is not to advertise a property in a newspaper, the agency's job is to find a buyer at the highest price in the shortest possible time. Print advertising is a very expensive way of promoting a property and should not be a substitute for hard work from the Agency in charge of selling it. If an expensive ad in the paper is going to sell the house, why do you need an Agent?
Real Estate Agents have taken to advertising with great enthusiasm since Vendor Paid Advertising was introduced years ago. This is where the sellers pay upfront to advertise their home in the newspaper. There is approximately twenty times more advertising done, yet the volume of sales remains the same. Some of the larger agencies even hold award nights for the agents that earn the largest amount of print advertising money from their clients over the course of the year - why?
Some Real Estate offices will list properties far above market value, just for the opportunity to charge the seller to advertise their business, even when they know the property has little to no chance of selling. The property sits on the market and becomes a 'lemon'. Nobody wants to buy it because of the false promises made about a high price.
Agents love this method because they get promoted for free, whether the house sells or not, and charge the sellers for the privilege. This is one of the biggest complaints toward the Real Estate industry. If an agent tells you that you must pay for print advertising to enable them to sell your home, why not ask them to pay for it, because if they truly believe it will sell your home why wouldn't they? There is a better way!
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myhouse and Auctions
Research shows that more than 90% of buyers do not like auctions. More importantly, 70% or more of buyers will not buy a home at an auction! Why would you sell by using a system that buyers do not like? Why would you try to sell using a system that eliminates 70% or more of your 'customers'? A major rule of marketing is to make it easy for buyers to buy. Auctions make it difficult. Many buyers simply avoid homes going to auction and homes without a price and will never even enquire about it.
Auctions are also unpopular with buyers because they need to have already paid for building and pest inspections before the auction day. Most buyers will not go to this expense, normally over $400, if they don't know whether they can buy the home or not - so they avoid the property altogether.
The main reason we see plenty of sellers choosing an auction is because Real Estate Agencies like to use this system and push it to the sellers. They don't give sellers all of the facts about the auction system. Agents like auctions because the seller pays for them to be advertised. Their company and the salesperson gets to shy away from quoting a market price for the home in the first place, often giving false hope of a high price above market value to secure the listing.
Agents love auctions because they get the benefit of the free Vendor Paid Advertising to promote themselves and their company. If the home doesn't sell - which well over 80% in the local Toowoomba market don't sell at the auction - the home is labelled a failure. If the home does sell prior to auction however (which in a busy market they often do), the agent labels it as a success yet in some cases the owner/s are still left to pay the bill for advertising expenses including the auctioneers fee. The truth that these agents don't want you to know is that a regular sales campaign without the need for huge advertising costs would have sold the property just as successfully, however they don't want you to know this because they want you to pay to advertise their profile.
Auctions are not a good way to get the best price when selling in Toowoomba. Auctions are more a selling tool for when timing is more of an issue than the price - for example mortgagee in possession or divorce settlements. Bargain hunters attend auctions. Have you ever gone to a Government vehicle auction or furniture auction to pay a top price or to get a bargain?
Some agents tout that auctions will get a higher price because they are competitive - but the competition is in PUBLIC not private - which makes it COMPARATIVE more than competitive. Everyone compares what everyone else is offering. Instead of paying their highest price, the buyer only has to offer a small amount above what the other offer is. At myhouse we do not auction properties, we tender them. A tender is a better way to sell a unique home (for example a rare development site or a magnificent home on the range with views). By using this sale method, no buyer can see what another offers and buyers can make offers on their terms, guaranteeing the buyers pay the highest price possible!
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myhouse tips to avoid the Quote Trap
If you choose an agent purely on quoted price, you could make a huge mistake. Thousands of sellers have learned, from bitter experience that the price the agents quote and the price they get are different. To add insult to injury, the agent gets the added benefit of vendor paid advertising along the way to help promote themselves and their company.
But it is very hard to ignore some agents. When an agent who is supposed to be a professional, says your home is worth a huge amount, it is very tempting. However, most sellers forget one vital fact: that agents can be biased. If they quote you a price and their competitor quotes a higher price, they risk losing your business....and if they lose, they don't get paid.
Agents who tell the truth often lose business to agents who tell lies. This puts the honest agents in a terrible situation. If they tell the truth, they risk rejection. This is why sometimes they avoid the price and say: "It's hard to judge exactly. It depends on the market. Let's not put a price on it. Let's auction and see what happens."
Agents are terrified of home sellers who say, "Tell me what my home is worth", and that is why they will do all they can to avoid what is known as "The Price Issue".
'The Price Issue' Agents often say they do not know how much a home is worth. But, no matter what they say, they do know. They just do not want to tell sellers and risk losing the business.
If you demand a quick quote on your home's selling price, many agents will either avoid the question or inflate the price. This is not like getting a painting quote. Remember, the agent is not the buyer of your home, he or she is the person who finds and negotiates with the buyer. You are looking for the best agent to sell your home.
It is similar to a job interview. The job description is: an agent you like who will get you the highest price possible and who will be honest with you. The best question to ask an agent is: "What will you do to get the best price for my home?"
Allow the agent time to answer this question. If you demand instant answers to "How much is my home worth?" and "How much is your commission?", instead of "What will you do?", you will probably be told lies. Or, even worse, you will miss the best agent.
Source: www.jenman.com.au
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myhouse tips for Choosing an Agent
One of the most important decisions in Real Estate, is choosing the right Agent to sell with.
You could be overwhelmed with the 'advice' from well-meaning people and become increasingly indecisive as to which one to choose. Usually the answer is quite simple - 'choose an agent that you feel has listened to you and you feel you can trust'. The agent needs to be able to communicate freely with you and be a person (rather than a salesperson) that you feel comfortable with.
Agents that appear to be waiting to hear your opinion about price, probably can't price the property themselves. If you find that you disagree with the price that they put forward, they should be able to explain the figure they put to you in a straightforward and honest way.
At myhouse the final decision on price is always the Sellers, however some people who have spent many years in a home may feel it is more valuable than is appropriate. This is perfectly natural; we all feel our home is our castle. Never let an Agent pressure you into listing your property at a price that you are not happy with. If the evidence put forward by a professional real estate agent is sound however, it may just be that you need to take some time to re-assess your options. Whatever you do, don't be rushed into a decision you are not happy with.
Try and put yourself in the position of a buyer, rather than a seller. If you find your Agent to be friendly, professional, informative and genuinely interested in your wants and needs, and will take the time to listen rather than talk non-stop, then this would be an agent you would be comfortable buying from. It should be the same with anyone wanting to sell their home.
A competent agent will discuss recent sales with you from in your area and properties currently on the market that would be comparable with your own home and be confident in setting a price.
Some sellers interview several agents and choose the one who charges the least commission and has told the owner it is worth the most. This is not always the best option - bait pricing is commonly used by unscrupulous agents to get a listing, telling the seller the property is worth more than it really is just to win the listing. If the price given to you is 'too good to be true', it probably is.
Trust is the most important factor when appointing an agent to sell your property. myhouse is committed to its clients, both our Sellers and Buyers.
Finally, feel comfortable and confident with your Agent, and the process of selling your home can be an enjoyable and successful experience.
