21 December 2007

A real estate agent is chosen

We settled on an agent to sell our house. Gardiner and McInnes valued our house and suggested it be advertised within the range $300,000 to $350,000. This was disappointing. We had undertaken huge amounts of work on this property over the years. The garden was an oasis, we had enlarged the usable area of the land by building retaining walls, and some of the interior fittings were well finished. Overall it was a very nice place. We thought the agent might have come back with something like $360,000 - $390,000; particularly as we had been watching the market in the local area. They also quoted $700 in advertising costs with a possible all up bill of $3000 for the works, with their commission being between 2.5 to 3%. This was all so disheartening.

We also eventually heard from Landfield real estate. They thought our house was worth between $400,000 to $450,000. That’s too much! I think they were just trying to get us as a customer. With this property facing a main road a big for sale sign with their name on it would have been wonderful advertising. At that price the sign would be there for eternity.

So, with some recreation leave lined up it's on the road again, and a trip to Melbourne.

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