Saturday, October 11, 2008

Buy and Sell Real Estate Without Agents

Thinking of buying or selling property minus the agents?

Now there's a website (BuyMyPlace) that lets you get in touch with the other party to the transaction - directly.

Registration is free.

However, if you want to list your property for sale, be prepared to pay between $199 and $599. Depending on the package you choose, you're entitled to these benefits:

Online ad
Knowledge Centre access
Residex values
Service provider network
For Sale board
Individual blog
Customer support
Professional photography
Large photo for For Sale board

BuyMyPlace is really easy to use. Its interface is very similar to the popular RealEstate, except you don't see agent names or the sales hype associated with agent listings. You key in the suburb or postcode, refine your search by specifying number of rooms, price, type of property, and click on Search.

Here's the really nifty feature. Even if the search shows nil, you still get a list of the most recent sales for the suburb.

Mouse over the particular house icon, and it tells you the address, the date of the latest sale, and the transaction price. Click on the address link and you get a page on the property, with photos and a write-up. Very handy when doing research.

BuyMyPlace is a great alternative if you want to save thousands of dollars you would otherwise pay in agent commissions to sell your property the conventional way.

Suppose you're not ready to sell. You just want to find out how much the market is prepared to pay for your current home.

If you were to use the conventional real estate agent route, you would have to cough up thousands of dollars for nothing. BuyMyPlace lets you create a Dream Listing for your house - for free. You list your dream price and use the listing to test the market. It's one way to answer the what-if question: what if someone offered to pay $10K above market value for your property? Would you move?

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