ᐅ Home buying/selling: What is the current demand? Looking for experiences and insights.
Created on: 1 Oct 2018 17:26
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Nafetsm
Hello,
I’m interested in hearing about your experiences with buying or selling a house.
I want to get a sense of the current demand, as we are planning to sell our house for professional reasons. My question is: should we sell through an agent or handle it ourselves? I feel confident managing the sale myself (I have experience), but what about the time commitment?
Everyone prefers to buy directly from the owner to save on the commission. But how much effort does selling a house really require nowadays? I don’t have time to deal with countless prospective buyers or constantly answer emails. On the other hand, I can sell the house better because I know it inside out.
We live in a highly desirable area. The house is in a good location within a modern neighborhood, with excellent infrastructure. It was built by us, is in top condition with high-end finishes, still under warranty, and according to my regular checks on property portals, a true gem on the local market – this is also confirmed by others.
Have you recently bought or sold a property and can share how much effort was involved, how much interest there was, and how competitive the market among buyers was? Thanks!!
I’m interested in hearing about your experiences with buying or selling a house.
I want to get a sense of the current demand, as we are planning to sell our house for professional reasons. My question is: should we sell through an agent or handle it ourselves? I feel confident managing the sale myself (I have experience), but what about the time commitment?
Everyone prefers to buy directly from the owner to save on the commission. But how much effort does selling a house really require nowadays? I don’t have time to deal with countless prospective buyers or constantly answer emails. On the other hand, I can sell the house better because I know it inside out.
We live in a highly desirable area. The house is in a good location within a modern neighborhood, with excellent infrastructure. It was built by us, is in top condition with high-end finishes, still under warranty, and according to my regular checks on property portals, a true gem on the local market – this is also confirmed by others.
Have you recently bought or sold a property and can share how much effort was involved, how much interest there was, and how competitive the market among buyers was? Thanks!!
Nafetsm schrieb:
Everyone prefers to buy directly from the owner to avoid paying commission. But how much effort does selling a house really take nowadays? I don’t have time to manage a flood of potential buyers or constantly answer emails. On the other hand, I can sell the house better since I know it inside out.We sold a house five years ago, which was a popular terraced house in our area. Houses there sell at roughly the same price, for example to renters from the same region, but also to young families and older couples.
We even had a semi-detached house; I work part-time as a real estate photographer.
So every evening for two weeks, we showed the house to a total of 30 couples and singles with companions, starting in the late afternoon.
That was a tiring and tough period.
We handed out sheets with the house's ancillary costs to everyone. After two weeks, only occasional emails came from interested parties, plus a few second visits. The phone was silent for a while. In the end, we felt like only we were trying to get something from others...
Nafetsm schrieb:
How can I protect myself from sightseers? How would you approach this? Of course, I want to show the house only to genuinely interested people, not just curious ones who always wanted to see the inside. How can I make sure that someone doesn’t back out on the way to the notary?You can’t.
One tip: don’t assume that your house is that important to people who have no real interest. It may be that your property seems perfect from your perspective, but others have their own lives and don’t plan their days around house visits. Maybe one or two will be serious.
More likely, expect that interested buyers will look at other houses as well. They might not even be interested in your neighborhood. Maybe they work 30 km (20 miles) away and usually search on the completely opposite side. Buyers also like to see several properties just to compare.
When we were house hunting (before the internet, relying on newspaper ads), we checked out everything. Everything!
Nafetsm schrieb:
I don’t know if the buyers will really pay the price we expect (market value according to Immoscout).These online valuation tools should be treated with caution.
If your price expectations are off, your house could just sit on the market gathering dust — then the advice is to quietly remove it from the listing platforms for three months.
Never underestimate the work of a real estate agent 😀
And marketing photos are created based on psychological principles as well 😉
I think there’s even a whole book about selling your own home.
O
Obstlerbaum1 Oct 2018 23:03It depends on where you live. In urban areas, it’s quite straightforward, but outside of those, I would also recommend working with a real estate agent.
We live near you and sold our house through a real estate agent. The agent set a much higher price than we would have and took care of everything, including the buyer’s reservation deposit, financing confirmation from the bank, and so on. The agent already had a large list of interested buyers, so it only took a few days before our house was reserved. We received significantly more money than the cost of building the house beforehand.
Best regards,
Sabine
Best regards,
Sabine
M
Mottenhausen2 Oct 2018 13:46I also experienced during our search that we were told: submit an offer, we will collect bids for 3-4 weeks and then schedule viewings only with the highest bidders. Pah! And this in Saxony, where the market is still significantly less competitive.
My impression at the moment is that if the location is right, the house itself almost becomes secondary. If the location is poor, even a great house won’t fix that.
My impression at the moment is that if the location is right, the house itself almost becomes secondary. If the location is poor, even a great house won’t fix that.
Nafetsm schrieb:
The real estate agent can, for example, contractually set 1% of the commission here and then claim itWhat the agent writes in the contract doesn’t really matter. The commission depends on success. No signature at the notary, no money for the agent. It doesn’t matter who doesn’t sign. Real estate agents also have professional risks.
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Brickleberry20 Oct 2018 02:18Reservation fees are not allowed according to the Federal Court of Justice, so they are irrelevant.
On the other hand, Groß-Umstadt is not for everyone. For example, it isn’t for me. Places like Dieburg, Groß-Zimmern, Münster, etc. were also ruled out because there are simply too many country roads and traffic jams along my commute.
Instead, I chose Groß-Gerau. You can’t say much good about the A67 highway, but at least it’s a highway 🙂
In terms of price, I would compare on ImmoScout and set the price high. It’s easier to lower it than to raise it.
Not having a real estate agent would be preferable since they tend to do relatively little for a lot of money. That annoys many people. In the end, if the house is good, it doesn’t matter whether there is a third-party intermediary or not—you still pay.
For buyers, it makes little difference; for you, it’s more significant if you include the agent’s commission in your profit calculation. Optionally, if you are reasonable, you can offer the property slightly cheaper than the total cost would have been with an agent.
On the other hand, Groß-Umstadt is not for everyone. For example, it isn’t for me. Places like Dieburg, Groß-Zimmern, Münster, etc. were also ruled out because there are simply too many country roads and traffic jams along my commute.
Instead, I chose Groß-Gerau. You can’t say much good about the A67 highway, but at least it’s a highway 🙂
In terms of price, I would compare on ImmoScout and set the price high. It’s easier to lower it than to raise it.
Not having a real estate agent would be preferable since they tend to do relatively little for a lot of money. That annoys many people. In the end, if the house is good, it doesn’t matter whether there is a third-party intermediary or not—you still pay.
For buyers, it makes little difference; for you, it’s more significant if you include the agent’s commission in your profit calculation. Optionally, if you are reasonable, you can offer the property slightly cheaper than the total cost would have been with an agent.
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