Best place to advertise FSBO ?

Hi Sim

would also consider their local paper with an attached photograph and details etc.

 

Domain would be my no. 1 choice- though there's no harm in putting up pics on as many of the other sites as possible (especially if the cost is minimal)
My choices would be:

zeroagents.com.au New but not a bad site and quite user friendly
owner.com.au A bit clunky but has a lot of traffic
privatelisting.com.au
diysell.com.au
smartvendor.com.au

Slick pics are essential, in my books, so advise your friend to spend some money on quality pictures and as many as possible to qualify buyers before they even arrange an inspection.

 

Sim

For selling two IPs in Canberra we tried the main newspaper and allhomes (bigger listing than realestate.com.au and domain within Canberra). The web advertising got 10 times the response of the newspaper.

In fact, the newspaper mainly drew in REAs offering to sell the houses for us (obviously we had know idea of what REAs did and needed to be informed ). This actually became a nuisance as REAs would spend 10 - 15 minutes asking about the house before revesling who they were ... and then someone else from the same office would try later. The web still got REAs inquiring but fewer of them. I think either the REAs don't surf the web themselves or figured that we might know what we were doing and left us alone. Ironically, we did sell a house to an REA's sister. He was surfing the web on her behalf, and was quick to state who he was and his purpose right up front.

Tip, get a pre-paid mobile phone for taking all inquiries. You know what the call is about and you can trash the sim card when it's all over.

Cheers, Dave

 

Zero Agents Real Estate also puts you on domain.com.au and tradingpost.com.au for FREE when you register with them. We priced domain and it was $275 for 28 days as a private seller. So their package seems the best value all round.

Cheers

 

I wasn't aware that zero did this. Thanks for that info, Wayne. Very useful to know!

 

I have been very impressed with them in the marketplace. Very aggressive company with great branding and useful information. Stuff I have been trying to tell my friends for years before they rush off and list with an agent.

Cheers

 

Greetings

Was browsing through the forums and was delighted to read that our website Zeroagents was being discussed.

Hope it is ok for me to have registered.

Thankyou for your kind comments Wayne and Jacque.

(though Wayne not sure aggressive is how we wanted to position our company - but understand we are a bit in your face)

Anyway - just wanted to say this site seems great - and i am more than happy to contribute statistics and comments regarding FSBO to the members.

Happy Investing Everyone

Michael Eroz
Zeroagents

 

Welcome aboard Michael! Hoping you can contribute, especially in the RE section
Question for you- what do you feel has been the most effective form of advertising for your new site? In a world overrun with websites and new companies trying to attract business, it can't be easy for yet another private sellers site to come up with something different.
Where have you been focussing your advertising to maximise exposure?

 

Most Effective Advertising

Wow, where do we start???

Well firstly we have spent alot of time doing email marketing to highly targeted demographics. This has proved very effective, probably as high as 5% response.

We have done some direct mail with quite a poor response.

Mass media, we just released 27,000 brochures on the Sunshine Coast inserted into the local newspaper in that area, still early days to assess, especially as this is also a branding exercise. Happy to contribute more about this when we have had more time to review.

Just engaged SEO, to try and improve our organic search results against our keywords, but can happily report that adwords has been quite successful.

I honestly believe, without a huge bucket of money, you just need to keep working your idea, ensure your service or product is valued, ensure all experiences with you are great, and you should generate growth.

Hope that has been of some help....

A great expose on Today Tonight would really work well for us....anoyne got any friends there

Michael Eroz

 

My parents (with my help) have listed their property on No Agent Property, (cost $240 I think) and Owner.com.au (free I think), as well as the local paper. They haven't had any responses from the web ads, but have had a few from the local paper.

The lack of response from the web may be because the house is overpriced, or the photos aren't really professional looking, or these sites just don't attract that many visitors (you get what you pay for???). Or possibly the sort of people looking for a house like my parent's one (large family home on Bribie Island) would not typically use the web to search. I don't really know, but as I said, they haven't been overwhelmed with the response.

Personally I think the search facility on No Agent Property sucks too. In addition we get emails from the site notifying us of supposed buyers whose criteria match the house we're selling. It's probably more the fault of the person entering their criteria than the web site, but most have had criteria like "within 50km radius of suburb X and Price up to $500,000", which pretty much covers most of SE Queensland .

I didn't know about Zero Agents when we did this, but looking at their site now I think the money spent with No Agent Property would have been much better spent there The site looks better, and the search facility seems to work well.

John.

 

Do a deal for my Invested Friends

JohnnyB

Selling privately is all about getting exposure to your property. Thats why we have also partnered with Domain, Trading Post and HotProperties. We are also negotiating with 3 other sites as we speak.

You need that exposure to get the buyer enquiry.

If you get your parents to register their property on our website, i am prepared to offer a Premium Listing with a corflute sign for a special price of $99.
(normally $149)

But alas, pricing the property correctly is paramount. As ex-real estate agents, we could book a Guaranteed Top Spot in Domain and Realestate.com.au and if the property was incorrectly priced get ZERO enquiries.

Please suggest a professional valuation to your parents, it will be the best money they have spent, and would make delivering a sale within an acceptable time frame far easier.

If they are just speculating, to try and get a serious higher price, i would suggest that our current market won't support much levels of interest.

If you want to take up that deal - simply email me at [email protected]

Take care.

Michael Eroz

 

Hi Michael,

I guess for an average home owner this is the most difficult bit, especially as most people are emotionally attached to their homes and may think it is worth more than the market will support.

My father has spoken to a few agents who have suggested that their asking price is not unreasonable, although that probably doesn't mean much as they are probably trying to get a listing. I think the problem may be that it is above median (in quality and price) for the area, so the cheaper houses are going first.

Thanks for the offer. I'll run it by my parents, but they may feel it's throwing good money after bad (no offence to your services!) given their experience so far.

John.

P.S. If anyone wants to buy a house on Bribie Is
check this out

 

I dont think 'THROWING' $99 towards Zeroagents would be a bad idea for your parents.

Lets face it they are up for a ton more money if they sell it through an agent up on Bribie. Work on 2.5% of the selling price PLUS what they will stiff them for advertising and THEN throw GST on top.............. $99 seems a damn fine offer from Michael for 3 months potentially listed on not only their site, but the 2nd biggest real estate portal in Australia - Domain.com.au, let alone the other sites they now are represented on.

Also tell them to get a display sign. It will be the very first thing an agent wants when they list their house.

Buyers drive round streets looking for places they want to live.

This is the biggest mistake private sellers mistake - not putting up a sign and then expecting a million phone calls.

My enquiry went from zero to SALE within 5 days of a nice sign that I ended paying over $400 for......... the agents fees on my home would have been well over $15,000. Bloody good investment if you ask me.

Cheers

 

well that was one hard sell

ummm wayne - not sure whether to thankyou or hire you....

Michael

 

Letting neighbours know also not a bad idea. The house 2 doors from us sold recently within 2 hours of going on the market (says the elderly owner who had been widowed recently). It would have been perfect for us to downsize, maintained beautifully etc. Everybody I have spoken to concurs that the price was a bit L O W. So selling at the top quoted (agent) price to a neighbour would have saved her agent's fees at least.

So letterbox a few surrounding streets.

Cheers Jenny

 

I didn't mean that going with Zero Agents would be a bad idea. It was more a comment on my parents attitude. They are still very much "old school", and selling a property yourself via the internet is certainly something very new to them. The fact that they have not had any success (whatever the reason may be) may have put them off the idea, even if it is only a small outlay compared to what they would pay in agents fees.

Agree, and they do have one. The part of Bribie where they are is relatively quiet, but I think with the Xmas holidays coming up they will get a lot more drive by interest from all the holiday makers.

John.

 

Hehe Michael- you can approach them yourself as they're always looking for fresh ideas. They can only say no

I'm hugely interested in getting my own site higher in the organic list... any tips appreciated

Hope your site continues to go well and you provide a quality service to your clients. It's all about the exposure and the "ease of use" of your site, I believe.

 

I see that zeroagents.com.au just added hotproperties.com.au to their list of websites their properties appear on now. That brings the total to four including Domain. Looks like they are also in discussions with others as well from comments on the pricing page.

Cheers