The spring real estate market might be starting early this year… ByTheOwner.com has seen our website traffic increase by 90% over last year and we are working hard to keep up with the demand. We have been adding servers and streamlining the website in order to handle the increased visitors. Last week we received more than 250,000 visitors to the website which is up from our average of 150,000 in 2007.
We are overjoyed when we see the results in our customer’s savings. One recent customer in Woodbridge shows exactly how much money can be saved. The couple listed their home for sale on Feb 5th, and sold it two days later. The asking price was $449,900 which amounts to $22,450 saved in commission plus an additional $1,122 saved in GST on the commission. This is a total of $23,500 saved by selling their home privately.
Did they get a good price? Let’s look at what other similar properties have sold for on their street: In 2007, there were three homes sold on the street. $415,000, $400,000 and $399,000 were the selling prices of the other homes sold. Those other homes were sold with real estate agents and mostly likely paid 5% commission. This means that the most the other owners took home was $393,000 ($415,000-commission and GST). Selling the home privately resulted in the owner keeping approximately $50,000 more than their neighbours.
Although selling in 2 days does happen (ByTheOwner.com has had more than 500 properties sold in less than 5 days), it typically takes between 30-60 days to sell your home. It requires a good home with a fair price, plus some great advertising. However, this example does show that there can be buyers ready to purchase in any neighbourhood, and by selling privately, you allow yourself the opportunity to sell quickly and save. Imagine if our clients had listed with an agent and sold in 2 days? It would have cost them $23,000 in tax free money!
Here is a link to the listing:
Sold in 2 days!!!
www.bytheowner.com
