Selling advice

When deciding to sell, most sellers begin with process questions. How do I start? What should I look for in an agent? What is the best deal on offer?

A better way in is to begin with the end. What price would I be genuinely happy with? What skills does an agent need for me to get there? What systems bring buyers to my door rather than waiting for them to arrive?

From that perspective the criteria for choosing an agent become obvious, because you are measuring them against a result rather than against each other.

Market value is usually assessed the way a sworn valuer assesses it — a comparable market analysis. In plain terms: find recent sales of properties of a similar standard nearby, and use what they actually achieved as the guide to a likely selling range for yours.

That method is only as good as the evidence behind it, which is why local transaction volume matters when you choose an agent. An agent who has recently sold properties like yours, in your suburb, has the comparable evidence to price against. One who has not is working from the same public data you are.

You can look at the same evidence yourself: our recently sold results and the median and volume figures on each suburb profile are the starting point, and a free appraisal puts a local agent's reading of them next to your property.

You never get a second chance to make a first impression.

Think of two hundred-dollar notes. One is new and crisp; the other has torn edges and creases. Both are worth exactly one hundred dollars — but offered the choice, almost everyone takes the newer one. Presentation moves what people will pay for something whose underlying value has not changed at all.

Whatever your reason for selling, small improvements make the process both calmer and more profitable. Your Bell agent is trained in property presentation and can give you a list today — which is the point of asking early. Most of what lifts a property's presentation needs weeks of lead time, not days.

Questions worth asking any agent, including ours:

• What have you sold in this suburb in the last six months, and for how much against what it was quoted at?
• How did you arrive at the price range you are quoting me, and which specific sales support it?
• What is your fee, what is included, and what is charged separately as marketing?
• Who will actually run my campaign and attend my open homes — you, or someone else?
• What happens if the property does not sell in the campaign period?

Be wary of the agent who quotes the highest price without evidence for it. Quoting a seller up to win the listing, then conditioning them down over the campaign, is a well-known pattern and it costs the seller both time and negotiating position.

Victorian estate agents work under rules that exist to protect you, and you are entitled to hold any agent to them:

• we must give you a written estate agency authority before we act, setting out our fee and any expenses
• an indicative selling price we quote must be reasonable and supported by comparable sales — underquoting is illegal
• for residential sales we must give you a statement of information showing the comparable sales and the median for the suburb
• we must disclose any rebate, discount or commission we receive from a third party we refer you to.

Consumer Affairs Victoria's selling property guidance is the independent reference, and worth reading before you sign anything with anybody.

• How to improve your home for profitWhere presentation spending actually returns more than it costs, room by room.PDF, opens in a new tab
• Your choice of agent is importantWhat to ask an agent before you sign an authority, and what the answers tell you.PDF, opens in a new tab