Property Point 1 August

I remember, as a kid in the 1970s, seeing my father do the annual service and general maintenance on our cars.

It’s true that cars were less complicated then and you didn’t have to understand computer technology to service your vehicle.

Younger readers will be pleased to know that although we didn’t have computer technology in our homes and cars, we did have televisions. Early in the ‘70s they even broadcast in “living colour”.

There was little evidence of “hi-tech” in our lives except what you would see broadcast on that new colour TV.

Computers were limited to the world of science fiction and space travel, with Star Trek probably the most obvious example.

The only robot I ever knew of growing up was the one I saw on the absurd yet popular show Lost in Space. It ran on wheels, had arms like an old vacuum cleaner hose and went by the imaginative name “Robot”.

Later, The Six Million Dollar Man came on to our screens. After suffering life-threatening injuries we discovered that they had “the technology to rebuild him” and we knew that advanced computers and bionic humans were just around the corner.

But they weren’t here yet, so my father could still service our cars like he had always done and as his father had done before him.

It was all about carburettors, air filters, oil filters and spark plugs … never about on-board diagnostics.

But while my father was all over the car thing, when it came to selling houses he left that to the experts.

Our family grew quickly so we had to buy and sell a few houses, and I remember the responsibility for that was handed over to real estate agents.

My father could have sold a house without an agent but he knew that he didn’t have the skills and backing of an agency to guarantee he would get the best price.

There has been a feeling among some sellers in Mackay that because houses have been selling quickly, owners might as well sell their properties themselves.

I have heard people say, “My neighbour put up a For Sale sign and it was sold a few days later.” It’s as though the quick sale, in itself, means success.

It is true that a quick sale can be a good thing if it is a result of massive interest among qualified buyers who compete for the property and push the price up.

But creating the necessary competition requires marketing that reaches all the potential buyers. It needs an agency with a database of buyers, including those who have made offers but missed out on other properties.

Prices went up 20 per cent over the past 12 months in Mackay and that happened because marketing and expertise created competition. It didn’t happen because sellers sold privately for what they and the buyers thought was a “fair price”. It was because agents found the “market price”, a different thing.

I tell friends who want to buy to be on the lookout for the “Sale by Owner” opportunities because you don’t have the same level of competition.

A mate recently picked up a property for about $100,000 below current market value when he bought privately, directly from the owner. It was great for him but a bit sad for the seller, who saved $15,000 on commission but ended up out of pocket by about $85,000.

When weighing up their options for selling, owners who are thinking about for-sale-by-owner should remember the cautionary words of the Lost in Space Robot to his young companion Will: “Danger, Will Robinson.”

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