Selling a flat without an estate agent: How to get the best price!

You have inherited a condominium and would like to sell it. Should you use an estate agent? Your friends are of the opinion that, due to the current real estate market situation, you can easily sell your flat without an estate agent.

After all, the demand for flats in Tyrol remains high. If you sell your flat without an agent, the buyer does not pay an agent's commission of 3 percent of the sales price. You could thus ask more for your home and collect this amount yourself.

However, selling on your own is not quite that simple. As an estate agent in Tyrol, I have seen numerous cases where a lot of money was given away when selling a flat on one's own. Therefore, I would like to give you a few tips from my many years of experience. With these, you can sell your flat for the best possible price even without an estate agent.

Selling a flat profitably without an estate agent: 9 steps to success

One thing in advance: A profitable flat sale takes a lot of time. The more thoroughly you carry out the following steps, the more money the sale usually brings.

Step #1: Obtaining the necessary documents

Beim Wohnungsverkauf müssen Sie den Interessenten viele Informationen zur Verfügung stellen, die in unterschiedlichen Dokumenten zu finden sind. Eine Liste der einzuholenden Unterlagen finden Sie in einem gesonderten Blog-Beitrag „Wohnung verkaufen: Mit dieser Checkliste vergessen Sie nichts“.

Beachten Sie: Für die Ausstellung mancher Dokumente fällt eine Gebühr an. Beispielsweise werden Ihnen bei der Einforderung des Grundbuchauszugs 15 Euro verrechnet.

Step #2: Checking the documents

Check the documents you have obtained to make sure they are legally correct. To do this, you can either seek assistance from a lawyer or a real estate agent.

Of course, you can also do the check yourself, but this will require you to read up on legal texts, which in turn will take more time.

Step #3: Determine the selling price

Estimate an initial selling price. This step is particularly important for a profitable sale. Your price proposal should not be too low under any circumstances. Logically, otherwise you are giving away part of your home.

But you also have to make sure that your asking price is not too high. Otherwise your property will be on the market for a long time. This leads to real estate professionals pushing the price of your flat down further and further with cheap offers.

In the end, you then have to sell below value and cannot profit from the current market situation.

When determining the best selling price, you can look at current offers and/or consult a real estate expert.

Step #4: Start marketing

Next, start advertising your flat. For example, spread the word about your offer in social media, newspapers and on online platforms. You can find out which 3 platforms are particularly suitable for this because of their reach in the blog article "Advertising a house properly: How to get good offers quickly". For the advertisements, an amount of about 25 euros is due per 14-day placement.

For the listings, provide as much information and high-resolution images as possible for prospective buyers. This prevents you from having to answer numerous emails from potential buyers asking for the property's key data.

Step #5: Arrange the visits

Once you have published the advertisements, you will contact the first interested parties. Then it is time for the viewing appointments. During these meetings, you should check the buyers' intention to buy: Are they serious interested parties or are you just wasting your time.

Allow enough time for each appointment to answer potential buyers' questions and concerns. After all, buying a flat is not a decision to be taken lightly. A lot of money is at stake. Therefore, you should also expect that some prospective buyers will want to see your property more than once before making a final choice.

Step #6: Credit check of the prospective buyers

To avoid unpleasant surprises when concluding the purchase, it is necessary to check the financial means of your prospective buyer in advance. The prospective buyer can request the necessary documents directly from the bank. You can either check these documents yourself or request them from a professional - for example, your bank advisor.

Step #7: Preparation of a written purchase offer

Once you have checked the creditworthiness of the buyer, you can prepare a written purchase offer. This should already contain the most important points for drawing up a purchase contract. This way you can protect yourself legally in case of a breach of contract or of the purchase offer.

To be on the safe side, you should have the purchase offer checked again by a notary or lawyer of your choice. After that, you are legally secure.

Step #8: Review of the purchase agreement ready for entry in the land register

Once you and the buyer have signed the purchase offer, the buyer will have his lawyer or notary draw up the purchase contract that can be entered in the land register. This contract must also be checked. Seek the support of a legal expert.

Once the examination is completed, the contract is notarised and signed.

Step #9: Handing over the flat

Once you have received the money for the sale in your account, hand over the flat. Keep a handover log and take photos for evidence purposes. Then the sale is completed.

With these 9 steps, your flat sale should go smoothly. However, there is one thing I would like to get off my chest: Unfortunately, there are always buyers who try to push down the price of your property. Do not be impressed by this.

If you have had the value checked by an expert, you should use all your negotiating skills to really achieve this price. Otherwise, it is you who will end up literally "looking through your fingers".

However, you can avoid this risk by hiring an estate agent to sell your flat.

It may be that this statement seems a bit clumsy. You may also think to yourself: "Of course, as an estate agent, he has to say that to advertise himself." You are right, at this point I am somewhat self-servingly advertising my profession.

But especially as an estate agent, I can give you the experiences of other private sellers to help you avoid making the same mistakes. Because you only expose yourself to the risk of selling below value when you sell a flat on your own.

Independent sale entails increased risk of losing money

In independent sales, there are always price agreements between buyers and sellers that I, as an estate agent, can only shake my head at. Sometimes sellers give away 10 percent of the property value. In the high-price province of Tyrol, that's 40,000 euros that you lose on a flat worth 400,000 euros.

A reputable estate agent will never sell your flat below value. On the contrary, he strives to achieve the highest possible price. Of course, he still pays attention to the market situation and does not demand utopian prices that no buyer wants to pay.

In addition, you as the seller benefit from massive time savings. Since the estate agent takes over almost all of the steps listed above for you, you only have to invest a little work and no money in the sale. The broker assumes any costs - for example, for advertisements or copies of documents - at his or her own risk.

In addition, a real estate agent is usually legally experienced and can therefore support you in the preparation of the purchase offer as well as in the examination of the purchase contract. This means you are legally protected!

I realise that the 3 per cent of the sale price in agent's commission is a deterrent, but think of the situation this way:

Would you rather pay 3 per cent commission and achieve a high sales price? Not to mention that you are legally protected and have to spend less time on the sale. Or would you rather expose yourself to the increased risk of selling your flat below value? You could even lose more than 3 per cent that way....

In the end, it is up to you whether you sell your flat with or without an estate agent. If, after reading this article, you would like to convince yourself of us as an estate agent in Tyrol during a no-obligation initial meeting, please feel free to contact us.

You can reach us by phone(+ 43 512 580 242), by e-mail(immobilien@arealita.at) or send us your request by clicking on the purple button.

I would like to obtain a good sales offer without obligation.

With kind regards

Yours, Bernhard Großruck

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