In the market to buy or sell a property? Forget about working with costly estate agencies; this is why you should go the online route instead…

Did you know that moving house is said to be more stressful than divorce and starting a new job? And that’s just the act of the moving process itself, it doesn’t even begin to address the stress of the buying and selling of property…

While it is true that partnering with a professional real estate agent who knows what they’re doing can eliminate some of the hassle, the reality is that this may end up costing you a lot more money than you can really afford, especially now that consumers are being warned to really tighten their belts.

Instead, there’s a lot to be said for taking your life, your property and your future into your own hands and buying and/or selling your home online.  By doing it yourself, you can control the whole process; arranging times for prospective buyers to view your property when it suits you and taking the liberty to market and show-off your property as you see fit.

When it comes to buying or selling property online, controlling the process is only one of many perks. There are plenty others too:

Popular reasons to sell your property online

1)      Advertising your property online is simple, cost-effective and gets plenty of people through the door. Take Private Property’s website as an example… They claim to attract “more than 300,000 interested buyers every month” and “generate over 700,000 emails and SMSs” – that’s a much larger database of actual interested buyers than your local estate agent has at her fingertips!  Plus, advertising your property on Private Property’s website will only set you back between R1,295 and R4,495 for six months’ listing on the site. Included in such a deal is “For Sale” and “On Show” boards as well, making sure that you get sufficient exposure in your neighbourhood too. Compare that to the five to seven percent (of the full selling price of your property) an estate agent would require as a management fee and it becomes clear that listing your property online offers loads more bang for buck!

2)      Most online property sites offer additional services to make your life a breeze. Much like the services an estate agent would offer, many property sites have value added services like securing and processing offers on your property and can even put you in contact with a conveyancer to draw up all the documentation required.

3)      Listing your property online means prospective buyers contact you directly, allowing you to be in control of the entire viewing process; after all, who would be better to show off your property than you? And, being in full control means that you can schedule viewings when it suits you and gauge which inquiries you want to follow up on.

4)      You can even do it all for free… That’s right folks, while there are plenty of property listing sites that charge a property-listing fee, many sites also offer free advertising opportunities.  MyRoof.co.za and FreePropertyAds.co.za are some of the platforms that you can use for free listings.

5)      When it comes to estate agents, exclusivity is the name of the game, with many refusing to assist you with selling your property unless they have a set period of exclusivity in which they are the only ones marketing your property. Online, however, you can list and advertise your property to your heart’s content!

Popular reasons to buy property online

1)      Options galore! Forget about the ten or twenty properties that one estate agency has on their books, online property sites offer you gazillions of options of property listings placed by both private sellers and estate agents.

2)      Sophisticated searching at your fingertips makes browsing for properties online simple and stress-free. Not only can you select which suburb(s) you’re interested in, but you can also capture the price range that you are looking at and even filter through properties based on their features. The outcome of such a search is that the final results displayed include only the select properties that literally tick all the right boxes – saving you heaps of time as you don’t have to sift through every single property listing in your area of interest.

3)      Nine out of ten times, buying a property through a private seller costs less, because the seller doesn’t have to factor in the estate agent’s fees as an extra. Instead, buying directly from a seller that you found online cuts out the middleman, saving you time and money that results in a win-win situation for both parties.

4)      No more dealing with overly pushy pompous agents… Admit it, when it comes to selling stuff, people can be rather pushy; trying to convince you to look at options that either don’t fit into your budget or don’t meet your minimum criteria. Enquiring about properties online and viewing them privately, means no need for uncomfortable small talk with an agent.

5)     It’s fun.  Nothing beats sitting in your PJs with a cosy cuppa browsing through properties online and dreaming about the next chapter in your life!

As you can see, there are plenty of reasons why you should buy or sell your home online.  That said, opting for this route is not necessarily a walk in the park either. When advertising online, it is imperative that you keep your safety and the safety of your property top of mind – always making sure that you trust your gut instinct and if something doesn’t feel right, don’t let them in to your property and it’s advisable to never show potential buyers your property alone.