Consider yourself at home on the web

By PETER SINCLAIR

In theory at least, selling your home on the internet seems the perfect way to go - stopping real estate agents from skimming the cream and tapping into not just a national, but a worldwide, pool of house hunters.

In a global village, that's important.

Take 129 Bleakhouse Rd a couple of years back. It's always seemed to me that Howick rather overdoes its devotion to literature, but you didn't have to be a fan of Dickens to appreciate this demonstration of how to sell a house online - heaps of graphics, a 360 Java-powered interactive panorama of the interior and a million-buck seascape (http://coming.to/howick).

Great expectations of a sale were not disappointed, either. An international bidfest had an American websurfer fly in from the States, only to be outfoxed by an immigrant South African as the till rang to the tune of some $400,000.

Total cost for the website back then? About $300.

Swift success for David Blythe of high-powered WebDesign who authored the site. Take a look, too, at his http://coming.to/mellonsbay for another successful approach to cyber-marketing a private home; and http://coming.to/harbourviews for ideas on how to use the web to let an upscale inner-city apartment.

It certainly beats blurred snaps on cheap paper, doesn't it? As Blythe points out, the net lets you do so many things you can't do in print.

This isn't the kind of work he is looking for these days, but he will consider it "provided the owners have got their act together with the photos." Cost? "$500-$1000 for a reasonably simple site." Andrew Conlan of Cake Island, a smaller web-design outfit, quoted $300-$500 for about the same thing.

Hmm, less than a thousand dollars for a professional design job - and you will probably get the web-hosting for nothing as part of your existing ISP package - as opposed to an agent's commission. Barfoot & Thompson charge 4 per cent on the first $200,000, 2 per cent on the next $300,000, and 1.5 per cent on the balance, plus GST, and they are fairly reasonable. You do the maths ...

So, it's off to the web, then? Not so fast - how are you going to let the world know your house is for sale there? What David Blythe calls "the print mentality" stands between you and your goal. While the real estate industry is happy to sell your house online for you, it will strongly discourage you from trying it yourself.

As David McLeish, corporate services manager for the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand, pointed out, substantial portions of local real estate sales funnel through his organisation, and REINZ is not about to let you or any other individual onto its website - that's for the trade only.

Don't expect a welcome from individual real estate companies, either, unless you leave everything to them and pay accordingly. Mark Thompson, of Barfoot & Thompson, made it clear that his venerable family company wasn't about to encourage a rash of online do-it-yourselfers.

"It will be easier for them to allow us to do it, and pay us for it," he says firmly, also hinting that a facility for "feature properties," to include panoramic views, may be in place by Christmas - at a price. "The reality is, to set up a site of your own is without viability."

David Blythe disagrees entirely. To discover that advertising your house on the net costs more rather than less isn't the way the web's supposed to work. He suggests the Bleakhouse Rd solution: promote the web address everywhere you can think of - on the For Sale sign, in every print medium available. A sentence like: "Fabulous home for sale! - step inside at [web address]" costs next to nothing; and, repeated often enough, can achieve astonishing results if your website is attractive.

If that's too much hassle, you can still hop aboard the REINZ alternative at Open2View - there's a slice of heaven up for grabs on D'Urville Island - or The Private Sale Internet Co: "Homes, Farms & Lifestyle Properties - Contact The Owner Direct - No Commissions & No Hidden Fees!"

I loved this site. There aren't enough properties listed as yet (none at all in the South Island), or nearly enough graphics, and an agreeable air of amateurishness hovers over the whole thing. But it offers some great houses in the North Island.

I've fallen hopelessly in love with a Ponsonby villa called the Cathedral. It's in Richmond Rd and handy to just about everything, including me. Please visit www.privatesale.co.nz/ponsonby.htm, snap it up, and invite me over, often.


Links


coming.to/howick

WebDesign

coming.to/mellonsbay

coming.to/harbourviews

Cake Island

Real Estate Institute of New Zealand

Barfoot & Thompson

Open2View

Private Sale Internet Co

The Cathedral