Q. Why did you decide to use Comfree?
"We used an agent to sell our last home and it sold in less than a day, but we still had to pay about $7,000 in commission, and I thought that was an awful lot. The previous owners of this house sold it to us using ComFree so we thought we would give them a chance.
"Our plan was to list with ComFree and, if it hadn’t sold after two or three months, to switch to an agent. We actually held two open houses and it sold after the second one, so it took about three weeks."
Q. Having sold privately, what advice do you have for others?
"The main message is not to get discouraged. Sometimes a home sells the first day and sometimes it doesn’t. We had about a dozen couples at our first Open House and then about 17 couples at the next one.
"Often the ones who seem most excited and keen are not the ones who end up making a serious offer. This is a great area with super neighbours and many new homes. Ours is an older home, about 32 years old, but with lots of character and we were worried that might be a disadvantage, but it wasn’t. People liked it because it was a unique home with character in a good neighbourhood.
"ComFree was very helpful with advice and they also told us we didn’t have to drop everything just because someone drops by to look around the house. By setting our own Open House timetable we had more control over things, which is important when you have an infant with regular bath and feeding times.
When you use an agent, they can call at any time and you sort of have to drop everything. We had little inconvenience this way."
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Michelle Mielke and son, Tripp: I got lots of mail from agents wanting to list it, but I wanted to try to sell it privately first.
Q. How did you fare financially?
"We weren’t sure of values but asked for $197,000 and got a confirmed offer for $195,000. We accepted and are happy with it. So we saved about $14,000 in commissions. We’re happy with that and would certainly use ComFree again."
Q. Were there any issues?
"No, it went smoothly. This place was too big for just the three of us and we’ll miss the neighbours, but we are now looking for a new place to live.
"Once this home went up for sale, I got lots of mail from agents wanting to list it, but I wanted to try to sell it privately first.
"One agent did call asking to let him list it and I told him immediately that I might consider that for a commission of one or two per cent, that he could forget about seven per cent. He gave up after that because I was quite firm and stuck to my guns."
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