The Internet has brought about the possibility for people to take a lot more control of the sale of their property. People are wanting to take more control of this process. Enter a site called ReDIY.com.au – that’s “Real Estate Do It Yourself.” We talk to the sites creator Stephen Atcheler.  For special unique offer, click the link.
Transcript:
Kevin:  The Internet has brought about the possibility for people to take a lot more control of the sale of their property. You only have to look at the number of third-party sites that now offer the opportunity for people to get the best agent. People are wanting to take more control of this process – not necessarily doing away with the agent but this has led into a number of people wanting to try it themselves. Enter a site called ReDIY.com.au – that’s “Real Estate Do It Yourself.” I’m going to talk to the man behind this, Stephen Atcheler.
Good day, Stephen, how are you doing?
Stephen:  I’m doing well, Kevin.
Kevin:  Good. As an agent, you probably have a fairly good understanding about the sale process. This has obviously helped you put this together.
Stephen:  Definitely, yeah. With the tools that we had access to as an agent or an agency, being able to have the ability to use those to get properties sold and get rentals leased has led me to believe that with those tools in the hands of somebody doing it themselves, that it can all be possible.
Kevin:  Is this an exercise to cut out the agent totally?
Stephen:  A lot of people are wanting to try first, for whatever reason, whether they’ve had a bad experience with an agent before, so they’ve lost faith, or they don’t see value or they want to save on the commissions.
So, at this point, yes, it will cut out the agent in the initial stage, but we give them all the tools to try it to the complete level that they can doing it themselves, and if they still don’t get the property sold, then an agent can still have the opportunity to step in.
Kevin:  What tools are you talking about that you offer?
Stephen:  The biggest tool to get a property sold is using the major real estate sites, like RealEstate.com.au and Domain.com.au. Most of the private sellers find their way to Gumtree because they’re not allowed to actually access those sites as a DIY landlord or seller.
Kevin:  Okay. So, you’re going to put them on to those major portals. What are some of the flaws in this? Are there any flaws that you’d like to identify?
Stephen:  The biggest flaw is like when people go to do it themselves – and as an agent myself, I used to take a lot of listings off other private seller websites, due to the fact that there’s no guidance on some of the other key areas. There are two things: there’s where to advertise and then there’s how to market.
Being able to give assistance in the marketing is one of the areas where I think a lot of these DIY sellers and landlords let themselves down with their photography, with their scripts, because they’re not a professional at writing scripts, they’re not a professional at marketing.
But they can stand there and point and shoot and take a photo, and we have tools that can do the rest.
Kevin:  Okay. What about the negotiation process and showing people through the property?
Stephen:  One of the biggest things with negotiation is keeping them away from each other, because I think DIY sellers, they’re emotional about their home. When they actually start entering negotiation face-to-face with the buyer, things can get a little bit emotional and a little bit heated.
So, what we’ve built in is a way they will still show the property but if there’s any interest from that party, they can come back and create themselves as a user with us – if they haven’t already – and they can actually negotiate through our portal. They can submit an offer, they can submit their conditions, then they can submit some text in there, as well, so they can chat to each other, and submit that offer to the seller. Once the seller receives the offer, they’ll have the choice in the system where they can accept, counter-offer, or reject.
It keeps them away from each other and they can do this process going back and forth until the point where they reach an agreement. Once they reach an agreement through the portal, it creates a document they can send off to their solicitor, and they can take care of the rest from there.
Kevin:  How does this monetize for you, Stephen? How do you make money out of this?
Stephen:  We make money initially off the advertisement. What a lot of the other companies have done is just given them the ad and then let them fall by the wayside and let them do everything completely by themselves without offering any tools. We want to give so much value that they can manage the process so that everyone’s talking about it. The more ads that we get up online, the more people that sell, the more people talk about it, and that’s how we will make money from it.
Kevin:  Okay. Is there a cost involved for the seller apartment from the advertising?
Stephen:  No. There’s no cost. If they want, we have an offering that we’re going to be going through today that has bolt-ons. So, if they want to get signed, a downloadable brochure pack, there are all these extras in there if they want image, enhancement, video editing, floor plan, all of those like a shopping list of extra add-ons.
If they simply just want to advertise and use the tools in our site, it’s just a flat fee of $299 plus GST until sold.
Kevin:  Okay. Now let’s talk about the special offer that you wanted to make today, and there will be more details about this, I guess, on the site. Is that right?
Stephen:  Yeah, correct. It’ll be on our landing page that we’ll discuss and direct them to later.
Kevin:  The website is ReDIY.com.au. Tell me about the special offer.
Stephen:  For rentals and for sales, we’re giving an offer, which is a hero shot. What we call the hero shot is the main image, where they will just point and shoot and take a nice photo of the front. What we will do with our professional editors is turn that from a day shot into a beautiful lit-up dusk shot, which will make their home look more expensive and help them attract more buyers.
We’ll also edit and image enhance nine further images, and we’re going to give them 10% off their ad, as well. The $299 plus GST will come down by 10% and we’re going to give them some awesome marketing, which will make their property stand out, and give it the best chance of getting sold.
Kevin:  We’re going to send out a flyer on this, too, to anyone on our database, so watch out for that. It’ll come out in the next week or so. The website to get more details and find a little bit more about this special offer is ReDIY.com.au.
Is there a voucher or a code that has to be put in to get that discount?
Stephen:  Yeah. The code is KTOFF.
Kevin:  I don’t know if I like that! Anyway, KTOFF, and the website is ReDIY.com.au.
Stephen Atcheler, thank you so much for your time.
Stephen:  Excellent. Thanks so much for having me, Kevin.