FAQ

What's the catch?

There is no catch. There are also no asterisks or special conditions on our price, nor will there be (ever). No additional advertising costs, no listing fees, no admin fees, no costs for producing extra flyers, no nothing. The only extra cost is newspaper advertising should you want it, we certainly don't advocate that you use it. This is not included in our package as we no longer feel that it delivers any value to you as the vendor given the penetration of Internet based real estate advertising. Newspaper advertising certainly does deliver some value but it is predominately for your agent and you as the vendor are footing the bill. If you do wish to do newspaper advertising we will prepare the add for you at no cost and organise to have it published. You only pay the bill from the newspaper, nothing more.

Surely not!?

Yep

Can't be

see for yourself or see what others have to say

How can you do this? How do you make money?

It's nice that you are concerned for us but don't worry, we do OK.

Why do other agencies charge so much more?

Unfortunately for them, other agents generally have large overheads due to the way their business is set up. Expensive office frontage to rent, large advertising budgets in newspapers, mailouts, TV advertising, radio advertising, the list goes on. In our case we think our product should speak for itself and should not need flashy media advertising campaigns. We also have developed a web based system that allows us to do everything in house. No waiting times for brochures from printers, no waiting for external web or IT developers at the critical moment.

Are you affiliated with any other agencies?

No, we are asked this often though. We are not sponsored nor have any affiliations with any other agency in Canberra. The owners of point8estate have also not ever worked for any other real estate agency. Some will interpret this as we are inexperienced, they of course are wrong. We counter this by saying that we decided to start afresh and the results so far speak for themselves. Given that we have had to be involved in every part of the real-estate process we can honestly also promise that we can help you every step of the way. That said, we have certainly both sold and bought multiple properties both in Australia and Overseas so do understand what you as a buyer or vendor want.

Why do you do this?

We started point8estate in October 2007 in order to give vendors a better choice.

What are the typical real estate commission rates in Canberra

Short answer: It varies wildly. A year or so ago (2007-2008) it varied between 2.5% and 3.3%, as of late many of the larger agencies seem to be discounting their rates to aprox $10,000. We suggest you ring a few and ask the question point blank. Be sure to ask if there are additional costs such as advertising and if the quoted rate is inclusive of GST.