Yahoo Finance Afterpay for selling your property: How to pay $25,000 later
Selling your house is an onerous process – and an expensive one, too.
Commissions paid to real estate agents can be as high as 3.5 per cent of the property’s price.
Meanwhile, other crucial fees, like conveyancing, marketing and auctioning your house, can run as high as $14,000.
So every cent counts – but imagine being able to defer some of these pesky fees.
In a new venture, Domain and payment fintech firm Limepay have joined forces to help tackle this problem and ease up some cash flow strain for those looking to sell their home.
The buy now, pay later product called MarketNow, essentially helps Australians ‘Afterpay’ up to $25,000 in marketing fees.
Through the platform, real estate agencies are able to collect total marketing costs upfront, while allowing sellers to defer these payments.
“Sellers sometimes opt to skimp on marketing because they don’t have all the cash available up front, Limepay co-founder and CEO Tim Dwyer told Yahoo Finance.
Marketing fees are paid on top of the agent commission fee, and helps put the property in the best possible light, covering things like professional photography, video production, listings on real estate websites, billboards in front of the house, digital marketing, and other advertising or printed material.
All these costs can vary depending on different factors, like the market, the property itself, and even the advertising schedule, said Dwyer.
But the app aims to make these marketing services more affordable – without too much pressure on their cash flow, he added, describing it as a “win-win” for both agents and vendors.
“Agents can continue to grow their business whilst vendors have more flexibility to manage their budget without sacrificing an essential step in the home selling process.”
The buy now, pay later product is being rolled out to more than 40 agencies across Australia’s eastern seaboard.
Domain CEO and managing director Jason Pellegrino said sellers were often struggling with a limited marketing budget, yet relying heavily on the listing’s exposure to be able to maximise the property’s sale price.
“The Limepay Domain venture will enable agents to grow their business and ease cash flow strain both on and beyond the Domain platform, and help achieve better outcomes for their vendors and their business,” he said.
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