A real estate expert claims that most people lose money when they sell their home.

According to Neil Jenman, a former estate agent and now advisor to agents and real estate consumers, home owners are losing millions of dollars every year due to several simple but very costly mistakes.

In a publication, '18 Worst Mistakes Made By Home Sellers', sellers are warned to avoid some of the most common real estate selling methods.

"It is astonishing that so many simple mistakes are made with such an important family asset," said Jenman. "Sensible people, who carefully watch every dollar, throw thousands of dollars away when they sell their homes. They financially vandalise their greatest asset. In expensive areas right through to the cheapest areas, sellers are losing millions of dollars. It is terrible. But it could easily be prevented."

"These mistakes happen because most home owners have no experience with selling real estate. Some people only sell a home once or twice in a lifetime."

Jenman says sellers need more knowledge of what goes on 'behind the scenes' in real estate and they should ask more questions, especially of estate agents. "People question banks about money. They should also question agents because agents often handle more of a family's wealth than a bank."

His advice is to use their latest publication to avoid these costly mistakes. "The mistakes are easy to understand. The key is knowing them before your home goes for sale. The right information is critical."

Jenman says one of the worst mistakes is choosing the wrong estate agent. He claims many agents are not interested in fixing these mistakes and he described many real estate practices as "disgraceful and highly unethical".

Some agents disagree with Jenman whose systems of sale, while increasingly popular with home sellers, are not as popular with some agents.

But Jenman says a growing number of agents are committed to improving ETHICS IN REAL ESTATE "We have almost 250 offices in in Australia & New Zealand using our System. Their focus is on ethics before profits, not the other way around. This information has never been available to sellers before. Whether agents like it or not is of no concern to us. It saves sellers thousands of dollars," he said.

The 18 Costly Mistakes made by Home Sellers is available free of charge from selected agents or by calling 1800 1800 18.

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© 2004 Deane's Real Estate