So far we’ve seen that it is not hard to estimate the value of your property and that there is no reason why you can’t advertise it yourself.

Once you start advertising, people will start enquiring about your property. There are certainly no problems involved here. All you do is answer the questions people ask you. From this point you have a big advantage over professional sales people because you’ll be able to answer a lot of questions about your property that they won't be able to answer unless they ask you first.

It would be wise to instruct any children who might answer your phone how to handle the calls you receive regarding the property.

Don’t expect too many calls. Generally, if you got up to three responses to a newspaper ad you would be doing exceedingly well.

When I was selling real estate through agencies I, and the other salespeople I worked with, thought we were fortunate if we averaged one response to each ad. Also, we would have been lucky if half of those who enquired actually made an appointment with us to view it.

Occasionally people make enquiries for no other reason than to be nosy. For this reason, it is a good idea to ask for their name and telephone number. If they are reluctant to do this then you know that they are not genuine and they will know that you have called their bluff. Having their phone number can come in handy if you forget to inform them about something that could influence further interest.

You could consider asking enquirers a few probing questions to find out how genuine they are, but I personally believe it is best to leave these questions until they have expressed a particular interest in the property. You may need to sacrifice a bit of time to accomplished time wasters, but this is part of the package that comes with property selling.