We've bought and sold quite a few apartments in our lives, so we know the importance of a good agent. The agent knows the market and knows what to do to find the right customer and be satisfied with the price. As you know, it can differ a number of 100 thousand here or there - so it's hard not to think that it matters!
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ShareRobin's wife Alexandra (Peter's granddaughter) works at Booli and told us about a service that seems great if you're thinking of selling and are looking for an estate agent!
The 'Finding Brokers' service
On Hittamäklare, all registered estate agents have a public profile where you can see their sales history, final prices, where they work and what their previous sellers have said about them.
You can search for information on the brokers you are interested in yourself, or you can get help to find a selection of brokers to contact directly. If you want help finding a good broker, click on the following link Finding brokers and do this:
- Enter information about your property and fill in your contact details
- Booli rings up, asks about special requests and tells you how the service works.
- Booli pairs up the seller with up to four estate agents in the area
- Realtors get in touch to the seller, introduce themselves and perhaps arrange a meeting for an initial valuation.
There are no connections for the seller and there is no cost, whether you choose a Booli recommended agent or not.
All apartments we bought and sold ...
I (Helena) started my housing career by buying a small (22 sqm) apartment at St Eriksplan in central Stockholm. It cost just over SEK 300,000 and I thought it was very expensive, but today you laugh a little at that price ... When Peter and I met, my 22 square metres felt like liiite small (remember he had two children!) so we rented an apartment in Sundbyberg, while we renovated and sold my apartment.
Then we bought a 76 sqm renovation object (help, it was a kind of business premises with corridors in dark green, plastic carpets and air drums in the lowered ceiling) in Sundbyberg. We worked around the clock and rebuilt everything, until the apartment looked more like a turn-of-the-century castle inside, haha.
During the almost 10 years that we lived in Sundbyberg, we also managed to buy and sell two other apartments (which we did not live in). And now we live in the houseboat ...
This post contains affiliate links, in collaboration with Booli. The texts, opinions and images are, as usual, our own.
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Storage solutions in a small kitchen - here's what we've done in the houseboat
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Lennart says:
A good broker can be crucial and make a lot of money.
A good deal was probably when we bought a house in Stockholm in 1987.
No estate agent involved, we did it ourselves with some help from the bank. We shared the brokerage fee.
25 September 2016 - 7:07
Lena - good for the soul says:
Wow, how important it is to make the right choice. The times I have sold, I have thought quite a lot about that, but since I studied to become a real estate agent (the theory part a couple of years ago) I understand even more. I've got some new perspectives. I intend to write a post about it in the future. I think many people just choose the broker who has the lowest fee, which can be completely devastating to the end result.
Gosh what work you put into that apartment. Hard to believe that it is the same in the pictures! Really nice work!
Hug Lena
25 September 2016 - 7:54
Diana's dreams says:
My husband is a real estate agent so I have the best one here at home 🙂 .
25 September 2016 - 8:02
Matts Torebring says:
You did a job that probably 95 out of 100 people would agree with when you refurbished a warehouse. As everyone told us about the building we operate in, "level the playing field". Both you and we saw opportunities. When it comes to choosing a broker, I would compete with them. I think you have much lower brokerage fees than we do. With us, brokers are expensive. Perhaps I would sell it myself, if that were the case.
25 September 2016 - 8:14
åsa in åsele says:
Interesting. Here, houses / well, everything is usually advertised on Blocket, we also have an advert sheet that is distributed within the municipality / neighbouring municipalities where people put their house up for sale.
It's strange that you have to repaint and redecorate your flat/house to sell it, and why does everyone want white?
25 September 2016 - 10:01
Solan says:
What a transformation of an ordinary apartment. Applause!
25 September 2016 - 10:03
admin says:
Lennart, if it works without an agent, that's great! Many times, however, I think it can be difficult to be seen without a broker, but maybe it depends on the object and geographical location.
Lena, oh interesting that you studied to be an estate agent! But you don't work like that? Yes, we always put down jobs... Crazy!
Diana's dreams, perfect! Then I understand that you don't look anywhere else 😉.
Matts, yes, most people would have backed off, but Peter usually says that "if you can build a space rocket, you can build this", and so we start from there 😉 So, do we have lower brokerage fees here? I did not suspect that. Greater competition perhaps?
Åsa in Åsele, there are many adverts on Blocket here too, but I don't think it works so well. Yes, why does everyone want white! We wonder that too...
Solan, yes, it was some kind of extreme home makeover haha 😉.
25 September 2016 - 10:32
Ditte says:
Great tip! I read about it in a magazine about a year ago and tried the service for fun. We met with two different realtors, one of which we stuck with, so if we were to sell, I would probably still choose that one.
A service well worth trying.
(If we wouldn't sell the apartment ourselves, of course, because there is a lot of demand where we live.) I sometimes think that the estate agent's fee is too high in Stockholm, even though you can deduct it when the profit is calculated.).
What an amazing job you did with your last apartment, fantastic.
Yes, even with the houseboat you have rebuilt everything.
25 September 2016 - 11:02
Mr Steve says:
What a transformation of yours with that renovation project. How neat and tasteful you made it.
A good broker is worth its weight in gold and it's worth the extra effort to find the "right broker". Then it helps if you yourself have some knowledge in the area. Here, as you know, D is knowledgeable about most things and she is also well acquainted with the property industry, so we have always managed to make good property deals where both buyers and sellers have been satisfied.
25 September 2016 - 11:44
Role o Carina says:
What a lot of work you have done on renovations, there is interest!
We have also renovated the house inside and out!
For the roof, we took the help of skilled craftsmen 🙂.
Take care.......
25 September 2016 - 12:05
Emma, sun like sun? says:
From warehouse to castle! That was one of the coolest transformations I've seen. You must have worked hard!
And no, you don't have to paint everything white. Our estate agent said that it's not worth the effort to do that because everyone is always redoing everything now anyway. Spend time, energy and money on other things, she said. Then I do not know if it was right, we had a pine paradise from floor to ceiling.
25 September 2016 - 12:51
Ama de casa says:
What a great thing! Now I have nothing to sell in Sweden, but it really sounded great 🙂 .
WOW!!! How good you are at renovating! But it was a shame to have to paint that beautiful room white. DUMB realtor!
25 September 2016 - 15:33
Ama de casa says:
In Spain, you do not sign for an estate agent, but can leave your apartment to as many people as you like. If you search online, the same apartment may be listed in several places - with different prices.
Because of this (I think), none of the estate agents care about staging the apartments, and the pictures... Haha! It can really look as messy as possible, with lots of stuff out and people sitting and eating breakfast or something 😀.
25 September 2016 - 15:36
BP says:
Put it this way - you like a change of scenery, like from a castle to a houseboat. Not bad! Personally, I would probably prefer the houseboat, but what a great job you did on the castle.
In terms of estate agents, I can say that we are being called by various agents at the moment. Our area is obviously incredibly popular after so many shoe boxes have been built in and around Täby Centrum. So booli is needed, even if we ourselves are not thinking of selling.
25 September 2016 - 16:01
admin says:
Ditte, glad you tried the service and liked it! And yes, we have been working a lot ...
Steve, yes, it's good to know a little about yourself too! D made sure that you got a fantastic house ðŸ™'
Rolle and Carina, yes it is a lot of work to renovate!
Emma sun as sun, glad you liked the transformation! 😉 I don't think everything should be white either! We first tried to sell without repainting, but when it went slow, the realtor thought we should paint white....
Ama de casa, it was a bit painful to paint over everything, I must say... I've heard before that the apartments that are sold look like anything when you photograph them in Spain. And apparently the same thing in Portugal. Unbelievable how it can be so different!!!
BP, interesting that your area is so hot now! It must feel good to know that you are sitting on something that is sought after 🙂
25 September 2016 - 21:35
Susjos says:
Thanks for the tip! We are keen to move to an apartment... but have a tenant-owned terraced house with a hefty fee, but everything can be sold, even though we live a bit from the city!
Fantastic what job you did with that apartment! And yes, I think we will probably have to paint the stairs white too if/when we sell!
25 September 2016 - 23:24
Cat's Considerations says:
Oh how fun to read about your projects, even if it was in mini format. See that the apartment got a quick makeover to white. I love colours myself, so I can imagine a certain difficult feeling there...
26 September 2016 - 10:32