KEY POINTS:
Half of the people trying to sell their homes plan to go private and bypass real estate agents, research released today shows.
The sellers blame high commissions and undue pressure from agents for their decision, the Nielsen research reveals.
Alistair Helm, chief executive of realestate.co.nz, which commissioned the research, described it last night as a wake-up call for the industry.
But he warned that many people might think it was easy to sell a house, then run into problems.
"You may think you could do a great job of re-tiling your bathroom, but would you risk trying it, or get the experts in?"
One third of all home-sellers in the survey said they would try to sell privately at first. Another 17 per cent said they would definitely sell privately.
Among first-time sellers the figure was even higher: 55 per cent said they would at least try to manage their own home sale.
Three-quarters of the sellers said it was because they did not want to pay commissions and 60 per cent said they did not see any value in what estate agents could provide. More than half said they did not like the pressure exerted by real estate agents.
Real Estate Institute head Murray Cleland defended agents' tactics and said many people were often thankful that they had listened to their agent.
"It's a very emotive situation and sometimes people need a bit of encouragement to get the job done."
He said only about 10 per cent of all property sales were carried out privately.
