Success Stories: Alistair from Bulimba, QLD

“I put a blue suit on for inspections and everyone thought I was a real estate agent! It is that easy!”

Alistair sold his five-bedroom, three-bathroom family home at 2/62 Jamieson Street, Bulimba himself, through PropertyNow, for $2,125,000 on 10 August 2026. The listing went live on 14 June, so the whole campaign took eight weeks. He’d gone to market at “Offers over $2,249,000”, ran the open homes in a suit, built his own website for the property (his realestate.com.au ad told buyers to google the address), and paid no commission at all.

How much did that save him? At typical Queensland rates an agent would charge somewhere between 2.5% and 2.8% (the Queensland median sits around 2.8%). On $2,125,000 that’s roughly $53,000 to $59,500 in commission, before GST and before the agent’s marketing package. Alistair paid PropertyNow’s flat listing fee and picked up a corflute open-home sign. Call it a saving of more than $50,000. You can run your own numbers on the commission savings calculator.

He was generous enough to answer our questions afterwards, and he didn’t hold back. These are his words.

What services did PropertyNow provide that assisted you most?

“A real estate licence to be able to list on realestate.com.au and Domain.com.au is really the only thing that matters (sadly). The industry is basically a cartel…! Being able to get the corflute sign for open homes was handy.”

Were you hesitant before trying private selling? What made you decide to give it a go?

“Real estate agents have the least integrity of any industry I have seen. The extortionate fees they charge have no relation to the amount of work they do.

We met a few estate agents and went to other open homes. I didn’t see much value in anything a real estate agent does. The main advantage a real estate agent has is they are selling multiple properties so they can find buyers from other enquiries and direct them to another home. This could work in your favour or against you though.”

Do you have any interesting, fun or unique stories to share about your experience?

“I created my own website for the house to market the property and share all the property information (contract docs, building and pest report, recent sales) that is usually handed out in the brochures at an open home and thrown in the bin. I set up laptops around the house to show the website (check-in for inspections) and printed business cards with the QR code for the website. I had mood music and the house always smelled great!

I put a blue suit on for inspections and everyone thought I was a real estate agent! It is that easy! When I told people I was the owner and not a real estate agent they were excited to share their nightmare stories about dealing with estate agents so it immediately gave us common ground to build a relationship.”

When you sold your property yourself, how did it feel? Was it empowering?

“I would not say empowering. It was a relief. Selling anything is a very binary experience. Either you sell it or you don’t, so it is difficult to manage emotions as it feels like it is never going to sell, until you actually get an offer.”

What do you plan to do now that you’ve sold?

“I am now looking to buy a new home.”

If you could go back in time and give yourself some advice before selling your own home, what would it be?

“I don’t think I would do anything differently. It comes down to who is in the market at the time you list and how long they have been looking, so luck plays a bigger role than you would hope.

Getting visibility on realestate.com.au is a game. We had an inspection time pretty much every day for the first 2 to 3 weeks so that we were always in the ‘upcoming inspections’ filter. Paying the extortionate fees for a featured or premier listing is the most stark example of price gouging I have ever seen!”

What was the hardest part for you personally, and how did you overcome it?

“The most difficult bit is marketing and getting visibility of the property and then getting people to inspections. I recommend just having a lot of inspections and then getting into a routine of doing them. Look at the inspection times of similar properties selling near you and piggyback off their marketing and inspection times. It is a grind but keeping your property visible is the key.”

What Alistair’s story shows

He’d be the first to tell you it wasn’t a breeze. Two months on the market, with an open home nearly every day at the start, is a real stretch of effort. He describes the sale as a grind and the result as a relief, and he’s clear that timing and luck play a bigger part than anyone likes to admit. We agree, and we’d rather you hear that from a seller than a brochure.

But look at what he actually did. He gave buyers the contract, the building and pest report and recent sales up front instead of making them ask. He kept the property in the “upcoming inspections” filter for the best part of three weeks. He matched his open-home times to the agents selling nearby and let their advertising bring people down his street. None of that needs a licence. It needs a routine, and Alistair built one.

The licence part is where we come in. Realestate.com.au and Domain only take listings from licensed agents, so that’s what our flat fee buys: your home on the portals every buyer is already using, with our licensed team on the phone seven days a week if you get stuck. The rest, as Alistair found, you can do in a blue suit.

If you’re weighing it up, our guide to selling your house privately walks through the whole process, and we’ve written separately on the pros and cons of open homes and on keeping a listing visible so it sells faster. Both cover, in more detail, the two things Alistair says mattered most.

More seller stories

• How one couple saved $75,000 with PropertyNow
• Nevenka, Queensland
• Mardi from Loganholme, QLD
• Vicki, NSW Mid North Coast

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By the PropertyNow team. Alistair’s answers are published as he gave them, lightly trimmed. The commission figures above are estimates based on typical Queensland agent rates and are not a quote from any agent.