We put our beautiful Sandringham property on the market last year with high hopes, but despite the “best efforts” of the agent the auction failed. In the process we incurred some phenomenal costs, including $13,000 for advertising, and thousands more for home staging ($5,000 for the first month, and an extremely expensive ongoing package deal). This was enough to put us off considering the so called big 4 when it was time to try again.

A few months ago I came across my former neighbour and we began discussing real estate as I was thinking of putting our house back on the market. She was in the process of selling with Aitken, and highly recommended them to me. I considered her advice and later discussed it with a friend, who by chance had sold though Aitken's in the past and echoed my neighbors' rave reviews. This was enough to instill confidence, and we ended up listing our property not long afterwards.

What made the agency stand out... They only conduct inspections by private appointments, which means that the only people coming through your house are the ones who are actually interested in buying it. Essentially they make sure there aren't any sticky beaks coming through, which I found was a much more efficient way of doing things. We also didn't pay a cent for advertising, photography, staging, or auctioneers' fees. Even better, I didn't have to worry about all of the stress associated with conducting an auction - if you've ever had to sell a home this way you'll know EXACTLY what I'm talking about.

We found that the dedication of Aitken's was brilliant as was their communication. We would definitely use them again in the future. I have already recommended them to a number of people, and will continue to do so.