Piggybacking off another sale in the block - advice

Hi all,

With an upcoming reno to our PPOR, selling our IP is the only way to pony up the cash.

The unit above (3rd and top floor) sold last week for 560K and I've contacted the agent to see if there are still interested parties. There's a fixed lease until December this year but the sale on the weekend seems an opportunity for a potential quick sale targeting the losing bidders. The top floor apartment has a better aspect, a better kitchen, floor covering and some fittings. The aspect is hard to quantify, but the others would come to 15-20K. We'd be happy with 540K.

Questions:
1. what commission % to the agent is reasonable under the circumstances? They'll be no adverstising, just chasing up their books. They say their standard is 2%, but as I only want to target interested parties (i.e. who bid & lost). Tried to lowball at 1% but this is up in the air. I was thinking something like 1.3% for 540K and 2% for every $ upwards.
2. transparency with the tenant, who must know something is up as a property valuer and an agent have been through the property. What message to people typically give the tenant in these circumstances?
3. selling price - seems like for auctions some advice is to NOT tell the auctioneer until the day/during bidding(!) but how would people approach the private sale option.
Opinions/feedback appreciated!

Thanks.
 
update:

1. agreed on 1.5%, from reading threads this is a cost not worth squeezing too hard on as it should have mutual benefit to the seller and agent.

2. told the tenant we're only chasing leads from the auction and not publicly advertising it

3. got a bank val (on site), which is in line with what we think it's worth - 540K - this is our minimum figure and realistically I think the apartment above is worth the extra 20K.
 
update:

had a broker representing the buyer, they had a valuation on the property come in at 530K - 10K below ours. As they're still just opinions the negotiations began.

we were both playing hardball, broker dropped his fee to offer another 2.5K, and our agent dropped his 1.5% to give another 1.25K on the deal and we settled for 534K, settling once the lease ends in december. This was the only serious offer we had, but was a good offer and both parties were stretched and was very happy with the way my agent handled the situation.

The 6 years CGT was coming up at the end of the year, the tenant was probably going to walk leaving us trying to rent it near xmas and we want the money to pay down our large debt on the PPOR. All in all a good result with minmum sell costs - just the agents fee.
 
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