Selling your property?

Before you make any life altering decisions consider the following options and avoid these common mistakes.

Have you considered the real cost involved in selling and re-purchasing, and is selling in fact your best option?

People sell their homes for a variety of reasons, in many cases without realizing there are better options. It’s worth considering the costs involved in selling a property before making that final decision. Simply re-designing the furnishings, refreshing the paint work and the addition of some new accessories is sometimes all it takes to make your home feel brand new. Many would-be sellers, after making these alterations in the lead up to selling, decide they really do love the area and no longer have the desire to move. Even minor renovations like upgrading the kitchen and bathrooms or even to the extent of adding a room can prove more practical than selling and moving.

This decision could single-handedly sabotage the sale of your property!

Determining the correct listing price - it's imperative you get this one right.

Having made the decision to sell, your next consideration is to determine the correct listing price. This conclusion is one of the most important decisions you’ll make when it comes to selling and it’s one that could single handedly sabotage the sale of your property.

If your property is quite similar in land size and characteristics to other properties that have sold in your area, then some simple on-line research can give you a quick and accurate idea of your possible price range. Research through websites such as www.realestate.com.au and www.domain.com.au must include the price of properties sold, as asking prices are often not accurate indicators of what properties are actually worth.

Without internet access you can still research the market, but it’s more time consuming and generally involves viewing properties that are for sale and then following up to find out the sale price once they’re sold.

Once you’re armed with this knowledge, a good real estate agent will be able to confirm your research results and it is highly recommended that you ask them to supply a *‘Comparative Market Analysis’ to support their appraisal.

It’s important to note that Real Estate Sales are a very competitive industry which unfortunately means that some agents will overprice your property in their effort to secure the listing. Just be aware, do your own research and don’t fall into the trap of pricing your property too high to test the market. *This analysis should list comparable properties sold in your area and preferably include photographs where possible.

If your property is somehow unique, then it’s well worth engaging a professional to give you a more accurate valuation. At the time of writing this article Valuers on average cost around the $300 mark increasing in accordance with the size, value and complexity of the property.

Should I test the market with a higher starting price?

Studies show that a property's’ prime selling potential is in the first 3 weeks from commencement of the marketing campaign. This is when interest is at its peak. As time goes on, the property doesn’t sell and interest wains, people begin to wonder if there’s a problem and before you know it there is a stigma associated with the property. “That one’s been on the market for a while now… there must be something wrong with it!”

Why bother with presentation, the right person will come along and love our home for the same reasons we did…

True or False?

Real Estate agents often talk about the lost potential in selling homes that don’t present well and the thousands of dollars lost once they’ve sat on the market for too long. Unfortunately, for both the agent and the home owner,
the agent feels their hands are tied to a degree and that if they force the presentation issue that they may offend and even risk losing the listing altogether.

You see in Property Marketing terms ‘Poor Presentation’ doesn’t necessarily mean the owner is not making an effort to present their property or that they have poor taste, the problem is that individual taste differences create a limit in the target market. Home owners often feel that the person who buys their home will obviously be a person with the same taste as they have. Unfortunately what this means is, they are relying on selling the property to a market that is strictly limited to buyers with a particular taste.

Why would you deliberately set out to only attract a small percent of the market, when there are simple, inexpensive alternatives that will potentially increase the number of buyers from 1/10 to 10/10 interested buyers?

For many buyers is too difficult to visualize simple changes that could be made, to make a home their own or are just too busy to be bothered going to the trouble.

Feature walls make a property more interesting but will they help or hinder getting your property sold?

Selling a home with feature walls is completely dependent on buyers sharing the same taste in colour as you do. This in effect can reduce the potential buyers who fall in love with your property from 1-10 to 1-100 if you're lucky. Do you really want to limit your target market to only people who have furnishings that will match your feature walls?

How to increase your target market?

Actually it is surprisingly simple… the key to broadening your target market is to neutralise your home. What this means, particularly in a slower market is the greater the number of people who are likely to appreciate your home, the quicker your home will sell and the better the price you’ll get through added competition.

There are a lot more aspects to neutralising a home than most people realize, however the most obvious is in colour scheme choices. Feature walls are great, but when you’re selling keep it neutral. When choosing colour schemes particularly with big areas such as walls and floors be mindful that if the potential buyer’s lounge is blue, yellow or even purple the more neutral your colour scheme, the more buyers you stand to attract. That doesn’t mean your décor has to be boring there are less permanent ways of adding colour and interest.

The best way to attract bargain hunters & potentially lose $thousands …the ‘Renovators Delight’

Of course there are properties that could use more than a liberal dose of TLC. In that case the home owner needs to decide how much they are prepared to lose to sell the property as it is…

This should be the absolute last resort in marketing your property to sell!

Once a property enters the renovator category, you have conceded to target the “Bargain Hunter” end of the market and this can only mean one thing, they are going to try to steal your home for a song.

There is one exception to this rule and that is when a property is being sold for land value only. It still pays to present the property well, in case the buyer plans to rent or live there for a while.

In this case consideration should be given to basic cleanliness and maintenance with only minimal expense. Depending on the situation using a little foresight, spend more on presenting the land with attractive landscaping to boost the street appeal of the property rather than on remodelling the house. There is a trick to knowing the types of improvements to do here without going to a lot of expense, because whilst street appeal will help to sell the property, with knock down & re-build situations, chances are the landscaping will change with the new dwelling anyhow.

Simple, inexpensive solutions that will substantially increase your property’s price perception …

It’s a common misconception in these circumstances that there are no other options. Most people would be astonished in fact how little they actually need to spend to achieve a substantially higher price and with a surprisingly small degree of effort required.

First Impressions start at the letter box…

Street appeal has the potential to make or break the sale of a property!

A huge concern for sellers once the property is listed and the best marketing plan and method of sale has been decided on is to actually get people in the front door.

Many buyers won’t even make it through the front door if a home has poor street appeal, they’ll just keep driving on to the next property on their list.
This is where first impressions create perceptions that can make or break the sale of a property and have an impact on the end price that can be devastating or positively life changing. It’s all about perception; this is where it all begins…

From the very first glimpse a buyer is already forming an opinion of your property. The perceived value of a property is often established in a buyers mind within the first 10 seconds. Something as simple as a shabby letter box, lack of landscaping or quite simply an untidy yard can radically affect the sale price. Add to that a broken screen or poorly maintained home exterior has a buyer already reducing the price they’re willing to offer for your home. It also works as an indication to the buyer as to how well maintained the property is and has them anxiously looking harder for further faults they might find.

A well maintained property with excellent street appeal on the other hand, generally has the opposite effect with the buyer, they tend to be less concerned with finding fault and more positive and excited about viewing the rest of the property.

This one's pretty simple, but it's one many people find difficult...

Once the decision is made to sell, you need to get serious. Detaching emotionally can be the biggest draw back for many vendors, but it’s such an important part of the process which allows you to start thinking of your home as a saleable asset, and no longer your home. The property will sell and sooner or later you will have to pack. Packing sooner rather than later aids dramatically in the de-cluttering, cleaning and de-personalizing process, this in turn will help to sell the property sooner. The best part of all is when it’s time to move, most of the hard work is already done and you’re well on your way to your next home or venture.

The unappreciated value of a little bit of elbow grease!

One area in particular that can make a huge difference to freshening up a home with very little expense and just a little effort is in the cleaning of walls.
Walls should be cleaned anyhow prior to painting and in many cases, walls that seriously appear to need painting actually come up as good as new with
a really good clean. The difference this one area of cleaning can make is invaluable and worth paying someone to do if you physically can’t do it yourself.

What if someone was willing to pay you thousands of $$$ to do this?

That’s basically what it amounts to. Never underestimate the value of cleaning a house to sell. Not only does it remove smells, makes a house look bigger, fresher and so much more appealing, it also subconsciously indicates to the potential buyer that this house has been well looked after. They are more positive in their approach to the property and it gives them fewer reasons to offer a lower price.

It can all seem a little daunting especially if there’s quite a lot to do, but it might pay to consider this - if someone told you, you could earn thousands of dollars just by cleaning your house would you consider having a go. The best way to start is with a checklist and stick with working on one room at a time.

Presenting your home to sell can be a daunting task, to help you to ensure you don't make these common property selling mistakes & to help keep you on track, click this link get your Property Presenters Sunshine Coast FREE Property Presentation Tips & Action Plan.

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