The Market Is What The Market Is

Written by Paul Kounnas | Wednesday, 02 May 2012

When selling what is probably your most valuable asset, the family home, it should come as no surprise that presentation plays a vital role. The person responsible for the presentation of your home is you, just as the agent is responsible for the marketing and negotiation.

Buying a home is an emotional process and the feel of a home is usually more important than the price. Therefore first impressions can create permanent opinions and feelings about the home, so for the best results set a positive mood ...

for prospective buyers. You want buyers to fall in love with your property, so give it that loved look and feel.

When your home presents better than others it will appeal to more buyers and will increase your chances of selling quickly and at a better price. Once you have presented your home as best you can, you then must select a competent agent, one you can trust to market and negotiate on your behalf. The final price you receive will then be the best available market price.

Neither you nor the agent control the market. The market is what the market is. But you can control the presentation of your home and your agent can control the marketing and negotiate the best price for you. This can mean thousands of dollars in or out of your pocket. A good agent will persuade buyers to inspect your property and to buy it in preference to other properties on the market.

Don’t allow the state of the market to affect your plans either. Some people put their plans on hold waiting for a better market.

But when you are selling and buying at the same time it makes little difference what the market is doing. In a down market you may sell for less but you can also buy for less. If you wait for the market to improve in order to sell for more you will also be paying more when you buy.

Don’t waste your life waiting for a better market, make the move to where you want to be living and get on with your life today.

Be Choosey

Written by Gary Pittard | Wednesday, 14 March 2012

When selling your property, it pays to be choosey.

Choose Skill, Not Opinions
Some agents tell lies to win your business. Be very careful that you do not choose the agent who tells you the biggest lie about how much ‘you will get’ for your property. This is called ‘buying the business’.

Unless the agent is prepared to buy your property, his or her opinion is irrelevant. If you choose agents based on the selling price they quote ...

you – their opinions – you may be badly disappointed, and may even wind up in financial difficulty.

If you suspect that an agent is attempting to buy your business with an inflated sale price estimate, insist they give you their estimate in writing.

Insist, also that they charge you nothing if they sell for less than the price they estimated. This will identify the agents who are enticing you with false quotes.

Choose Skill, Not The Cheapest
Cheap agents get cheap prices. Be careful choosing an agent based purely on their fees.

If agents give their own money away what do you think they will do with your money?

It may be better to pay an extra one percent for a selling fee than to receive ten percent less on your selling price.

Good negotiators rarely give big discounts on their fees. If they get you the best market price, they are worth a fair fee.

Choose NEGOTIATION Skill
If you have spent much time interviewing real estate agents, you may have noticed that they talk endlessly about the advertising they do, but few talk about the one thing that is most important to you – their negotiation skill.

Poor negotiators can cost you a lot of money.
Negotiation skills are vital to ensuring you get the highest possible price.

A good negotiator can achieve up to an extra ten precent on your selling price. This can mean thousands of dollars.

If you have an attractive property you don’t need a salesperson as much as you need a negotiator.

Ask your agent to PROVE his or her negotiation ability to you. Most won’t be able to do so. These are the agents you should avoid.

The Price Dilemma

Written by Paul Kounnas | Wednesday, 29 February 2012

The four prices for your home

What is the right price for your home?

Every home has four prices:

• The price the vendor wants,
• The price the buyer wants to pay,
• The price the agent believes it is worth (which often, is different to the price they may quote you)
• The ...

price a competent agent can get the buyers to pay.

Is the right price the price you want or the price you think your property is worth?… No it’s not - although your price may be important to you, it has no relevance to the actual value or the market price.

Could the right price be the price the agent believes it’s worth or the price he/she quotes you?… Again the answer is no.

Is the right price the price the buyer wants to pay?...well not quite, because buyers generally want to buy for as low as possible, just as vendors want to sell for the highest price.

The right price is the best price a trained real estate agent can persuade the buyers to pay. This is the only price that matters and all the other prices are just meaningless numbers.

The biggest decision you as a seller have to make is which agent to choose. This is by far the most important decision you will ever make when selling your home, because the agents skill level (not the price they quote you), will determine the price you get.

To increase your chance of achieving the best possible price for your home, choose an agent who is competent, ethical and uses systems that benefit you and not them. They must also be well educated in marketing and negotiation.

The final price will be determined by what price your agent can persuade the buyer to pay. It’s therefore important to understand the best price for your home will always be influenced by your choice of agent and the systems they use, not the price they quote you. So choose carefully.

The other thing about price is that it’s not set in stone; it can change in a very short period of time. The price can move upwards or downwards subject to changing market conditions. Demand for your particular home may suddenly increase or decrease.

The market will always set the price range for your home but the right agent can use their skill to negotiate the highest possible price from all interested buyers within that market range.

What Sells A Home

Written by Paul Kounnas | Wednesday, 15 February 2012

It is every home sellers dream to sell their home quickly and for the best possible price. But how can this outcome be achieved?

The most common mistake many sellers make when selling is they discover the true market value of their home only after they are talked into signing up for an expensive advertising campaign. If the price they want is not reached during the marketing, the seller is locked in. They either sell for less than they had originally hoped to achieve or they pay for an expensive advertising ...

campaign that did not result in a sale.

Understanding some of the factors that affect how quickly and at what price your home may sell can save you from wasting thousands of dollars on a failed advertising campaign:

The location of your home is vitally important and will play a major part in how quickly it sells and the price you receive.

But the most important determining factor whether your home sells is not location, it’s price!

That’s right, the price is the main reason your home sells or not.

Just imagine that you have a well presented home in a sought after area with a price that is more than any other comparable home in the area. Is anyone going to buy it? No, buyers may not even inspect it. You can advertise it on the front page of the Herald Sun if you like and it’s still not going to sell if it’s overpriced.

But if you price the property competitively it will attract genuine interest and will sell. It will sell for a better price than what an overpriced and overexposed property that’s been on the market for months will end up selling for.

Some other factors that can affect the sale of your home are its street appeal and its presentation when buyers step through your front door. Does your home have that WOW factor to win the hearts of buyers? Also renovated bathrooms, and updated kitchens with open living areas that flow to an outdoor entertainment area, can greatly enhance the appeal of your home. But ultimately it will still come down to price.

If you want the best possible price you must be realistic about the true market value of your home in today’s market. The final price you’ll receive will be what a good agent can negotiate from a genuine buyer.