Selling for More in 2024
Whilst every property has a fundamental value, the odds of outperforming the market price can be increased, by adopting some simple yet effective strategies.
Presentation
The modern buyer is time poor and adverse to spending additional money on a property post settlement.
Many buyers subconsciously overstate the cost of works and wipe the inflated figure off their opinion of value. Presenting a home in its finest light is not to suggest one should renovate before selling.
Repair the repairs, focus on creating an emotional and visually appealing presentation, run with an inspired presentation that will appeal and engage the maximum number of potential buyers.
The right presentation can add value to the property whilst a poorly presented property can negatively impact the final selling price.
Price accurately
Many agents underquote in order to attract the best buyers to their listings. Any vendor or agent who ‘overprices with the view to negotiating down’ will unintentionally scare the best buyers off.
Once your home is listed on the real estate websites, it is competing against other properties for a buyer. If you are seemingly priced above the market, the buyer competition won’t ensue for your property, regardless of how well it is presented.
Price accurately, attract and create buyer competition, sell to the buyer who offers you the best price and terms.
Early interest
The best buyers tend to come early. Never reject a strong offer purely because its early in the campaign. If there are multiple strong offers early in the campaign, even better. Know that the best buyers, those who are keenest to buy a property, will turn up early in the campaign. To lose your best buyer and then spend 90 days presenting and showing your property in the hope of finding another buyer at the same price is demoralising and probably a lost cause.
Events
Markets are fluid. Events change the direction of markets. Interest rate moves, changes in Government policy of some sort, geopolitical events, buyer sentiment can gyrate, economic trends, seasons, stock levels all combine to impact on market performance.
One gets the feeling 2024 is going to be a year of events – all of which will impact property markets, both positively and negatively. Stay attuned so that you are comfortable with the timing of your sale.
Agents don’t like to admit that timing and luck have such a massive impact on the sales result. Be strategic with the timing of your sale and pray for luck.
Changeover price
We all know the buy high/sell high – sell low/buy low mantra. Easy in theory – little harder to execute in practice. Particularly when pockets of the housing market are under pressure whilst others are booming.
The market is never linear. If you are buying and selling at the same point in time, hopefully for you there is a logical relativity between the price you sell at and the price you buy at. Focus on the changeover price between the two transactions rather than trying to engineer the improbable sell high/buy low equation.
Right team
Hire the best people. The best real estate lawyer (that’s largely defined as one who is available), the best real estate agent (that’s not necessarily the one who tells you what you want to hear) and the best tradespeople (that’s defined as people who can do a good job in a timely fashion at a fair price).
By Peter O’Malley, author of Inside Real Estate
