What is my Real Estate Agents Strategy to sell my home?

Selling homes around Canning Vale and surrounding suburbs, it amazes me how many times houses stay on the market for extended periods of time. This is either a lack of strategy on the part of the agent or an owner who may not have researched price correctly before taking the property to the market.  Our job as agent is to maximise the price you receive from the market. We can’t create prices, just enhance them. The strategy used by the real estate agent will assist you in obtaining a better price for your house.

Quick tip: Putting your house up for sale, advertising and waiting for the right buyer to walk through is not a strategy. Make sure your agent explains their strategy to you and you can understand and see how that would work and be beneficial for you.

The difference between a strategy from commencement of marketing or the hit and miss method of just listing for sale and waiting to see what happens can mean thousands of dollars in your pocket. This very important piece to the pie is another key factor when appointing an agent.

What strategies have they employed lately?

How did they sell their last few properties?

After the 6 week window of opportunity has passed and if your house is not sold, what strategy will they utilize to keep interest in the property?

How close will the agents appraisal price be to the end sale price?

I would like to start this article with a statement that as real estate sales people, we market, negotiate and facilitate the sale. We cannot create a price for a property. When asked to appraise a property, it’s generally a tough task. Unless your property is exactly the same as one that sold recently, it will vary.

Factors that affect price are

• Presentation
• Time on market
• Interest level
• Emotional appeal
• Urgency

A home sitting on the market for 6 months will not achieve the same price as one sold within the window of 4-6 weeks.

A number of those factors can be enhanced by yourself. Your agents’ part in the process is to enhance the decision making and optimise the price from the ultimate buyer for your property. This is done with effective marketing, negotiating and the right strategy.

Having sold for many years, I am continually surprised the prices some people pay for homes. With all the boxes ticked and the right agent, lets hope you get  a price for the market you are happy to accept.

The Appraisal

Take your agent for a ‘tour’ of your  home and make sure you point out all the features. They need to be making a list of what your property offers so they can refer to this later when marketing your property.

Some agents will give you a price on the same time where others will prefer to do some research and get back to you. I personally do my figures in writing unless the owner wants to place their property for sale with me immediately. Then we discuss local sales, properties for sale and a method to achieve the best price from the market.

When receiving your estimate/submissions from the agent, they generally include the CMA (comparative market analysis ) together with promotional material from their company. You can view this as kind of a resume where you can see how professional the company is with their material, how relevant the sales figures are and even for errors or mistakes in the submission book.

On your second appointment with the agent in going through the submission, you can ask them the more difficult questions. It will work to see this process as a job interview where you are looking to employ a person to do a job for you. Have your questions ready and be prepared.  An example of some questions you may like to consider asking your agent are as follows.

• How long have you been in real estate? Starting at 18 and looking like I was 14, I had this question asked almost every time. As my years grew, I slowly started gaining more and more experience. I was competing against much older but fair less experienced. In this career, people often commence at a later stage and even though they look like they have been in real estate for a long time, they may be very new.  I would like to mention here that sometimes new agents work harder than more experience agents who have been selling for many years and may have lost some of their passion and enthusiasm for the job.
• What strategy will you be using for selling my home? Having been selling for 10 years and talking with many home owners and agents, it’s scary that some agents just don’t have a strategy. When selling your property, you want an agent with a plan that works.  
• What marketing will you be doing for my property? Make sure your property is well exposed. Better marketing means more buyers which results in more competition which pushes up your price.
• Can I see what marketing to expect? You want this so you can see the quality of the marketing. You go to some much time and effort in presenting your home, a poor quality photo or bad brochures diminish the emotional appeal for a property.
• Where are you getting sales from? As a seller, you want to make sure that the agent is advertising well on the places and areas that count.
• Do you have a buyer database? Most offices should have a database of buyers that they can send your home too. If its online, why not ask for a demo?
• How much is your fee? You want to make sure they are not too cheap or too expensive. You are looking for value and service that gets results.
• How much advertising money do I need to contribute?
• What communication can I expect from you over the sale process?
• How long is your selling agent agreement?

Contacting an Agent

All Real Estate Agents in Perth offer free market appraisals so you don’t need to wait till you get a flyer in your letter box. Selecting a company can be tough as many suburbs offer 6-10 different companies that can service your area.

Recommendations from family and friends that have sold in the area are always good but as long as they are recent. Some agents have personal circumstances change and they are not as efficient and hard working as they may have once been.

When contacting a local office, the next representative on the list will receive your enquiry unless you specifically ask for an agent by name. This is kind of the luck of the draw method and hope that the agent they send out will be effective. I generally recommend people go out on the weekend and start attending some home opens. Here you will meet local agents directly and get a feel for how they operate at a home open, interact with buyers walking through and follow up your attendance. You may want to let them you are keeping an eye on the market or looking to purchase but have only just started your search. Providing a name and number will allow you to see how efficient this agent is in following up attendance from the home open. You want a hard working agent who follows up every potential buyer that views your property. Attending 6-8 home opens in the area will short list the companies and representatives you feel comfortable with and offer the communication and service you would like for your property when it comes for sale.

If the agent leaves you unattended at the home open, doesn’t ask you questions and doesn’t follow up, how effective will this person be in looking after your sale and providing you with the information you need to know like

How many people through my home today?

What did they think?

Is there anything the buyers didn’t like that we may be able to change?

What was every buyer’s opinion on price?

When you get an offer, you are only going to be able to decide if this is a fair, low or good price from the market if you know what everybody else has thought after coming through. Without this information, you cannot make an educated decision. This is where an agent who communicates well and provides written reports is of huge value to you.

Once you have shortlisted 2-4 agents you like and were efficient, you need to contact them and book a time to have them attend the home. Calling them on the mobile and just leaving name and number and no reason for the call will be another test as to how quick they return your phone call. In this era of instant not being fast enough, a buyer left waiting for a day or two before a phone call back may move on to another home.

So how much is my home worth?

Most home owners tend to start the process by keeping an eye out on what has sold in their area. This can now be done easily with a few clicks of a button online or even see what is currently selling by looking at the new apps from the major website providers.

Some companies are now providing reports can you purchase directly so you know exactly what has sold, when and for how much.

Large websites often publicise sales figures giving a good indication on what may be able to expect for your home.

Generally speaking, you need to look at sales figures within the last 3 – 6 months if possible. Any older and the sale price will reflect differing market conditions and potentially a higher or lower price than may be achieved at the moment.

Every now and then, you will find a property that shows up much higher or lower than the other sales would indicate. Please keep in mind that some houses sell without ever coming to the market. There may be a relationship change and one party buys out the other, family member purchase or even a sale from a person to company they own. Emotional buyers also pay a premium for a home they love so often these will be reflected in the sale price.

Your local agent should be able to provide you with a CMA (comparative market analysis) of what is currently for sale and what has sold within a 500m radius of your home.

When comparing your property to what is for sale, please keep in mind that an overpriced property that has been on the market for some time, is not a reflection of market value. Should you decide to view this home at a open for inspection time and find your home is better presented and offers more, don’t be tempted to price your home higher than this already inflated price and have the same problem. You only have one chance to make a first impression on the market and you need the price to be as accurate as possible. Much better to price accurately and get a sale before the other property than to just sit on the market and watch the interest in your property diminish as the eventual sale price lowers and lowers.

Most sellers will do their own private research to get an indication on what they feel they might achieve before contacting a local agent but it’s not a must. To make sure you have a fair indication on price, contact 3 agents in your area that are active and getting results.

Another option, often used in legal matters, it a sworn valuation. These can cost between $ 500 – $800 dollars so make sure you shop around.

Welcome

Good Afternoon/Morning

Welcome to my blogger page. I have created this in order to get out more information to the market place. As an agent covering Canning Vale, Southern River, Thornlie, Huntingdale, Harrisdale & Piara Waters, there are often interesting events, changes and stories I can provide that can help people looking at buying or selling in these suburbs. Based at a local office in Canning Vale, I am only a short drive or phone call away should I be able to be of assistance.

I have already created an online ebook that I will publish here to assist in making the information more freely available.

As always, I can be reached on the following
Email : robin.ram@raywhite.com
Mobile : 0401 888 444
Facebook : www.facebook.com.au/robinramperth
Twitter : @robinramperth
Website ( currently under construction : http://www.sellmyhomeperth.com.au/

I look forward to speaking with you.