If you are currently thinking of placing your home on the market, you may be worried about the cooling market. The more information you have at your fingertips, the better informed you will be about what you need to do when times are tough.
Choosing the right agent
The first step is to engage the right agent to sell your home. In a hot market when homes are selling easily at lottery prices, every agent can be a hero. When the market begins to falter, the difference between a great agent and an average one can be all the difference between selling your home and languishing on the market. It will also mean the difference between a good price and an average price.
The important factors when deciding on an agent are:
· Communication – are they going to keep you up to date throughout the campaign and will they keep doing so if the going gets tough and it takes longer than expected to sell? Are they going to be honest with their communication?
· Honesty – are they going to be honest with market feedback and your appraisal price? In a slow market when there are not as many listings, a lot of agents tend to stretch the truth to buy a listing by promising you more than what your home is worth in the hope that once you are on the market, your expectations will drop. Your appraisal price must be backed up by cold hard evidence. If you just get a number without the facts… hope on your bike.
· Process – are they engaging the right process to sell your home? Is it auction or private treaty? How is their marketing campaign going to attract buyers to your property? How is the agent going to restore a sense of urgency in the market for your home?
· Record – what is their record of selling homes in a cold market? Are they selling most of them or are they being withdrawn from the market? Do they have a strong history of positive testimonials?
· Negotiating skills – how are they at negotiating? Do they have a history of strong negotiation skills or are they merely a transactional agent?
Founder and Director of Aurora Estate Agents said, “Now more than ever, it is crucial to get things right from the outset if you want a great price in a non-performing market. Not getting the right agent with the right process can end up with a pretty average result.
It is important that you don’t start off on the back foot otherwise you will end up chasing the market, which is when you will start losing money”.
Adjusting your expectations
As with every real estate cycle, whatever goes up, must come down. The market will always fluctuate so whatever properties were selling for this time last year, is not exactly what properties are getting this year.
Make sure your agent has shown you all comparable properties that have sold within the last three months and that you also do some of your own research. You can have high expectations, but if you don’t meet the market, you could end up being on the market for a lot longer than you expected and then end up chasing the market and start to lose money.
In a cooling market, buyers think they can get everything for as little as possible. They believe they have the upper hand especially when vendors have been on the market for a few months. However, this doesn’t mean you have to agree with those buyers and reduce your expectations. As long as your price expectations are realistic, as agreed by you and your agent, your agent can educate those buyers in seeing long term value in your property. This is where you will see the value in a good agent.
How are you set up?
Make sure your home’s appearance is perfect in every way. You don’t want any buyers getting put off or have an excuse to lower their offer price. You want them to compete against one another and have a fear of missing out. In a cooling market, there tends to be more listings so you need to be as competitive as possible compared to other homes.
Consider professionally styling your home if you need to get it to display home standard. Make sure all appliances that need to be fixed are fixed and ensure the house is decluttered and free from personal effects.
Have patience
In a cold market you will have less buyers come through the door. You will need to be a bit more patient with time and have more confidence in your agent. If you get an offer in the first week of your campaign, consider it on its merits, but remember it doesn’t mean you need to accept.
Aurora Estate Agents
Aurora Estate Agents are a new breed of real estate professionals which are highly focused on their core values: integrity, accountability, transparency, client focussed and process driven. Aurora Estate Agents’ dynamic team is a collaboration of effective marketers, residential sales agents and residential leasing consultants.
South East Melbourne, which includes Berwick, Narre Warren, Beaconsfield, Clyde North, and Cranbourne is the country’s property boom hotspot. Aurora Estate Agents is perfectly positioned with a broad spectrum of property expertise to provide the best advice and skills for homeowners, investors and developers to ensure they continue to maximise growth and take advantage of existing market conditions.
Article by Andrew Nguyen
