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11 Property Sale influencers on the Gold Coast Queensland

This article “11 Gold Coast Property Sale influencers” is not a silver bullet and designed to make you think about one thing: a price influencer at a time.

“When you put Your apartment or unit on the Gold Coast Property Market – You Only Have a Single Chance to “Make it Right” or you would have to repeat the whole process again. Think of this article from the following perspective – what if you could sell your unit or apartment for additional 10%? “11 Gold Coast Property Sale influencers” is designed to help you to sell your property for more money.

Would you want to know how to sell your Gold Coast apartment or unit for a record price? There are 11 property sale influencers to make a sale of your property. This post is to help you to get as much as possible. Unfortunately, some of you won’t be able to make all 11 of them yet the idea behind this article is to help you to score as many as you can to extract as much as possible from the Gold Coast property market.

A personal note: This post represents the author’ opinion only, and as a human, I support rights of every individual to have an opinion. It can be right or wrong – yet it can be there.  One important caveat to the point is that any opinion in my view must be made on the base of research, education or experience. When I was completing my MBA I was taught to proof my opinion in an academic sense by supporting my opinion or a view by academic studies of other scholars.

There are a few books I recommend in this post to look at or even better to read I mean if you really want to make it right this time. Copy a book title, go to Amazon and paste it- this way you can come back to it later. I was thinking about making a few proper links yet made a decision to abandon the idea due to personal views I have about links – some of you might see it as affiliation links and I don’t want it.

Good books, in my opinion, cost more than their weight in gold if you consider the time you spent to read them yet there is no better way to get information. I don’t want you, dear reader, to think that I’m in any way, shape or form make money from this article, so links wise – only for references.

11 Gold Coast Property Sale influencers:

Let me start with the obvious one:

Asking Price:

Asking Price as one of the 11 Gold Coast Property Sale influencers is what you as the property owner want to get for your property. Interestingly there are two types of views on real estate – everyone wants to get a bargain and yet when it comes to a sale- to sell for as much as possible…Contradiction right? Or it can also be called “a Paradox”.

Setting a right “Asking Price” from the beginning typically guarantees a happy sale and I’m not talking about setting a price to sell – I personally advocate to extract as much money as possible for any given property on the market. Yet “a day in & a day out”  I see real estate salespeople making huge mistakes by selling properties for less… hopefully, this article is going to make you think about how to choose a right salesperson for your property transaction. If you want to sell your property for a record price- keep reading…

Asking price – I recommend to approach it with two strategies.

This one allows you to attract prospective buyers due to perceived value – let’s admit it – we all happy to accept a bargain – right? Would you agree “a bargain” can be very much different to all – some of us are going to be very happy with $10,000 discount yet others would love to almost rob a seller? There is only one way to legally attract prospects to your property – your ad copy. Your price indication should be correct yet your ad copy should say something like – “all offers considered”.

Urgency – this is a good one. Here is an example: -I know of a rugs store (it’s a chain of shops) – their typical advertising campaign is “closing down sale”. Get this – these stores are closing down for the last 20 years as far as I am aware of it. Funny huh? – So why not to employ a similar approach?

Your ad copy must breeze fire like a dragon. It should make your prospect to think they are losing a lifetime opportunity. Please note – it should not mislead or lie yet it must be something pleasant to read.

There are lots of books written on copywriting and if you read at least one out of two I recommend further – it will help you to at least be in a position to check an ad copy your real estate salesperson writes for you.

In my team, we have two Google Adwords specialists who know how to write selling ads. More about our team is here.

Start with this one:

“A step by step guide to writing copy that sells” by R.Bly

"A step by step guide to writing copy that sells"

“A step by step guide to writing copy that sells” by R.Bly

Since you want to SELL your property you MUST make your ad to stand out. Keep in mind your ad’s job is to make prospects to consider your property. Make no mistake here – ad’s only job is to make people come and look at the property.

The second book I want you to read is this  one:

“How To Write copy that sells” by R.Edwards

"How To Write copy that sells"

“How To Write copy that sells” by R.Edwards

Do not be afraid to set it up high – high price attracts attention yet make sure that your price is not ridiculous.

What I mean is: -Would you buy a Rolls Royce? Most of us would say – sure yet when the price comes in we start to think about logical objections – like – too big, too noticeable, too much – yet when thinking about those objections we understand that all of them are actual reasons people buy this type of car.

When I say don’t be ridiculous – I mean – who would want to buy a Mini for $80,000? Yet Apple by the same token successfully employs high price strategy for many years.

If your property is unique and has all attributes of a property with high perceived value- don’t be shy about your asking price. Property value can be a location, views, quality, types of construction, luxury …

Both- “low & high” price strategies can be used as long as it is not against the law and you do not make people to be upset with your ads or with your property.  I recommend discussing both options with your reals estate salesperson.

Price is a very important price influencer in itself. I strongly recommend reading this book “Confessions of the Pricing Man How Price Affects Everything” (below) if you want to know more about price setting strategies.

Confessions of the Pricing Man

Confessions of the Pricing Man: How Price Affects Everything

Price Comparisons

A typical approach to “home- price comparisons” is when a real estate salesperson compares houses in the same suburb with similar characteristics. The idea behind is to produce a statement: In Broadbeach a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom and 2 car garage apartments sell for “X” amount of dollars. In my opinion, this approach is flawed – want proof?

Drive through Broadbeach, and compare apartments… Hard huh? I say- impossible(!). There are only a few buildings which can be compared yet the majority – in my opinion, cannot be.

Plus, do you really have a magic ball and able to see what buyers on the market want to buy?

Price Comparisons – to tell you the truth these things do in fact drive me crazy – how on earth can you compare apartments?

I agree with real estate “Price Comparisons” if:

Comparable homes are located in the same suburb and even better on the same street.

Homes were built using the same building plan (blueprint) – meaning our comparable homes, in fact, are twins;

Homes were built by the same builder – so there are no quality differences between the two.

Same age and have similar tear & wear signs and most importantly similar views.

If however one of the above doesn’t get “a tick” – you cannot compare two houses – by large they are not the same. They only have similarities or similar attributes like a number of bathrooms and bedrooms and are located in the same suburb.

By same the token – I get why many real estate salespeople do in fact use comparable sales as a valuation tool –in the way it helps them to position themselves as property experts. Yet it can be used as guidance ONLY.  Meaning: you have a unit in a given suburb – similar homes sell for that much, yet no one can guarantee that yours is going to be sold for that much – no one can.

The last point to proof that historical sales do not provide reliable data – remember the last couple of property market crashes? Would you be able to explain to a homeowner why his or her unit cannot be sold for as much as it was possible just six months ago?

Want more proof? As you would agree there are property markets with volatile environments and their stable ones:

If you want to get historical data and want to know what is going on in your street price wise check Pricefinder and compare your house to others.

Comparisons vs Opinions.

Can you compare a good wine to a bad one? Surely, yet most of the time it is going to be deemed as “an opinion” unless you are an expert or considered to be one. Now read the question again and imagine yourself in a store without price tags and none of the bottles you see look familiar. Looks like a tough job now? Obviously, you would like red, white, rose and so on…where the other person likes the opposite – you see what am I trying to deliver here- as many people as many opinions.

Same with properties – some people like classic while others modern, some like golden features, in contrast, others prefer chrome ones. After all, can you explain why still some homeowners have two tabs in a bathroom sink? Neither do I…

Yet what is important here is a majority of people like something at a given period of time- in real estate world, it is called an architectural trend. A trend in this instance is – remember your mom’s house with arches – they used to be trendy right?

Just keep in mind color schemes usually change or should we say “go out of fashion” every ten years. Remember feature walls? What about wallpaper? What about grey carpet? The list of trends is going on and on…

If you want to sell your Gold Coast apartment for more, nowadays your kitchen is most likely white, floors are brown(ish) and walls are off-white …boring? Yet this is what gets most of the money.

In my opinion, every property attracts a buyer – the only real estate salesperson’ job is to make sure to find a right one. I mean if your property has a country look you wouldn’t want to advertise it in a modern magazine… If however the house has plenty of” gold” there at least a few groups of people (nationalities) who come into mind where this type of property would attract lots of attention and a prospective buyer would actually pay more. (A hint here – some cultures prefer gold over chrome, similarly they prefer rice balls over potato chips.)

“Passive advertising” as a price driver.

Let me start with an actual activity and then explain how not to get into a trap. Real estate industry attracts lots of different people from so-called different walks of life… many of whom are simply driven by a dream of making big money. Yet these guys often use “a monkey see & monkey do” approach when it comes to marketing and advertising.

When you shop for your realtor on the Gold Coast you need to look for someone who is extremely technologically knowledgeable from a marketing point of view. After all, your realtor could kill a sale of your property by simply not advertising it right.

I often see when a real estate salesperson puts the property on a couple of internet sites and waits till prospects call to see the property – I call it “passive advertising”. As the result of not many calls and even fewer home inspections – our property owner is led to believe that the price is not right which subsequently drives asking price down. Add to it a change of circumstances like a new job or a new love or even a need to move to a different suburb due to a bad neighbor and someone has a bargain as a result. I mean typically asking price gets slashed and property is sold for a lesser amount of money.

Inability to market a property has nothing to do with the price reduction in this example.  Make sure your real estate salesperson is a marketer and understands the difference between passive advertising and active advertising.

Many homeowners go after the best salesperson in the suburb – this type of sales approach can also bring a bad result- the reason behind is simple Gold Coast has many highly experienced realtors who simply “turn” (produce a volume of sales) properties. For this type of realtors your property is simply a number of “next opportunity to make money” and often it means that they make you come on the market with low price on your property.  As the result –they get a sale and you get less money in your bank account.

Active advertising – Gold Coast

“Active advertising” is when your listing is “Live” on a few multi-listing services and yet in addition advertised on platforms like Facebook, YouTube, Google Display banners, Bing Display banners and Google search and Bing Search platforms.

Even it is really hard to measure to compare to the Internet platforms we still recommend to use newspapers, local magazines, and even radio.

“Passive advertising” is – when your listing is placed with MLS, a newspaper and some other form of advertising –this is a perfect plan for a significant price reduction. The reason it’s not enough is based on a number of advertising messages everyone hears and sees daily.

In order to get through the clutter of information the only way to win is repetition multiplied by a number of channels. In simple words – spend wisely your advertising dollars.

Questions your realtor should answer:

Is this Gold Coast Property attracted to?– Example large families, high-income earners, retirees…

How far away is the property from a local State School?

How far is the property from a Primary School? Shops, Private school and so on.

If your property is on the high end how far away is a private Primary school?

Keep in mind – people needs & wants change. For families with small kids – local parks extremely important yet to compare to retirees couples golf courses and ramps.

Your ads should not address all types of buyers, it’s better to run a few ads in different Media and measure number of offers you get.

Local shops and restaurants.

Answers to all of the above will provide you (“locate”) the best advertising channel for your property.

Property price experts

Try to talk to an accountant about a second-hand car price- The conversation would immediately turn into a car depreciation discussion.

Think about – let’s say a typical car teenager’s use – as you would agree many of them spend a considerable amount of money on their cars. I mean body- paint, wheels, exhaust pipes, spoilers – “you name it – they have it” right?

Now, let’s imagine this car must be sold – what would you say – would the owner be able to recover the money? In short, the answer is “Most likely No” Yet if there is another person (a teenager) who appreciates this particular type of car – all over sudden we have “market” and prospective buyers …What should be taken into consideration here:- usually one buyer means there is at least one more – this means competition… competition means – price increase…

Let me make things even more complicated – keep the car for 30 years and you get a classic car…some would say – oh this car brings so many memories – meaning it would become a unique car only due to the fact that there are not many of them around anymore.

Yet under the radar what we also have is an emotion – emotions are powerful. Just a couple of days ago one of my friends mentioned to me – his wife was crying in a house they were viewing…imagine how badly she must have wanted that house…

Same with houses- once you have a buyer it is a lot easier to find the second one. If you have an old house – it can be a marketable asset- people like to know what they buy. The only problem here is a real estate person who does not want to be bothered with a research. I mean it can be local school proximity, a shopping center, a gallery. Or even rainbow crowd suburb… The point here is – do your homework (!)- give all information you have about your Gold Coast property on a silver plate to your realtor – help to sell your house for more.

Keep in mind people have different interests- let me proof it with this – would you agree if let’s say you are into cupcakes creations as a hobby you might not even know where the local squash club is located – the reason – you don’t care- yet the point here is – you don’t know your prospective buyers interests.

Story sells…

Better if your home has a story to tell… well to SELL

Let me provide you with an example- I recently came across a house which was built by a German builder… once I start to market this house at least one piece of marketing material is going to mention this fact. Would you agree many people tend to ”see” (unintentionally) “German made” as a quality made product and this is exactly what I want to address- perception… By saying a German builder I make people think quality. I had a number of people say to me “oh dear “they” don’t build like that anymore”.

On a personal note, I’m not sure how this type of advertising would be taken by Russians or Jews but this is a different talk altogether.

“Death” as a Property price Influencer

We all know there only two things are certain in life… and I’m not talking about a tax here.  Make sure you disclose all important points about your property. If God forbids one of your family members had died on your property – make sure your agent knows about it and passes the information to prospective buyers. Click on the link below- this is a good article to read about real estate agents who failed to disclose a fact:

Two Sydney real estate agents who sold a house without disclosing that it was the scene of a triple murder have been fined more than $20,000

Gold Coast Property price setting strategies

Personally, I prefer to work with two price setting strategies and both of them are based on an owner’ opinion. Keep in mind according to The USA statisticians 97% of houses sell below the listed price. Or what we can also say that only 3% of property prices are set correctly. Even the data is from the USA, yet I think it is applicable for us in Queensland.

High Property Price strategy for a Gold Coast Property:

“Price it high & come down later”. This is a typical price strategy for many goods – I mean after all – look at supermarkets – right?

Just in case an example here: Your Broadwater mansion is expected to be sold for $900,000 and your realtor advertises your property for $1,000,000 in order to provide some bargain feeling to a prospective buyer.

Alternatively, it can be done in the following way:

Expected sale price is $900,000

Listed Price $1,100,000

Two-three weeks later the price is dropped to $1,000,000 – this will allow your realtor to advertise a significant price reduction of 10% and simultaneously create a perception that you desperately want or even better “need” to sell.

Even the price is yet higher it still allows your realtor to sell your property for a premium price.

After this point, it is all about negotiation and marketing skills of your realtor. As long as there are prospective buyers.

A very important point here is – move price quickly – don’t let the property to be on the market for long before you make price adjustments.

Low Property Price strategy for a Gold Cost Property:

“Price it low to create a competition between property buyers”. Low price magnetizes buyers from the market to your property.

Every real estate salesperson should be extremely careful with this strategy – it is, in fact, can be easily seen as a “price baiting” and this type of activity is against the law. Instead, your realtor should be able to “see” a fine line on the sand and juggle right on the low price level. Here is an example:

Your property should be sold for” $840,000 plus” instead you advertise you beautiful Surfers Paradise Masterpiece for “$800,000 Plus” and start to collect offers.

Your realtor negotiations skills are extremely important. More on this topic further down.

You can see and experience this best example of “Price it low – sell it high” in any auction- attend one to see how this strategy is alive well and truly and most importantly how it actually moves people and most importantly it moves prices up and up.

Time as a Property Price influencer for your Gold Coast Home

If you have to sell your property fast – this often means you will not be able to sell it for a record price. By all means -avoid selling your property in a hurry. Do your homework – check what is going on the property market. Time factor when you are planning to sell your property is a double edge sword. The reason I say this is based on:

Let me tell you my personal story: My father got an offer for his property from his neighbor’ friend – the offer was great – my father was too excited and got in touch with me to discuss the offer. You see here – I had to play a softball due to the fact it was my father’s house – so I told him – you sell your house by placing your property on the market. Alternatively, talk to local real estate people – establish a price and then sell. All seems to be logically right?

It turned out while my father was doing all of the above – his buyer also did his homework and pulled out his offer. The point here is – keep an eye on the property market – if you get a good offer and you know – it is good – sell.

No one has a crystal ball to know the future.  Sometimes people tie the knot for wrong reasons. Divorce often means – losing money from a property sale, only due to the fact that people want to get out and move on with their lives. If you think you want to sell your property due to disagreement – make sure your real estate salesperson will be able to talk to all involved parties.

An example here: Just recently I was involved in the sale of the property where the lady co-owner was sabotaging the sale due to the fact that her ex-had walked away with her used to be the girlfriend- can you relate to it? Have you heard about people making mistakes when they sell in a hurry due to personal reasons?  It took us a couple of weeks to make all parties think about the sale of the property rather than about feelings towards each other and revenge.

“Urgent Sale” can be used as an advertising strategy and on many occasions, it works the best if your property is priced to sell.

Property Presentation

Property presentation is the KING. Thinking about selling your Gold Coast property? Then there is a homework for you -visit a couple of local subdivisions to check their display homes. If your property is an apartment – then display units.

This would be one of the best time investment opportunities – for free – you are going to be provided with all current property color trends, furniture settings and most importantly – the feel of a property presentation. Your job as a property owner is to re-create the same feel at your house.

Let me provide you with an example:

Our objection with this house is to get as much money as possible (nothing new about this part right) – for instance, my clients are retired people and they do want to downsize their property and subsequently want to sell their house for a maximum amount of money.

After all, they want to keep some money from the sale for further living expenses and yet to buy a house which would allow them comfortably live there for next ten years before they might decide to move to a retirement village.

The house my clients have is full of memories, love moments and photos.

If it is possible – I’d advise my clients to move out of the house for two reasons:

Have you ever visited a house which you just recently moved out from? If you have- you most likely can relate to the point I ’m trying to make here – the house is no longer yours…I mean you can easily now see a spot on the carpet or peeled off paint or dated black top kitchen you were so proud of 15 years ago…

In other words – if they move out they became mentally ready to think about this house that it is not theirs anymore, yet this is almost impossible to achieve if my clients actually live in the home while the house is on the market.

Have you seen a designer home? I mean have you been in or even seen photos of a house where everything you see makes sense? Kind of when there is “no clutter”, and not too much – and just perfect. This is exactly what I’d try to achieve with the house.

If your house is more than 10 years old and you did nothing since you moved in there are a few things for you to think about. The job of your real estate salesperson is to make buyers see beyond the stained carpet and dated kitchen, yet if your property is more than $ 1,500,000 I would strongly advise doing a light refurbishment.

Light refurbishment I mean:

Let me start with a question here: Would you want to invest some money to guarantee a sale of your Main Beach property or would you rather provide a significant discount? I hope you would agree that “investment” looks less risky here. Sometimes it simply means that you can change the color of the walls or replace your dark top marble to bring the property to current trends and as the result – your investment can be $10,000 yet you would be able to save yourself a lot more and sell for additional thousands of dollars.

Let me provide you with a disclaimer:

If your house is in a bit of a “tired” feel and look condition – talk to a professional property designer – you might end up with a very good solution. Yet I have seen houses where staging would not work and if this is the case – My recommendation – don’t spend any money- sell as is- let your buyers take care of everything to their liking.

Avoid “Presentation slope”

Once property owners decide to sell a property – they often get excited. Getting the home ready for the first open home lifts owners’ feelings up and makes them happy. After all – they have a legitimate reason for a show-off… second, third open home…if the price strategy isn’t right- the owners get tired, slack and the house is no longer the same or not as good looking as it used to be for the first open home.

A word of wisdom here – be aware of it – make sure you are going to treat open homes – religiously. A home presentation is a second biggest money making point- after asking price. The presentation is what sells the home if a price is right and realistic.

Location of a property as a price-influencer.

In the recent years “Location. Location, location” became a TV or newspaper slogan associated with the property market. Yet – we cannot change it. You have your property and it has a certain geographical location – just live with it. Make sure – your agent mentions all important points about the location of coffee shops, shopping centers… yet if you have a cemetery next to your house – you might want not to say “ a quiet neighborhood” …

Marketing of a Gold Coast property

The author of this article genuinely believes that if you keep doing the same thing over and over – the results do not change. In order for you dear homeowner to achieve your desirable property price – your job is to find a good property marketer.

Please allow me to provide you with a full picture.

Have you heard of a degree in marketing?

Interestingly when it comes to real estate sales many people (some of the realtors) think that marketing as a science does not exist or at least for Real Estate industry. Often treating property marketing as a set of expected steps:

Typically a property ad in the local newspaper looks a specification-like list of technical data about the property. Often duplicated in one or even in all existing in Australia 10 MLS (multi-listing services like Domain.com.au or realestate.com.au).

Please allow me to state a very obvious point here- the time of newspaper advertising is gone yet we must use it. Surely in Queensland, we all know that NSW can offer a lot more buyers and this is why we must advertise online- yet local buyers do represent a huge number therefor – use a local paper.

When you interview a real estate salesperson- ask about a marketing plan she or he proposes- be very careful if your realtor of choice offers a cookie cutter approach.

One day I was visiting one of the national real estate brand’ offices where I heard one of the principal sayings:

“-We should get better at advertising sales” – meaning to sell advertising services to property owners. Think about it – this guy sells real estate for the last 10 years and yet he allows himself to say that with pride. Imagine how happy a statement like that one makes  realestate.com.au salespeople – he simply was doing their job genuinely believing that if he sells very expensive listing spots – his clients would sell their properties faster…

Just to provide you with an idea of cost – a highlighted listing on one of the multi-listing services can cost you about $500 for a month. Read it again – if you want to advertise your property – you have to pay $500 (as an example) to get a month of better placement.

The sale point for such a high premium is that the service tells you – we place your property in front of each and every buyer in your suburb…The suburb that’s right and this is why they charge you so much. Meaning all prospective buyers check suburbs of their interests. Marketing huh…

If this makes sense to you then what would you say if I tell you:-Compare it to YouTube property advertising where each view would cost you about $0.05 (only) and most importantly – what if in the suburb your property is located has 20 houses for sale… What now – all that logic behind buying advertising space from an MLS does not make sense any longer? I hope so.

Humour, if you want to use it in your ad copy and this is something you think you can use to your advantage – use it. Yet my view is “there are time and place for humor” and typically a real estate market in any given town is not that place. I have seen too many real estate ads which made me smile yet they simply failed to make me go and have a look at properties.

In conclusion regarding property marketing- if you want to sell your property with an outstanding result – look for a real estate salesperson with exceptional marketing knowledge. In my office we offer a Free Property Marketing pack- click for more details in this article…

Awareness as a Gold Coast property price influencer

This one is really tough…let me explain:

A typical real estate salesperson approach is that a property should be advertised locally first and only then everywhere else.

The fact of the matter is – if your property is a very unique and a price of your property is $10,000,000 we can easily conclude that in order to sell this type of property we better off by advertising it for high-income earners- make sense right? The point here is – the local awareness is no longer applicable.

Let me provide you with a story: Once upon a time I had to sell a property for my client- the property was located in Tamborine (QLD) and the property offers 2 acres of land, a very nice European style home with a beautiful view from all windows – sound nice right? The question here – should I advertise locally? Or should I go to Brisbane wide area? What if I can sell it to someone from Sidney- a person who simply wants to finally enjoy a local lifestyle to compare to a rat-race in the commercial capital of the country?

In my opinion, two things get homes sold:

These two go hand in hand with each other.

I mean if you want to sell a home and no one knows about it –how can you sell it? You see – this is when “awareness” comes into play.

It is much easier with a price – if you ask for $1,000,000 for a house which only worth $100,000 – no one would buy – and even awareness (no matter how good your advertising campaign is) not going to help to sell it.

Awareness is a momentum which a good real estate builds using advertising, yet price sells a property.

Broadbeach Property Market

In my view Broadbeach Property Market is good from many real estate points of views let me prove it to you:

Broadbeach Unit Market

Broadbeach Unit Market by Pricefinder

Gold Coast Real Estate Sales Person- How to choose one?

Let’s start using available statistics – 84% of real estate salespeople do not renew their licenses after the first year. This means chances that you choose someone who hardly even knows how to market a property are very high.

Please note, I’m not saying you should only choose someone who was in this role for at least 2-3 years, what I’m saying is – make sure the person knows how to market a property.

How to make sure your real estate salesperson is a perfect fit for your property transaction? Ask for credentials: I mean education, references, and testimonials. Keep it all in prospective testimonials should be about the ability to sell homes.

Buyer’s liaison- what is that?

Some people do need an extra push. Would you agree with we as humans prefer to avoid risk at any cost, I mean it’s after all our survival mechanism. If we take too much risk we typically live shorter lives. Same with property and this is why there so many people who simply refuse to take a timely decision.

Keep in mind a property transaction is not a two ways street – it is, in fact, an intersection with a few variables and typically there is no “No Entry” signs. The only different part of that journey is the final destination and the idea behind this article is to make it as profitable as possible for you as a seller, or alternatively for you as a buyer.

It’s also quite a mistake to think about a property transaction that in order for one to win the other party must lose. It can be and in my view must be a win-win all the time.

So, how do you make it a win-win with a property transaction? Communication is the answer.

Don’t be afraid to make some of the information about your sale is publicly known- in many cases that I was a part of a transaction it actually helps. Let me explain:

Imagine a situation: – a property owner has a good property yet the property quite tired and does not have a marketable or presentable look. Would you agree by making it “obvious” that the owner does not have a spare stash of money for a refurbishment our owner can even come out of the sale with even more money?

Allow me to explain what I actually mean. Majority of real estate salespeople know one or some even a few property do-uppers. Those people make their living by doing up properties and selling it.

Now, let’s us come back to our example above – our imaginable property owner does not have money to do a do-up yet is quite happy to go for a joint venture and agree to profit share with a property investor.

Let’s now talk some numbers:

This property in the current state can be sold for $380,000 yet if the property is refurbished and looks hunky-dory it can potentially be sold for $450,000 yet it needs $20,000 of repairs including new paint and a new kitchen. You see the point is to show you how to make your property attractive without spending any money on it.

If our property owner talks through an agent about a joint venture – everyone wins- the owner, the do-up person and the agent.

This property would not be attractive to our do-upper without a split of profit. In our example our do-upper brings in $20,000 and the profit of $50,000 is split in half. If however he or she needs to buy this property to do a do-up to eventually sell it – tax and cost of money would kill the deal.

Here is another example to make you think why talking about your end goal can help you. One of my friends who happen to be a property investor shared this story with me: – it was about a property she recently purchased and subsequently sold. The owner responded to an ad in the local paper about a private buyer. You know the ones to attract people who think they might save dollars by selling without an agent?

Imagine, the seller put herself in a very tough situation by placing an unconditional offer for a unit in a retirement village and could not raise the balance, her bank simply didn’t provide her with a loan due to no income situation. She was forced to urgently sell her house or lose her chunky deposit on the unit she committed herself to buy. My friend offered the owner to guarantee her loan and refurbish the property without actually buying it. The owner even made more money at the end and retired in a very nice unit she was dreaming about.

The point here is – make sure if there is a goal you have in mind and this goal can be reached by getting help from other people – ask for it. Please note – both examples show people with different circumstances yet with a similar outcome.

Make your agent aware of what you want to achieve.  By the way, if you like what you read in 11 Property Sale influencers on the Gold Coast, Queensland, please share it on your Facebook page or Twitter. As you would appreciate every share helps. Thank you.

One more example to make you think about different perspective with property transactions.

As you know there are plenty of houses with big pieces of land. A big piece of land makes a property suitable for a subdivision. Usually, these types of properties attract developers who buy with a goal to redevelop potentially to a few properties.

As a real estate agent every couple of weeks I talk to people who want to sell their property to a developer. Usually, their asking price is formulated using the following approach;-let me show it using a few numbers:

The property we are using as an example has 1,580 SQM – meaning it can be easily divided into three good size modern properties.

In the area, a piece of land with an approximate size of 450SQM can be purchased for $300,000 (Please note this all these numbers only for demonstration purposes only.)

Our owner is looking for a developer who would buy his or her house for $900,000 and when I try to explain to the owner that this price would not be achievable people get upset. Now, let’s look at this property from a developer point of view:

Price $900,000 plus tax then plus councils fees for subdivision into three titles plus the cost of construction. We have to add a cost of a house demolition or relocation and cost of money making the whole project a good recipe for a financial disaster.

Yet if our owners are willing to do a joint venture with a realistic price our property developer can see this as an opportunity to save some money on the initial tax at least but realistically each and every lawyer would not recommend this type of a deal.

Typically our owners put their house on the market and “wait” till the right buyer comes in. There a couple outcomes can be foreseen:

My house offer – How to handle it right?

If you made a right choice with your real estate salesperson selection when it comes to the most exciting part “an offer acceptance” you are going to get real help from your agent. If your choice, however, was not as good as it should be you can be pushed to accept a low offer.

A low offer means less money for you. It also means less money for your agent. It can influence your life or even make a lot of implications afterward.

Many homeowners when it comes to offers think the next one is going to be bigger, better and even unconditional. In order for me to show you how it looks like from a real estate agent point of view let me tell you a story about a house owner.

The owner of the house in our story had this house for almost 30 years. The house is situated on an average piece of land and position in a such a way that it makes the free land unusable. I mean sure if you want to add a swimming pool you could yet if you want to build a granny flat it won’t be possible.

Back in 2009, our owner put the house on the market for a fair price yet fails to sell it- according to her no one offered as much as she wanted.

This time she wants to try her lady-luck again and puts the house on the market. The house is advertised on all major Australian websites for sale.

Offers start to come in. Initially from “house hunters” – those ones from property investors who typically submit a low ball offer by email making a note to the agent” please provide me a proof of the offer being delivered to the owner” (smart ones).

Followed by real buyers. For the sake of this story let’s say in two weeks’ time the house hits the market we managed to collect 5 offers. All offers were delivered to the owner and rejected.

Let me show you how it looks like.

First offer (by email) $860,000 – Our owner says – “thank you but no thank you”.

The second offer by the same buyer $880,000 and again our owner rejects the offer. The buyer is furious – asking why I don’t have any counter offers from the vendor. Yet the vendor does not even want to respond.

The third and the fourth and the fifth offers came in with the highest being $900,000 once again our vendor did not accept any yet the highest one was answered with a counter offer only due to the real estate recommendations.

The counteroffer was asking $935,000 and the buyer this time said “thank you” but “no thank you”.

From a real estate agent point view in this instance, the buyer lost the ball. It should have been answered with a counter offer again for instance of $910,000 and who knows it could be accepted by the vendor.

Dear Mr & Mrs vendor please understand – your view of the house is yours and yours only. Work with every buyer – makes them come up with their offers. If you get no offers or people don’t offer as much as you want – lower the price or take the property off the market.

Acceptance- Champagne & Party

This is it! You did get as much as you happy to accept. Yet the offer is conditional and there is another one with $15,000 less yet unconditional or only with “home & pests” inspection – my recommendation is – accept the lower offer.

While it is good to entertain the idea of a higher amount of money if you wait till someone gets a mortgage the lower offer buyer can also find something else or simply change their mind after all there if there is no acceptance to the offer there is no deal.  Potentially you can even end up with no offers and this can bring you to the point where you would have to accept even less money for your property later on.

If your offer is conditional – please don’t celebrate yet – wait till all conditions are satisfied and all parties are happy.

Thank you for your time and reading this article, I hope it helps you in one way or the other. Keep in touch and don’t be shy to write me a note asking to keep in touch. I look forward to discussing your property story with you.

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