- Homeowners should adjust price expectations and marketing strategies in a competitive housing market.
- Agents advise refreshing campaigns, setting deadlines, and maintaining property appeal to attract buyers.
- Pausing and relaunching with targeted marketing can help sell properties that have been on the market too long.
Homeowners selling their homes in a swamped market may need to change their attitudes, price expectations and their marketing campaign, agents have told OneRoof.
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Buyers have the choice of more than 44,000 residential properties on OneRoof. Even with the glut of homes on the market, vendors are still looking to sell, with new listings in the first 15 days of April up 6% on the same period last year.
Ray White Manukau co-owner Tom Rawson recently gave some brutal advice to a relative who hadn’t sold their plaster home after four months on the market.
The homeowner had initially told his agent that he would hold onto the house if he didn’t find a buyer because he didn’t want to appear desperate to sell. In reality, he was desperate because he had already bought another property, Rawson said.
Ray White Manukau co-owner Tom Rawson says sellers shouldn’t be afraid to check the motivation levels of their agent. Photo / Fiona Goodall
“I was like, ‘You need to change your attitude. You need to come across as the most desperate seller in the market. You need to ring your agent up and tell him you need to have it gone in two weeks. You need to tell him to ignore what you said before and that you will take less than what you said’.”
Rawson said vendors should also check the motivation levels of their agents. “Believe it or not, sometimes they are not motivated. They are deflated you didn’t take the offer that was good at the start of the campaign, or something like that. So re-motivating your agent is good.”
Rawson also helped his relative refresh their marketing campaign. He cut the listing photos from 25 photos to around 10 so people had a reason to view the house in person. The listing copy stated the vendor had no plan B, and the sales method was changed from price by negotiation to a two-week deadline sale.
“If I were a buyer, I would not view a property that was for sale by negotiation. By negotiation means overpriced, unmotivated, no desire to sell.”
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After the changes, people turned up at the open homes, and two offers were made on the house. The following week, the house sold to a young family for a price Rawson’s relative could live with.
Rawson said having a realistic price expectation was key and urged vendors to look at recent sales in their neighbourhood. “If your price is way off, you are going to scare everyone, and they won’t come through.
“If there’s a recent sale on the street that sold for a little bit less than what you want and it’s maybe a superior home, well, every buyer sees that and goes, ‘That guy wants too much’.”
Rawson said vendors should also keep their property looking nice during their campaign and take on buyer feedback. For example, no one wants to buy a house that stinks, so any problems like that should be fixed immediately.
Barfoot & Thompson agent Kitty Long found a buyer for this Auckland castle after aiming her marketing campaign at investors. Photo / Supplied
Barfoot & Thompson agent Kitty Long told OneRoof that vendors should consider pausing their campaigns. “When properties are on the market for too long, it’s like the fish out there - they are going to be stale and no one is going to be really interested.”
Long said she used “timeouts” to analyse the problems and identify the target market and price for the property. She would then relaunch the listing with a new marketing campaign aimed at likely buyers.
Last month, she sold a castle on Prince Regent Drive, in Auckland’s Halfmoon Bay, that had been on and off the market with different agencies over several years. She said she targeted the four-week auction campaign at investors, and she made sure the property was staged.
Long said relisting didn’t necessarily mean the vendor should change agents, especially if there was a good relationship, but it was an option.
Harcourts Fendalton agent Zani Polson urged vendors to do their homework before going live. “If you don’t do that first launch properly, then you are really shooting yourself in the foot. Try not to leave any stone unturned before you go to market. Have everything prepped and ready to go.”
Harcourts Fendalton agent Zani Polson recently sold this family home on Sheraton Place, in Redwoods, Christchurch, for $951,000. Photo / Supplied
She urged vendors to research the agents vying for their listing and the properties for sale around them. “If they’ve priced it straight away, well then that was a dumb move because they haven’t actually heard what the market thinks of their home in the first instance.”
She said choosing a sales method that gave buyers a deadline helped. If the property didn’t sell in that time, the next stage could be pricing the property based on market feedback.
The seller should also get a builder’s report - checking the levelling was particularly important in Christchurch - and do any touch-ups before launch.
Polson said a third of her garage was filled with staging props, including home towels, throws, confiner plants, toothbrush holders, soap dispensers, table lamps, outdoor cushions, and wall art.
“Those little things can make all the difference. Even linen can make a big difference because people never live like they do when their house is on the market, but buyers expect there will be 17 pillows on the bed. You’ve got to make sure that you’ve upped your game from the get-go.”
Polson said homes under the $1m price point were popular in her patch, and had found success in the auction room in the last few weeks.
A three-bedroom home on Virgil Place, in Papanui, sold to an investor for $553,000 after competitive bidding; a near new semi-lifestyle property on McHughs Road, in Swannanoa, sold under the hammer for $1.27m; and a family home on Sheraton Place, in Redwoods, sold for $951,000 after two bidders went head-to-head over it.
Polson’s advice to vendors who weren’t having much luck in the current market was to pause their campaign, recheck their prep work, and try again when the competition had changed.
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