Sydney: Hitting the reset button

Market conditions are showing signs of softening with sales starting to plateau and in some cases falls of between 5 and 10% being seen depending on the geographic area.

In a conversation with Matthew Shalhoub of Sydney auctioneering company Under the Hammer today, Matthew commented that most good agents are now selling property prior to auction. Buyers are thinning out across all sectors – there’s no doubt that the reset button has been pushed and given past performance in a top of market cycle, there is usually a period of about 3-4 months of stabilisation. We then start to see consolidation again.

Given the fact that most buyers are still around, they’re probably just trying to find some direction in the market. If I was buying, I would try and find the seller with the biggest pain level in order to secure a bargain. In saying that, past experience dictates that there’s a magic time for buyers to enter the market before it fully stabilises and firms up.

 

regards,

Andrew Bruce 

For your FREE copy of Select a Winning Agent, email selectawinningagent@riverviewrealty.com.au and we will email you a copy.

Riverview Realty is a boutique agency focused on achieving the maximum price, with a client engagement that is above the industry standard.  We call it the “Ultimate Experience” which forms part of our unique selling proposition.

Ph. 02 9420 0083, 59 Tambourine Bay Road, Riverview.

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Our Guide to Selecting a Winning Agent

Make sure you select a winning agent!

I’ve posted regularly about the essential criteria home owners need to cover with any potential real estate agent prior to appointing them to sell their home.

I’ve now collated this information into “Select A Winning Agent” available in eBook format and hard copy from the office.

In Select a Winning Agent, I outline how a vendor must focus on the facts and not the promises or perceptions of a real estate agent.

Topics Covered in Select a Winning Agent:

• Preparatory Research
• Preparing for your first agent meeting
• Questions you MUST ask an agent
• Tips to avoid sales “conditioning” by the agent
• Being aware of undermining tactics by a sales agent
• Enuring you have trust and transparency

For your FREE copy of Select a Winning Agent, email selectawinningagent@riverviewrealty.com.au and we will email you a copy.

regards,

Andrew Bruce 

Riverview Realty is a boutique agency focused on achieving the maximum price, with a client engagement that is above the industry standard.  We call it the “Ultimate Experience” which forms part of our unique selling proposition.

Ph. 02 9420 0083, 59 Tambourine Bay Road, Riverview.

You’re welcome to connect with us on social media: 

 

 

Real Estate Agents: Trust in Results?

Don’t trust an agent who doesn’t publish their results on their marketing collateral.

I’m sure you’ve seen it. You check your mail box and find glossy post cards from local real estate agents. Despite all the words and photos of recent properties sold, the price of recent sales are nowhere to be seen.

There’s plenty of “New Street Record” or “Quickest Suburb Sale” headlines in these brochures but not much else.

The only thing we take seriously is delivering the ultimate experience to our clients.

When contacting these agents, there is the usual: “my clients haven’t provided us with permission to publish results” or “in the current environment we can’t release these figures.” They will of course be more than happy to do an appraisal or meet with you to offer “guidance” using other agents’ published results.

A search on Domain.com.au or RealEstate.com.au won’t help much with these agents, as they won’t post results their either.

Experience counts in a changing market. Sydney’s boom is returning to a stable growth phase and experience in such a market is extremely valuable. It’s easy for some agents to claim they have sold X amount of properties in the past month, but at what cost to the vendor? Did they underquote to the buyer? Did they work on the vendor to drop their sales price expectations and achieve a quick fire sale? They may have sold X amount of properties in a month, but were they at the best possible market price?  I would prefer an agent to dig in and work to achieve the best outcome for the vendor regardless of how long the process takes.

Some agents stand tall by their results. Evidence talks and pretty pictures walk.

regards,

Andrew Bruce, Samia Malouf, & staff.

Riverview Realty is a boutique agency focused on achieving the maximum price, with a client engagement that is above the industry standard.  We call it the “Ultimate Experience” which forms part of our unique selling proposition.

Ph. 02 9420 0083, 59 Tambourine Bay Road, Riverview.

You’re welcome to connect with us on social media: 

 

 

You only get one chance to make a first impression

Home Makeovers

If you lower buyer resistance with good pre-sales marketing preparation you can be guaranteed delivery of an above average sale price.  But you have to be prepared to spend a little to make your return on investment (ROI) work.

Minimise clutter

By pre-packing, you’re killing two birds with one stone by removing excess clutter while preparing for your move.

Living room (Before)

Living Room (After)

Keep your house immaculate

Once you’ve removed the clutter, consider having your home professionally cleaned, or at least the bath and kitchen.  A small repair of damage from water leaks, burns, or other mishaps can “stave off counteroffers for defects.”

It’s crucial to consider the home’s street appeal as buyers often make their decision in the first few minutes of seeing a home.  Landscaping must be in order – if possible, plant flowers near the door, mulch existing plants, trim shrubbery, and remove any dead plants or trees.

Bedroom (Before)

Bedroom After

Paint

Any room that doesn’t get enough sun will benefit from a light wall colour.  It doesn’t have to be painted a harsh, pure white, but a pale neutral colour will help make a room appear to have more light.  A fresh coat of off-white paint gives a property a “lift” when you open the door.

Don’t overdecorate – Less is more

You don’t want your style to take over your home makeover to the point where the buyers can’t imagine the house decorated in their own style.  Many people have a hard time seeing past the design and décor and if the design doesn’t suit the buyer’s tastes, it is often very hard to imagine it differently.   Remove any personal property that does not enhance the style of the home.

Living and Dining (Before)

Living and Dining (After)

Repairs

It’s imperative to repair all the small items onsite.  Leaky taps, chipped paint, a wobbly handrail. Living in a property for a long period of time and desensitise home owners from the issues that visitors may spot immediately.  It’s important that the scratch on the wall, small carpet stain or scuffed tile doesn’t turn a buyer away.

Riverview Realty offers a turnkey solution to our vendors.  We can manage all trade and home maintenance work to ensure your property is ready before a sales campaign commences to maximise your sale price.  Remember, you only get one chance to make a first impression to buyers.

regards,

Andrew Bruce & Samia Malouf

Riverview Realty is a boutique agency focused on achieving the maximum price, with a client engagement that is above the industry standard.  We call it the “Ultimate Experience” which forms part of our unique selling proposition.

Ph. 02 9420 0083, 59 Tambourine Bay Road, Riverview.

You’re welcome to connect with us on social media: 

 

 

 

Underquoting crackdown: A boost for home buyers

Earlier this week, NSW Premier Mike Baird and Minister for Fair Trading Matthew Mason-Cox announced a re-elected Baird Government will crack down on underquoting by real estate agents in the property market.

Samia and Andrew – Riverview Realty

Regular readers of Riverview Realty’s blog would know that underquoting is an issue we despise, but it is a topic that needs to be discussed, an as such, is one that we blog about regularly.

Catch up on on previous blog posts including why Some agents should go to hell, and Sins of the Agent: Underquoting.

In the media release, the Premier of NSW states:

“The reforms will improve confidence among homebuyers and close any loopholes that agents may be exploiting,” Mr Baird said. “Under the new laws, it will be illegal for agents to advertise a property for less than the selling price they have outlined in their agreement with the vendor. We want to create a fairer system for potential buyers who are prepared to spend money on building and pest inspection reports believing the property is in their price range.” 

“Agents caught underquoting already face fines of $22,000. Under the new laws, they will also lose all fees and commissions made from the sale. Buying a property is one of the biggest purchases many people will make, which is why we’re taking extra steps to ensure homebuyers have a fair marketplace. Underquoting cheats potential homebuyers and undermines the integrity of the real estate industry and we want to send a clear message to rogue real estate agents that it won’t be tolerated.”

Further in the release, Mr Mason-Cox, Minister for Fair Trading said changes will be made to legislation to clear up the confusion around what constitutes underquoting.

“The laws will be changed to recognise underquoting has occurred if the advertised selling price of a property is less than the price indicated in the agent’s agreement with the vendor,” he said. “The new laws will also focus on advertising and will require all property advertisements to specify a dollar price or price range as opposed to ‘offers over’ to give potential buyers a better idea of the real market value of the property. We’ll also protect vendors from agents who misrepresent a property’s potential selling price in return for the listing. All too often we hear about agents promising vendors a selling price they’re unlikely to ever achieve to secure their listing before pressuring them to agree to a lower price once the property sells.”

NSW Fair Trading has already begun acting on the real estate industry, very publicly probing agencies across the city, particularly in Southern parts of Sydney. Real Estate agents who have their training up to date, and have nothing to hide, welcome Fair Trading’s inspections.

regards,

Andrew Bruce & Samia Malouf

Riverview Realty is a boutique agency focused on achieving the maximum price, with a client engagement that is above the industry standard.  We call it the “Ultimate Experience” which forms part of our unique selling proposition.

Ph. 02 9420 0083, 59 Tambourine Bay Road, Riverview.

You’re welcome to connect with us on social media: 

 

 

Scaled Commission: Don’t be mislead

Be wary of a scaled commission approach

Following on from my previous blogs on setting the right expectations, we have heard that some agents, who are over pricing properties to get listings, are also combining a scaled commission approach with the offer.

This may seem reasonable and in some cases scaled commission is normal, but when coupled with over-pricing it becomes a “dodgy” sales technique to mislead the vendor in an attempt to validate the potential for the agent to achieve the highest and most ambitious price promised in their appraisal.

If we peel back the layers of this offer, the difference between the base commission and the higher end commission is only a matter of a few thousand dollars to the agent and structured so that no matter what the property sells for the agent is basically getting close to his full commission anyway.

In the end, the vendors get their expectations reset to the lower sale figure and are “short changed” on the promise of a higher sale price that was never going to materialise in the first place.

Recruit your agent carefully.

Andrew Bruce & Samia Malouf

Riverview Realty is a boutique agency focused on achieving the maximum price, with a client engagement that is above the industry standard.  We call it the “Ultimate Experience” which forms part of our unique selling proposition.

Ph. 02 9420 0083, 59 Tambourine Bay Road, Riverview.

You’re welcome to connect with us on social media: 

 

VIMEO – LinkedIn

Real Estate website traffic: The numbers don’t add up

In previous posts we’ve highlighted the differences between boutique agents such as ourselves and  the major franchises.

In Selecting a selling agent: Brand vs Boutique we noted that:

The big agencies are quick to advertise they offer more than what a boutique agency can. “National network, local knowledge” or “tap into our network of buyers” is often used in the sales pitch. The reality is that the majority of the real estate marketing is now beholden to the two large digital advertising sites RealEstate.com.au and Domain.com.au. Both these sites are in the Top 50 Australian websites by traffic*. Many of the traffic rankings for the big franchises are well outside the top 1000 websites.

In The Importance of Digital and Social Media Marketing we revealed:

Digital marketing of a property is nothing new. Websites such as Domain.com.au and RealEstate.com.au have been around for over 10 years and are in the top 50 Australian websites by traffic and can’t be ignored in a real estate campaign. Around 95% of purchasers seek property via these two websites through different touch points including traditional PCs or laptops, tablets and smart phones.

We’ve done a bit more research:

We’ve done a bit more research and can report that all the major branded real estate websites have on average:

• 8 daily page views per visitor
• Visitors spend 2.31 minutes on their site.

Now, I’m not suggesting our web traffic is any better ( it could actually be worse) but what I am suggesting is that as we’ve mentioned previously, Domain.com.au and RealEstate.com.au are the most popular real estate listing websites. I’d much prefer a property we’re marketing be found through either of these sites as opposed to RiverviewRealty.com.au – because that’s what we’re paying for!

Consider those average numbers above. To give you some comparison:

Realestate.com.au is the 17^th most visited website in Australia and has:

• 12 daily page views per visitor
• Visitors spend over 11 minutes on the site

Domain.com.au is the 40^th most visited website in Australia and has:

• 5 daily page views per visitor
• Visitors spend close to 7 and a half minutes on the site.

So next time a selling agent talks about their website and the hits they get, consider these numbers.  I’d bet their numbers don’t add up!

*Website data compiled from www.Alexa.com

regards,

Andrew Bruce and Samia Malouf

Riverview Realty is a boutique agency focused on achieving the maximum price, with a client engagement that is above the industry standard.  We call it the “Ultimate Experience” which forms part of our unique selling proposition.

Ph. 02 9420 0083, 59 Tambourine Bay Road, Riverview.

You’re welcome to connect with us on social media: 

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