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Selling Information
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Selling Tips
| Selling tips!
Despite what most agents will tell you we do not consider it wise to present your home like a ‘display’ home. Buyers are not silly and they often feel ‘conned’ if the home is ‘over presented’. Don’t put classical music on, and, don’t put a pot of ‘soup’ on the stove – unless that is what you would usually be doing at that time. Dogs and cats are usually a huge’ no no’ to have around during an inspection, and could cost you either a lot of money or the sale! If you are a reasonable house keeper present your home as closely (as reasonable) to how you live. It is wise to tidy up the kid’s toys, and the computer area. If you are not a good house keeper (too busy etc) you should have a professional cleaner ready the home for an inspection. Remember that you do not have to permit inspections at short notice – if the ‘buyer’ cannot (or will not) come back the next day…they were never going to buy it. Don’t let your agent dictate to you regarding inspections – if they do, change agents! Probably the most important tip is that your first offer (first buyer) is usually your best – do not think that the offer came too soon and that perhaps you can get more later on - if you forget all else please remember this!!! Inevitably you will end up selling your home for less money than the first offer you rejected, simply because you thought the first one was too soon!
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Timing
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Timing!
Despite what all the other agents say we consider it is wise to go ‘against the trend’! Buy when all other seem to be selling, and sell when they seem to be buying. This way you will always get the best price, or buy at the best price.”Swim against the tide” - to quote a wise old investor! At time of writing it appears that most buyers are sitting on their hands – so the time to buy is NOW! Interestingly, we are short of listings because our vendors have listened to our market estimates and lowered expectations – and have sold. Most other coastal areas are inundated with listings – we are not! We must be doing something right. I will be more than willing to advise when this ‘buy time’ ceases to be so, but I don’t think it will change until part way through 2010. Buy now and FIX your rates in. Don’t wait till the interest rates reach bottom – because the next move will be up, and you will pay for this if you fix your rate then. Fix NOW!
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Presentation
Presentation!
Refer to my notes (above) regarding how best to present your home. In a nutshell, present your home in a neat and tidy way but don’t make it look like a ‘display home’!!! If you are a ‘pig’ of a house keeper you will pay for your sins when you sell because you can’t ‘swish’ up a home that has been poorly kept, or never cleaned properly, in a few minutes. House keeping should be a job shared equally by ALL members of the family – if not ‘change families’!
If your home smells like ‘dog’ or ‘cat’ you will only sell it to a like smelling buyer and there are very few of these around – this will also cost you both money and sales! If you can’t keep the pets out of the home buy a gold fish or a budgie!
Strangely – most people don’t notice their own ‘rubbish’ lying around – ask a friend, or your agent, what you should do and what you should get rid of. If they won’t tell you – change friends (or agents). Buyers want a home that is clean, uncluttered and bright, so, make it that way – even if it means installing a sky-light in darker rooms (you will recoup the cost).
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Method of Sale
Method of sale:
I can only talk about property in Port Fairy but it is pretty obvious that you do NOT sell your property by auction in Port Fairy. They simply do not work because an auction relies on competing bidders and they simply don’t compete! An auction is only as good as the financial strength of the losing bidders – and, if there aren’t any - your auction will be a heart breaking and costly failure!
Private sale is the only recommended method of selling in Port Fairy and that’s when the negotiating skills and experience of the selling agent becomes of utmost importance. We, at Lockett & Co, usually involve every member of the sales staff during negotiations so that we can always use the best agent for each specific sale….who knows the buyer best…who knows the seller best….who thinks the offer is a good one….who thinks we can obtain a better price etc!!! There is no ‘internal’ competition in our office and as a result we ALL work together to get the best result. This sounds like a pretty basic and commonsense thing to do – BUT did you know that in most offices the internal competition is worse than between other offices…the result being that each sales person in those offices try to beat their internal competition by ‘stitching’ up a sale REGARDLESS of the price before their counterparts. Make sure your agent acts as a team – all working for you, not against each other! Ask them! Ask about their commission structure! Remember, it’s your property, and YOU are in charge!
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