Browse Forums Real Estate 1 Jul 20, 2010 10:58 am We had a valuation yesterday and they’ll be coming back to discuss potential marketing strategies. Not 100% sure what they’ll actually say, but I intend to just advertise with GOOD and MANY pictures, a PROPER street map AND address (so many on the Gold Coast just show the overall area, which REALLY annoys me!), a well written description with NO errors (SO many have spelling errors. It is so annoying! Lol) and on realestate.com.au and domain.com.au, and whenever we have an open house (if we do. We probably will, at least for the first 2-3 weekends it’s on the market) we’ll put it in the paper as well, again with the street address so people can match it up with the online ads. We don’t want an auction. I don’t think that’s the way to go. We don’t have an especially unique property or anything, so best just to do the non-auction route I think. The agents mentioned whether to put a price on it or not. What do you think? I’m inclined to put one on, but say negotiable after it. Like $374,000 negotiable. I myself get VERY frustrated and put off when I see a place that I might be interested in, and it’s got no price on it. I just think it’s either too expensive, or it’s an annoying agent who refuses to give any indication of price. To me it feels like a waste of time, and I also tend to think, seeing as the price range we’re aiming to sell for is the price range we’re looking at to BUY as well, basically we’re targeting ourselves, you know? In terms of who will be looking at our place. And I find a lack of price bad. But I am a bit of a weirdo, so maybe nobody else finds that annoying and off-putting. Any suggestions? Also, when agents get their commission, does this actually come OFF the profit of the property? Like say we get $370,000, and the agent’s commission is set at 10%, do we lose $37,000 of our profit to pay the agent ON TOP of the advertising and listing fees and all that? How the hell did I become a senior member!? I know nothing! Re: Best to list a price when selling, or leaving a property 2Jul 20, 2010 11:50 am Quote: Also, when agents get their commission, does this actually come OFF the profit of the property? Like say we get $370,000, and the agent’s commission is set at 10%, do we lose $37,000 of our profit to pay the agent ON TOP of the advertising and listing fees and all that? 10% would be a very high commision, but, yes, my understanding is that this is how it works. Re your other question - I think it is definetely best to have a price named - like you said, 374,000 negotiable or a price range, say 350 - 380. I think it is very off putting to buyers to not have a starting point. Put it at slightly higher than you actually expect to get, to leave room for negotiation - eg for above figures, I would have an expectation of selling at around 360. Re: Best to list a price when selling, or leaving a property 3Jul 20, 2010 12:32 pm Another thing I would suggest is to have a professional photographer take the photos. We had the choice of the agent taking the photos or to employ their professional photographer for $200...we took the latter and it really made our listing stand out. So much so that the first person to view the house bought it at the price we wanted. Well worth the $200! Nothing turns me off a property is crappy dark photos. However is saying that some agents are quite good in taking photos. Ours definately wasn't! Re: Best to list a price when selling, or leaving a property 4Jul 20, 2010 12:49 pm Oh my god yes, I’ve seen some of the photos for property listings, and it’s like, WHY BOTHER!? It turns people off more than having NO photos when the pics are really bad! I’ve seen some absolutely disgusting photos in my travels. A close up of a seedy old UN-MADE bed, and nothing else. A window with closed, BROKEN blinds! WHY!? Lol. Anyway, my partner is a REALLY good photographer and we’ve got a good digital camera and computer-based photo editing program, so we’d see how they come out before doing anything. (before even listing our place for sale with anyone at all, just to see who we’d want to do the photos for us, if anyone besides ourselves.) What also annoys me is people who only put photos of the outside, or a billion suburb photos but nothing of the actual property, OR people who put internal photos, but then have this tiny writing below saying “The pictures shown are examples only, and are not of the actual property listed for sale.” WHAT THE!? Don’t waste my time, people! We’d have 2 pics of the outside of the building from the street looking at different angles of it, one closer up one of just our own balcony / property from the front of the building property, 2 pics of the outlook from that front balcony area, several of the living and dining area, a few including the kitchen and a few not (from other perspectives), one of the kitchen itself, one of the study, 2 of the master bedroom, one of the bathroom / laundry, one of the ensuite, one of the back balcony and one of the outlook from the back balcony. So how many is that? About 18? I am of the definite opinion that as long as the photos are good, you can never have too many!! Anyway, in terms of price, good. Yes. I agree with putting a price on, or at least a negotiable one. So you think if we actually want $370,000, we shouldn’t list it at $374,000, but rather a bit higher? It won’t put people off? If we listed it at say, $379,000 would $370,000 be a reasonable expectation of a result? How the hell did I become a senior member!? I know nothing! Re: Best to list a price when selling, or leaving a property 5Jul 20, 2010 1:07 pm I would agree with $379,000. Give yourself somewhere to go if the buyer wants to knock you down. You never know you might be pleasantly surprised if the purchaser agrees to pay $379,000. I sold my unit, a one bedder in Cronulla, many years ago and sold it for over the asking price as two people fell in love with it and kept upping their offers until I ended up with $7000 more than the asking price Re: Best to list a price when selling, or leaving a property 6Jul 20, 2010 1:16 pm Quote: I think it is very off putting to buyers to not have a starting point. I agree! I just ignore the properties that end up at the top of the page with no price when you do a real estate search online - to me it's snobby eg. "If you have to ask, you obviously can't afford it", or the owners don't really want to sell, but they would if someone offered them a million bucks. If it's a property in my price range I want to know that it is there and that the owners want to sell it to me. Kylie Re: Best to list a price when selling, or leaving a property 7Jul 20, 2010 1:34 pm Another question… Do you think it’s worth “dipping our toes in the water” by listing our place for sale, putting good photos and stuff up, just ourselves, no agents at all, and just seeing what happens? And if nothing happens and we get no offers and not much interest, we have only lost a couple of hundred bucks in listing fees for realestate.com.au and domain.com.au? No big agent fees? Or does this screw us later when we “seriously” sell and then go with an agent and our place appears AGAIN and everyone goes “Oh, that one again. That’s old. NEXT!” I know I do this. I’ve been through EVERY property on both the above websites and I now only sort of Most Recent, and anything I’ve seen before I don’t even waste my time on. I hate also when something old appears as new, and says NEW LISTING! Or something like that. Sometimes it’s been listed with a different agent or its price has come down so it’s been updated, but sometimes there’s no reason for it to appear again and it bugs me! lol How the hell did I become a senior member!? I know nothing! Re: Best to list a price when selling, or leaving a property 9Jul 20, 2010 5:31 pm Hi. Personally I hate the $360-380,000 price idea. Everyone knows they want somewhere in the middle so why bother. I agree good photos are the key. If you do it yourself where are you planning on advertising. RE.com don't (or never used to) let private people place adds. May have changed? People tend to be a bit wary of no agent as they may not feel comfortable that the price is right. Properties do go stale. If they are on the market for a while people start to question what is wrong with it. This is why pricing is important. Too high and it goes stale then you get WAY lower than you would have got if it was priced correctly in the first place. Commission is something around 2-3% (may be different in your area). Good luck. Luckily it's not something you usually do a lot. I've sold 2 houses. Not looking forward to selling my next one as we've been here 16 years and have too much stuff. Re: Best to list a price when selling, or leaving a property 10Jul 20, 2010 7:59 pm When deciding on a price for our house we thought about what the likely offers would be and raised the price appropriately. An old collegue listed his house at 240k and rejected an offer at 235k (then never got close again). Crazy IMO, negotation is part of the process so you've got to expect to come down. Unless it's unique, underpriced or in a rising market you're unlikely to achieve the actual asking price. We listed 5% above our ideal price, and ended up getting just over our ideal price. People are always going to offer, say, 30k under your asking price (they want to think they've gotten it cheap), you need to have some room for negotiation in the middle. We wanted 280k, listed at 295k, got offered 280k and pushed them up to 285k. Perfect. My 2c anyway. Re: Best to list a price when selling, or leaving a property 11Jul 20, 2010 8:22 pm Quote: So you think if we actually want $370,000, we shouldn’t list it at $374,000, but rather a bit higher? It won’t put people off? If we listed it at say, $379,000 would $370,000 be a reasonable expectation of a result? Yes - IMO, this would be a good working figure (even go to 385 as asking price?) - I dont think 4 th is giveing yourself enough leeway. Re: Best to list a price when selling, or leaving a property 12Jul 20, 2010 8:43 pm 10% is huge in a commission; don’t list with an agent at that commission! Not even funny. Put a price on the sale….it helps, sounds like you have it all covered with your thoughts on advertising. It annoys me when people don’t want to advertise, how the hell do we get people to the property if they don’t know about it? Get it out there! And yes, the commission comes off the final price of the sale. IF your agent does a good job for you and gets it out there to be seen and gets people through the doors for OFI’s, then its worth paying them for their hard work. Trust me, its not as easy as people think in Real Estate, if you are a good agent, you work hard for your commission! By putting your unit high on the market you risk it sitting there for a long time, as you are putting off potential buyers, do you want to sell in a hurry? If so, start at a realistic price rang to get it moving! The longer your unit sits on the market, the less interest you get, as people start to wonder what’s wrong with it. It’s a known fact, when a property comes on the market, you get the best result with in a month and it starts to taper off after that. Make your first month count!!!! Do all the right things. Didn’t read all the other responses…..sorry if I have double up. Internal and External Building and Colour Consultant Online - Worldwide http://www.denovoconcepts.com Re: Best to list a price when selling, or leaving a property 13Jul 20, 2010 8:55 pm grace_slick .. but I intend to just advertise with GOOD and MANY pictures, a PROPER street map AND address ... a well written description with NO errors ... I myself get VERY frustrated and put off when I see a place that I might be interested in, and it’s got no price on it. Totally share this opinion, in fact we stopped bothering with trying to reach the agent (usually have to give your name, a detailed description of your dream house - as if the house they are selling has lots to do with a 'dream' house ) etc. etc... and then and only then, they would say in a few words something (critical info for us) about the house, but never enough. Plus sometimes they still don't want to tell you the address !!! I think agents are making a mistake in witholding the basic info about the house - people do eventually learn that it takes a lot os patienece and time and lots and lots of calls to get this basic info which should have been there to start with. Photos. Bad photos for me are the non-informative photos, like the typical one that you see on most houses which take your fancy - the window blind is always down. Like they are hiding something - we learned that they are, since the blinds down typically means "don't waste your time" since the view they are trying to hide is hideous. My signature is distracting people from my wise posts ... Re: Best to list a price when selling, or leaving a property 14Jul 20, 2010 8:58 pm Lex we learned that they are, since the blinds down typically means "don't waste your time" since the view they are trying to hide is hideous. Internal and External Building and Colour Consultant Online - Worldwide http://www.denovoconcepts.com Re: Best to list a price when selling, or leaving a property 15Jul 20, 2010 10:39 pm We got so frustrated remembering some of the agents and ads that I generalised here . Have to say that there have been a couple of them who we liked. Relaxed, upfront, dare I say honest - what you see is what you get - well, as much as it's possible. Forgot to add the price - having no price is another big turn-off ... since it gets the would-be buyer into the same loop of having to call, spend precious time in finding out the essential info - IF we manage get it at all. Sometimes ads are almost like "yeah, we have a house for sale , it't in south Sydney (but it's up to you to find out what is it that we call "south Sydney"), it's got bedrooms, it's got car accomodation, and also has a kitchen (has anyone else seen ads which actually say that a property has a kithcen , or is it just me? ), and it's in a convenient location, close to shops, restaurants and transport". Close to restaurants??!?! My signature is distracting people from my wise posts ... Re: Best to list a price when selling, or leaving a property 16Jul 21, 2010 12:33 pm Heh, I saw an ad that said “Kitchen with separate bathroom”. GEE WHIZ, WHAT A GEM! A kitchen WITHOUT a bathroom IN IT? LMAO! I also DETEST how so many ads just withhold the vital and most BASIC of information! Location – in any place this is important, but for me who does not drive and has no car, it is just ESSENTIAL to know the STREET the property is in! And also around here, we have large areas that are all called the same name. Mermaid Waters for instance, this is one of our target areas to buy in, and it stretches quite far in distance. One small part is where we want to be (which luckily tends to have regular sales happening), but the majority is impossible for us to get to on public transport, or VERY difficult. So when they don’t put an address or even mention if it’s NEAR anything, it annoys me greatly. Although even the ads that say “walk to BLAH” or whatever, this is often a HUGE exaggeration. One time when I was living in Melbourne for instance, there was an apartment for sale in Chapel St, Prahran. And you know what it said? WALK TO BEACH! WHAT THE HELL!? I almost fell off my chair in shock! I mean, ok sure, you COULD walk to the beach from Chapel St, but for GOD’S SAKE, it’d take FOREVER! Price – as I said, I like to know a price. If it says a number and then negotiable, that’s good. If it says a very close price RANGE of within $10,000, that’s ok. If it says offers ABOVE a price, that’s also fine. All I want to do is KNOW, so I don’t waste my time. Cause I also hate when you go and inspect a property that, for example, is for auction and so there’s no price guide on it (up here they NEVER put a price on auctions. Not even a guide figure), and you talk with the agent about your budget and you suspect the property would be about $50,000+ above your maximum budget, and the agent says no, it’s fine and they’d take that offer…and then later on the property is passed in at auction and then listed at an actual price, and you see that price is indeed WAY above your budget. WHY do the agents bother ******!? It is a waste of everyone’s time! Something else I hate about location “secrecy” is when they actually put the open house times and dates on the ad online or in the paper, but not the address. It’s like, HELLO? Do you REALLY expect me to have to CALL you just to find out the address!? UGH! There also seems to be a HUGE lack of urgency around here with sales and inspections. Like, as I said above, sometimes open house ads don’t have the address of the property. This on its own is bad enough in my opinion, but then a few times I’ve sent the agent a msg through their online ad (I just wasn’t in the mood to call them and potentially be stuck on the phone being “sold” to), asking for the address so I can attend the open house, and I usually send this at least 2 days before the open house, and yet 2 out of the 3 times I’ve had to do this, I don’t get a reply until AFTER the open house! And I’m like, WHAT?! And they seem to not care! They don’t care that they’ve lost a potential buyer who couldn’t come to the open house because they didn’t know where the hell it WAS! Anyway…that’s my rant for today. lol How the hell did I become a senior member!? I know nothing! Re: Best to list a price when selling, or leaving a property 17Jul 21, 2010 3:57 pm I think they leave the address off on purpose so you will call. It annoys me too but that's RA's for you. As for the "walk to the beach..." Yep the amount of BS they say is incredible. I love the "in pristine original condition"... meaning it's a dump that's had no maintenance for the last 40+ years. And everything is a "golden opportunity". Re: Best to list a price when selling, or leaving a property 18Jul 21, 2010 4:27 pm But why bother?? As soon as you step inside, or get into the area, you KNOW if it's not what they've claimed!! AAGH! FRUSTRATION! How the hell did I become a senior member!? I know nothing! Re: Best to list a price when selling, or leaving a property 20Jul 22, 2010 4:09 pm The bait to me should be the actual PROPERTY! The pictures, the location...all bait. There's no appeal in having to go out of my way to find out what should be disclosed to begin with. Blah! lol How the hell did I become a senior member!? I know nothing! You might be able to apply to divert the sewer at your expense. In NSW you would contact a Water services co-ordinator and they would give you advice as to whether or not… 1 16130 Ask for some kickplate to be added and also for tradies to be requested to use lanyards on tools on that side of the building. Be respectful and have the discussion… 1 1685 The setback from the kerb is 4m. It is council land to provide an area for services like sewer main, gas mains, water mains, underground power or poles for overhead power,… 4 2389 |