Property Face-lift for Private Sellers
Your property is marketed and advertised across a broad range of real estate advertising websites and although you are getting enquiries they are not converting into offers. What can you do? A property face-lift! This could be the difference between your property and a competing property located down the road and if you are prepared to do a small amount of work then it can be done reasonably cheaply.
With the large range of homeware and renovation shops located across Australia means many of the materials needed to spruce up your property can be purchased cheaply. Ikea stocks everything “including the kitchen sink” at unbelievably cheap prices. Lets have a look a few things which can be done to revitalise your property and give it that edge over others:
- A fresh coat of paint - This makes a surprisingly big difference to the look of a property
- New door fittings – Nice new chrome fittings make the property look modern
- New light fittings – These get easily outdated so something modern will do wonders
- New tap fittings – Kitchens and bathrooms have a big impact on buyers decisions.
- Floating floorboards – Are the current trend and are cheap and can be installed yourself.
- Plants/Flowers – At the front door and in the front garden. They don’t have to be expensive just the cheap seasonal flowers will make a big difference.
All of these things can be performed by any property owner and at a reasonable cost which is well worth the investment given the improved look and feel your property will have.
Comments
If people would inquire about my property I would be happy, let alone make an offer.
Mary Q
20.08.08
3:58 pm
Yep, I agree doing a few things to spruce up the property makes a huge difference. I have sold a few properties now and spending a couple of thousand $$$ on your property is well worth.
This is only a fraction of the commission you are saving by selling privately.
JaneH
20.08.08
7:55 pm
Agree , yes have done all of the above even dropped the price thousands , to be under replacement value, and yet I feel I’m puting myself out there for a bargain that no one seems to notice , the absolute value in what we have to offer,it just amazes me how buyers don’t see the value alone in what you’re offering, let alone the attributes of it , any clues anyone ?
John E
20.08.08
9:14 pm
I’m in a similar situation, my property has been on the market since December with various price reductions. If the price is reduced much further it will be less than replacement value of the house. This is extremely disheartening given all the work I have put into fixing bits and pieces of the property along with the effort put into the sale.
Losing hope
20.08.08
11:34 pm
I think there are a lot of property owners in the same boat, all wanting to sell, not achieving this, then reducing the price. The problem is that demand is greater than supply and there is a lot of variety for purchasers to choose from.
Micky
21.08.08
8:19 am
There are three things as a private seller you need to make sure you have covered these are property preparation, pricing and marketing.
This article is about property preparation and by the sound of things most readers have this ticked off.
In regard to the price, you need to look around at the competition and see how they are priced compared to you. Even though you may feel you have reduced the price dramatically, this could be from an inflated initial price. So your property could still be priced above your competitors. My suggestion is to jump on http://www.realestate.com.au and type in your suburb and press submit. Narrow the search down to the same type of property, number of bedrooms, bathroom that your property has and press submit again. If your property is not priced in a range between properties in the results then you need to ask yourself why.
Make sure your property is adequately marketed on the internet, on as many websites as possible. Print off some copies of your property listing from either http://www.househunter.com.au or http://www.realestate.com.au and do some letter box drops in your neighbourhood. Make sure you have a clear For Sale sign out the front of your property.
Bob Sacamento
21.08.08
1:03 pm
There are an enormous amount of bargain properties out there, it is just a matter of having the finances to purchase them. The whole sub-prime fiasco has caused a credit crunch leaving no money for property investors.
If i owned a property at the moment I would try and hold on to it until things pick up a little.
T-Bone
21.08.08
4:47 pm
A tip to help with marketing.
I found i wasn’t getting enough online exposure through private selling websites like Privatepoint. I couldn’t get my property listed on websites like realestat.com.au or Myhome because i wasn’t using an agent.
I was tempted to use an agent to get a broad internet exposure but I was certain there was another angle. My solution was to print out flyers of my property from my DIYsell listing. On Saturdays I would go to open inspections for similar properties in my neighborhood which agents were holding. I would wait outside and hand out flyers to people who had inspected that property telling them I am a private seller and here is a flyer for my property.
Over a 3 week period this probably netted me 7 to 8 couples/individuals who inspected my property. The short of it is, basically agents were doing the marketing and attracting the buyers all i was doing was leveraging from this and handing out some flyers.
Mark
22.08.08
2:01 pm
Mark, thanks for sharing your tip with us. Full marks for your innovation and the motivation you have shown, I assume you sold the property. Not too sure if real estate agents would approve with what you are doing, but hey you’re only chasing their leads.
Rodney Munch
22.08.08
7:13 pm
that is very creative mark, did you end up selling the proprety was it someone you poached from an agent?
Mary Q
24.08.08
9:03 am
I did end up selling the property, it wasn’t someone who I lured from an agent’s open inspection but I still think doing what i did is worth while.
Mark
24.08.08
12:18 pm
I take my hat of to you Mark as you have beaten agents and advertising sites at their game. Agents pressure RealEstate.com.au into not letting private sellers list on their website, dramatically limiting the effectiveness of private sellers online marketing. Let’s face it, by having your property listed on RealEstate.com.au will increase your target audience by more than 1000% on any other website (that’s right even Domain). I know, as I have only just left the real estate industry!
You have devised a way to still use the resources of RealEstate.com.au and the best thing is you are not paying for it the agent is. This is absolutely gold, well done!
Ex - Agent
25.08.08
6:42 am