5 Tips on Presenting Your Home for Sale

When selling your property, presentation is everything. It can add thousands of dollars to the selling price and it can help you sell your property faster as it will appeal to a broader range of buyers. If you plan to sell your property, you need to stand out from the competition.

1. Style your home for sale. In today’s market it is imperative that your property stands out from the crowd. If your property is empty, it is well worth the cost to “dress” your home using hired furniture and accessories. Visit display homes for inspiration or best of all call in the professionals.
2. Review your competition! Visit home opens in your area. If you want your home to stand out from the pack then you need to know what the competition is offering.
3. Spring clean your property before your first open day and ensure that your property is cleaned again before each open day.
4. Put aside a reasonable budget to make any minor repairs to your property. Ensure all handywork is completed before your first open day. Nothing puts a buyer off more than thinking that they have work to do as soon as they move in!
5. If you have pets, ensure all signs of them are removed before open days. This includes their smells. Remember, you may not be able to smell any signs of your pets but potential buyers will.
   

Styling your property for sale does not have to be an expensive exercise, however, some thought and preparation always goes a long way. If you don't know what you should be doing, speak to your real estate agent or hire a professional interior designer who has experience with dressing properties for sale.

Readers should always seek their own independent advice prior to making any decisions regarding property or finances.

6 Tips to Become an Astute Buyer

Sellers who had their homes on the market for a longer period of time are usually anxious to move on. Other sellers will choose to let their listings expire and try again later in the year or the following year. Second time around they are more likely to be willing to make a deal in order to sell their property at a lower price than they were originally asking.

Buyers should be aware. Here are common mistakes some buyers make when they try to get a bargain.

1. Know your market

Before submitting an offer, the buyer should do a full comparative market analysis of the property to determine what its fair market value is. Alternatively buyers should view as many properties as possible and keep an eye on what properties are selling for (rather than what they are advertised for).

2. Choosing a popular property

If it’s a popular property that has several offers then the seller is highly unlikely to accept a lower offer. Expect to pay above the asking price and don’t expect to get a second chance. Ask the real estate agent if there has been any previous offers on the property and see if the agent will disclose why the offers were not accepted.

4. What is your max price?

Buyers should set their walk-away price before the first offer is submitted as at some point, the property is not worth what the seller wants. Also, don’t be too firm on the first offer. For instance stating that the first offer is the best and highest offer is not going to get a buyer anywhere when the buyer subsequently counter offers what the seller is coming back with.

5. Making a clean offer with no or little strings attached

A clean offer is always going to be more attractive than an offer that has heaps of conditions attached. For instance a subject to sale of another property is never going to be a strong offer so the buyer needs to compensate for that with your offer.

6 Cash is king

A cash offer is a strong offer but a cash offer can still fall through. A seller will still look at the overall offer before making a decision so if your offer is almost as strong as the next offer that is subject to finance you may still loose out.

There are always good deals to be make for the astute buyer. Prepare yourself as much as possible and educate yourself about the local property market that you are about to buy into.

Readers should always seek their own independent advice prior to making any decisions regarding property or finances.

4 things you need to know about pre approved finance

Often when writing an offer a buyer will tell the real estate agent that finance will not be a problem or that they have pre approval. The words, “finance will not be problem” may be true but often when this line is used my experience tells me that the buyer has no idea of what they can borrow and therefore offer on the property.

The other line used is that the buyer has pre approval. As a seller it is very important to know that finance is likely to come through without a problem and a pre approval from a financial institution is a strong indication.

However, a pre approval is not necessarily the golden ticket. If you are looking to obtaining such as document as a buyer or if you are a seller being told that a buyer has a pre approval letter please be aware that:

1) A pre approval does not mean that a buyer can make a cash offer as it is still subject to normal finance criteria and it may still take as long for the bank to provide an unconditional finance approval.

2) A pre approval is time limited (usually 3 months but it may differ from bank to bank).

3) As a buyer, you can walk into some banks off the street, they will ask a couple of questions and provide you with a letter that most buyers believe is a pre approval. Some bank websites also has a feature where you can check what you can borrow, which is basically the same thing. It is not, it is only a vague indication so please check the small print. Unless the credit department has carried out a full credit check, it is not a pre approval and that takes a couple of days.

4) A pre approval will always be subjects to a number of items, such as valuation and that your financial situation does not change.

There is no need to have a pre approval ready when buying a property but it is always a good idea to know how much you can borrow, what the repayments are going to be, what kind of deposit is required etc before you write an offer.

If your situation is somewhat different, such as working casual, part time or have just come out of bankruptcy then a pre approval is a very good idea. In particularly for a piece of mind.

If you are looking to purchase a property and prefers to deal directly with a bank, ask to have one of their mobile lenders come out and see you. They will require payslips, proof of income etc so it is much better to meet at home. Alternatively, use a mortgage broker who will do the same thing, but will consider more than one bank.

Readers should always seek their own independent advice prior to making any decisions regarding property or finances.

3 Tricks Used by Perth Real Estate Agents to Get Your Business

Some real estate agents are better than others. Some have dodgy techniques to make you sign up with them and those techniques may backfire so here are 3 tricks to be aware of when you are searching for a real estate agent to sell your property in Perth.

1) Get your marketing cost paid by the agent

Marketing that you don’t have to pay for sounds fantastic. However, if the agent is offering to pay the advertising understand exactly what the marketing is going to be and what the value of that marketing campaign is. Without a doubt the agent will introduce a no-frills marketing budget for your property to reduce their cost and their risk.

Is this no frills approach going to generate the most awareness for the buyer willing to pay the most? Properly not. Also, keep in mind that the agent has a financial cost to this and the property doesn’t sell they have to pay for it so the agent will probably be keen to get the property sold as quickly as possible. This means at whatever price (lowest). The real question is if the agent is working in your best interest or in their best interest. This method can work to your advantage but understand the details and not just the big picture.

2) The agent has a buyer ready to make an offer

An old trick is for the agent to say that they have a buyer who can make an offer and pay top dollar. The buyer is usually overseas or interstate. If the agent is certain that this buyer will make a great offer sign a listing authority for 7 days only to see if the agent can produce an offer or not. Most Perth real estate agents will have buyers on their books, however, buyers are not necessarily loyal and it may be an old list or the buyers may not like your property.

3) The agent who promises you the highest price

Some real estate agents will “buy”the listing by quoting a dream price but insist of a long listing period (at least 90 days). When an agent is quoting a high price ask for recent sales evidence that support that appraisal. If you have a set dollar amount in your mind and the agent agrees to take it to the market, that is a completely different story. In particularly, if the agent insist on the importance of market feedback to gauge where the property sits price wise.

Your relationship with your agent should always be transparent on both sides, and one of trust and mutual respect. A real estate agent in Perth who is honest and upfront, gives you the bad and the good news at the listing presentation is worth far more than one who will only tell you what you want to hear. You should never be in a position where you have to second guess their intention!

Readers should always seek their own independent advice prior to making any decisions regarding property or finances.

April 2013 Property Update: Important Facts You Should Know

We are now in April 2013 and looking back on 2012 we experienced a property market where prices started to come back up in the second part of the year. 2013 finished with low levels of properties on the market and in particularly properties in the sub $600k selling quickly when appealing to the first home buyer segment. 

Whether you are a buyer or seller looking to be active in the 2015 Perth property market there are always several considerations to take into account. Consult professional Perth real estate agents to make the right choice. Here are my 3 key indicators that are worth keeping an eye on when buying or selling.

The vacancy rate

The rental vacancy rate is important as if there are hardly any vacancies available it is an incentive for renters to become home owners as it becomes harder to find a place to live or if rents continue to go up. To a large extend this is first home owners who are entering the market. This is going to continue to have a ripple effect for existing home owners who want to upgrade and it will stimulate the market in general.

Additionally, as rentals increase in price, investment properties also become more attractive. In particularly inner city rental experienced strong demand in 2013 and in some areas rental increases of 10-20% was to be expected.

Number Of Properties On The Market

The number of properties on the market is a strong indicator of the supply and demand situation in Perth housing market. As a rule of thumb, approx 12000 properties is a balanced market. When there is more than 12000, say 10,000-11,000 which is what we are experiencing now (December 12), then it is a sellers's market. On the other hand, if there is less more than 12000, then it is classified as a buyer's market. 

Days On Market

Once you know the number of properties on the market, you also need to consider days on market. What is the average time it takes to sell a property? The quicker the properties are selling will tell you which suburbs are more in demand than others.  

You can find these trends on the Reiwa website and the weekend newspapers also publish some of this information in their property section. It is important to remember that when you are looking at buying or selling, you are looking at specific suburbs which may not follow the same trend as Perth, so consider this when you are analyzing the Perth property and housing market.

These indicators should only be a part of your research and you should always consider local factors and conditions as well.

From selling real estate to property management Perth, you should only invest in a deal after you have done a lot of research. Keep all these excellent tips in mind to make the right choice.

Readers should always seek their own independent advice prior to making any decisions regarding property or finances