In life there is a formula for everything – whether you are baking a cake, enjoying a fantastic relationship or achieving an outstanding result when selling your home. Some formulas are obviously better than others, the results always speak for themselves.

Through experience in over 800 properties, my team and I have established a formula that produced outstanding results time and time again for our clients. Similar to baking a cake, if one of the parts of the formula is missed out, or incorrectly utilized the end results are effected.

Let me share our secret formula with you...

The key parts to our formula are as follows:

Market Conditions

Understanding the current market dynamics is absolutely essential. It different markets different strategies need to be employed. If you use a rising market strategy in a down market you are in for a rough ride and a potential loss of value. The same works in vice versa.

When supply is less than demand an auction will work very well for the right property, when it is the other way around it can prove to be fatal to your end result, and ultimately the price that you receive for your home.

Market Preparation

Correctly preparing the home for market is essential, this includes works with council, presentation aspects and timing. If you do not have council works tidied up before taking your home to market, this will cost you in the end result.

Property Presentation

How your property is presented has a dramatic effect on your end value. I simply cannot stress this enough. If you want the premium sale result for your home, you absolutely must present your home correctly.

I am a qualified Interior Designer and I can give you educated and experienced advice in how to present your home for the maximum sale price.

This factor alone can effect your sale value by 5-10%.

Property Promotion

There is a saying in Real Estate ‘You cannot sell a secret’. Well it’s true. If you skimp on the marketing then it’s going to effect how many people come to your open homes and what the ‘competition feeling’ is between buyers. The more competition feeling, the more excited buyers become and the more money they will pay.

All buyers want to know is that someone else wants what they are about to buy. If there is hardly anyone at the open homes, they smell blood.

Pricing and Marketing Method

In the current market we are finding that buyers are sensitive to price by as little as $5-10K. It may seem silly but with the resources like QV.co.nz readily available on the internet now buyers can get an understanding on a properties value easily and for as little as $30. We find that if a home is over priced by $10K the interest level is low. Price it correctly and the interest level is off the wall.

The marketing method that you select to use will have an effect on the value as well, some Agents will tell you that Auction is the way for all homes. Some will tell that for sale by price is the way to go. The fact is some homes are suited to Auction, some are not. It really depends on who the target market is, the current conditions and what your price expectations are.

The Agent You Use

Like in any service based industry, unfortunately not all Agents are the same.

The Agent that you select can, and will, have an effect on your end sale value. It can be by up to 15%! It is soo important that you choose someone that has a proven track record and that you feel comfortable with. Someone that you trust and feel that they will not ‘do you over’ in the negotiations.

There are many horror stories out there, and likewise there are many stories of Agents getting fantastic results for their clients and giving outstanding service.

Owner Commitment

The result that you achieve is going to come down to how committed you as an owner are to the cause. Agent’s cannot walk on water, and some help is needed from you. It is going to take some work from you in preparing the home for sale, the property presentation and in the choices that you make.

There will be some financial commitments required in preparation, presentation and promotion of the property. How much will obviously depend on your individual property and your budget.

The first decision that you make is that you need to make a decision on what your commitment level is going to be. Are you going to do absolutely everything that you can to maximize your sale price? Or approach it with a 50/50 and do the bare minimum? Or just do enough to get it sold?

Over the next few weeks I will be making posts that go into each of the areas in much more detail. However, if you are thinking on getting your home ready for sale you need to be aware that each property is completely different, there is no ‘one size fits all’ approach and what we do for one property can be very different to another.

If you would like to take advantage of our experience in over 800 property sales, please feel free to contact me on 481 0648 to have a consultative discussion on your individual needs.