The Sunshine Coast property market is a seller’s delight, with low stock supply and high demand working wonders for the sale prices of homes. With agents claiming we are seeing the best conditions in a decade or more, now is the time to think about how to maximise the price you can get for selling your home. My Property Preview speaks with industry leaders to find out how big the rewards can be when you expand the reach of your property marketing.
Selling your home is a big decision to make, but once you have committed, the best way to maximise the amount you get for your property will be largely dictated by how loudly you communicate your intent to sell.
The difference between a discreet online campaign that attracts people who are actively looking for a property to buy or invest in, and an out-there print and online campaign could be tens of thousands of dollars in the final sale price.
In fact, CoreLogic RP Data studied the sales history of 850,000 houses over a two-year period, with analysts investigating where each property was advertised, its time on the market, the offer price and the value of the final deal.
The study of major cities found that Brisbane properties that advertised in both print and online had a 12.5 per cent increase in success rate of sales, spent eight days less on the market and achieved a 5.8 per cent increase in the sale price achieved.
According to the sales figures at the time, this was a difference of $27,697.
Define Property Agents’ Ross Cattle says looking at marketing options can make a huge difference to the final amount homeowners can gain from the sale of their property.
“The only way to 100 per cent make sure you maximise your price is to use a premium price formula, it’s based on covering every aspect of marketing, these days it a matter of a complete package, online, news print, Facebook, databases, videos, street marketing, good signage,” he says.
“If you really want to make sure you nailed it and got that premium price its simple, don’t miss any of the segments of where buyers come from, if you miss one portion of the market, it could cost you thousands and thousands of dollars.”
Further to the CoreLogic RP Data study, data from emma (Enhanced Media Metrics Australia) found that of the 1.8 million likely property buyers, more than one million people read property content in print or online formats, and all buyers are more likely to read print than online content.
Karen Jones from Next Property Group says including a print marketing campaign when you list your home ensures you can reach those potential buyers who weren’t fully submerged in the market, but were dipping their toes to see what is available.
“You need to cover all of your bases,” she says.
“The internet does reach buyers, but not all of them.
“What about the people thinking of a change but don’t know what that is until they see a property advertised? That sparks their interest and gets them to the property. All of a sudden, these people ‘thinking’ are ‘acting’.
“When you couple this with an experienced agent with excellent negotiating skills, you are setting yourself up to get the best result. This is the market to make money, not try and save a few dollars by going with the cheap Charlies.”
For those who think spending money on marketing is money wasted, Harcourts Caloundra’s Luke Carter says the benefits will far outweigh the initial cost.
“The cost of marketing on the Sunshine Coast has never been cheaper,” he says.
“Conducting a successful auction campaign is half the price of what it was when the market was in this condition 10 years ago. The ability to go to auction is no longer a huge cost factor and a good agent using the auction strategy should be able to make more of the cost of marketing back in the final sale price achieved by creating competitive bidding with emotionally invested buyers.”
