The urgency for buyers to snap up Sunshine Coast properties as soon as they are listed has reduced, but the region is still flush with savvy buyers who are waiting for the right property to pop up on their radar.
My Property Preview has spoken with high-profile Sunshine Coast agents and found that those who use a holistic marketing strategy are continuing to get the best possible prices for their properties.
Ray White Caloundra director Andrew Garland says there are plenty of buyers around, but the onus is on sellers to price their property correctly as there is “less urgency amongst buyers to act”.
“Last year, buyers were feeling that if they don’t get in, they will miss out and now they feel if they jump in too quickly, they might pay too much,” he says.
“The net result of this is that figures reported by realestate.com.au show properties listed with a price can blow out past 90 days on market. If properties aren’t listed with the correct price and don’t sell in the first week or two of listing, they are destined for a long sit on the market in the absence of a price change from the seller.”
Mr Garland says the exception to the rule is properties that are taken to auction.
“When you take the price off and add a sale date, the buyers who are attracted to those properties are seemingly more motivated to buy,” he says.
“We are seeing good numbers on properties taken to auction and, for example, we had an in-room auction with five properties and 24 registered bidders across the five. Three of them sold under the hammer.
“I have been auctioning properties since I moved here 14 years ago and in a booming market, auction and listed pricing work the same, but when it goes slightly quiet, auction always outperforms.”
But no matter which method of sale you are considering, Mr Garland says a consistent rule across the board is a holistic marketing strategy.
“I take the view that you will only get the highest price you can if everyone within reason knows the property is for sale,” he says.
“Because of the circulation of something like My Weekly Preview, we open the market up to everybody within the circulation area of the product, whereas with online people tend to confine their search to one particular suburb, which is how those portals are set up. So they might be looking online at Moffat Beach and completely miss the opportunity waiting for them at Alexandra Headland,” he says.
“We have between 30 and 50 per cent of our buyer enquiries come from print and there’s plenty of research out there to suggest that days on market are shorter and sale prices are higher for those people who combine print and online marketing. My own experience shows that’s definitely the case and any agents who don’t offer it are doing their clients a disservice.”
Define Property principal and auctioneer Ross Cattle says it has been “business as usual” across his patch in Mooloolaba, Birtinya, Buderim and surrounds.
“We are finding realistic owners are still achieving solid prices for their homes, buyer numbers are still good with maybe a little more stock becoming available but nothing too drastic in terms of properties flooding to the marke. I think this year sellers are looking for more seasoned agents and agencies that can provide a platform that maximises the reach to buyers, the cheap offering agencies don’t and can’t offer the same exposure and this year feels like clients more than ever want a more professional approach,” he says.
“I think last year, with a few more buyers around, there wasn’t the same risk of underselling and this year choosing the wrong agent could be costly in terms of time on market and price.”
Mr Cattle says the major difference between properties that sell quickly and those that stagnate is “purely marketing”.
“We have the best priced real estate for buyers compared to anywhere else in the country, practically when it comes to value for money. Last year in southeast Queensland, we built the same amount of properties to the volume of people that moved here, this means we don’t suffer from an oversupply,” he says.
“We still have a population growth going on and plenty of projects and infrastructure happening to keep employment strong. For these reasons we won’t go into a buyer’s market, it’s a supply and demand thing and we have more demand than supply.
“Regardless of markets, it’s always important to reach every potential buyer that might buy your home. The only way to reach as many buyers as possible is to look at all your marketing options; the difference in sales price can be massive.
“Everyone understands online exposure but online portals do miss some buyers. Remarketing, database and print play a massive role in increasing your exposure, sometimes little things make a huge difference in price and not doing one thing can mean not selling or not reaching that premium buyer who buys with complete emotion.”
Consistently tracking the ways in which potential buyers find Define’s listed homes, Mr Cattle says they have plenty of examples of the difference good exposure can make.
“It’s not all REA or Domain, and as a matter of fact Domain isn’t even number two on our list,” he says.
“We implement strategies that maximise our reach to potential buyers, as a business we invest heavily in this, to not use all platforms available when selling is like not caring about the outcome.”
