Why price, presentation and preparation matter

If you are planning on selling this year, it is important to keep in mind that the later you leave listing your property for sale, the more competition you are likely to be dealing with from other sellers. Of course, the more competition you have, the greater the importance of devoting some time and effort to the presentation of your property, to help make it stand out in the minds of your buyers.

We were reminded of just how important this is by an article in Saturday’s ‘Realestate’ lift-out in the Herald-Sun. In case you missed it, Samantha Landy wrote about a property in Wheelers Hill that had gone to auction in mid-June this year and that had been passed-in at $1.25 million.

Rather than accept a sale at that level, the vendors made the decision to take the property off the market until the tenants had moved out, then to devote some time and money to getting the presentation right. They then re-auctioned the property last weekend, with very different results.

So what had changed?

1. Buyers were able to inspect the property at any time, as there were no longer any restrictions to access due to the tenants’ right to privacy;
2. The price range was adjusted from the initial optimistic range of $1.5-1.65 million, to a more realistic range the second time around of $1.239-1.36 million;
3. A fresh approach to styling the property once the tenants moved out improved the overall appeal of the home.

The end result? Instead of a luke warm first auction with two bidders, the second auction saw six bidders competing fiercely, pushing the price above $1.5 million, which was more than $180,000 above the new reserve.

Obviously not every auction will achieve such a strong result. However, as regular readers will know, our team at Barry Plant Preston has had results that have exceeded our clients’ reserves by even more than this amount…and these results have often come down to achieving the right presentation and preparation before the properties hit the market.

If you are planning a Spring sale, and want to be sure that you have the right presentation and preparation in order to maximise your result, feel free to give us a call. We are always more than happy to offer our advice and assistance.