Realising the True Value of Your Home - Part 3

Over the last two newsletters, we’ve introduced the four pieces of the selling puzzle and their importance in realising the true value of your home.

We now turn our attention to the third piece – Quality Marketing.

Agents sometimes say ‘you can’t sell a secret’. However, no property is a secret on the Internet. In the age of online marketing, databases, filtered searches, and property alerts, much of the marketing that agents want you to buy is unnecessary.

Agents and media companies encourage sellers to focus on the amount, size and positioning of advertising, all for extra cost. However, Quality Marketing is a cost-effective alternative that generates the same, if not better results.

Quality Marketing will always attract buyers to a property. It consists of the right price, professional photography, a great description and smart recording of buyer enquiries. It does not require extensive, expensive advertising.

Quantity and positioning, the two factors that add cost, are less important in a Quality Marketing campaign.

Not every property sells with its first agent. Auction clearance rates vary greatly and rarely climb above 60%. Sellers, not agents, nearly always bear the marketing cost of these failed campaigns, often in thousands of dollars.

Realising the true value of your home and maximising your return has two factors – your incoming revenue and your outgoing costs. The sale price is your incoming revenue, and marketing comes under the umbrella of outgoing costs.

Don’t let agents fool you. A bigger, flashier, more expensive marketing campaign will seldom increase your final sale price. The marketing of your property simply needs to be of a quality that attracts all the likely buyers to your home. From there your agent can negotiate the best price for you.

Next month we will introduce our final piece of the puzzle: the Right Price.