Some portray home selling as a mystical process bereft with danger for the uninitiated. In reality, it is nothing more than a willing buyer and willing seller mutually agreeing on the value of a property on any particular given day.

To this end there are three important and interrelated factors that your house sale is most dependent on;
1. Presenting your home in it’s best light.
2. Maximising your marketing profile to potential buyers.
3. Making sure the price is right.

Presenting the home in it’s best light.
Take a thorough look around your property both inside and out. If you can’t be objective, ask a friend you trust to help. What you want to know is how potential buyers will perceive your home. Don’t take the feedback as criticism of your taste, what you are trying to do is maximise the number of potential buyers who may wish to purchase your property. This is why clutter, mess and dirt must be eradicated!!!! Some people can’t see beyond dirty dishes in the sink, musty rooms and a floor covered in toys. Have a thorough spring clean and tidy-up before marketing.

Don’t just stop at cleaning up the interior, the exterior also needs to look good. A garden and lawn that is tidy and mowed indicates a low maintenance property. If paths are overgrown and mossy then a home appears hard to maintain. Overgrown trees may also make the home unnecessarily dark, which puts off most sun-seeking Kiwis. Organise a working bee for your garden or pay a professional to spend a day cleaning it up.

Where possible, fix any problem areas. A leaky spouting, patchy paint job, drippy faucet and stained carpet are all drawbacks that may prevent you getting top dollar for your home. Weigh up the cost of fixing things with the price you hope to gain but realise that perceived problems will limit the number who will consider purchasing your home.

Maximising your marketing profile to potential buyers.
Private home sellers now have the same profile opportunities available to real estate agents thanks to the Home Sell web-site and full colour photos in each issue. Better still, this can all be achieved at a fraction of the price. To date in Christchurch about 80% of homes that are profiled with a large colour advert or with accompanying feature, have gone under offer within 6 weeks. Private sellers who choose a four spot in Home Sell, presence on the website and advertise their Open day details in the Press are recording over 25 groups through their Open Days.

Making sure the price is right.
Your home can look gorgeous, your marketing can be extensive but you still may not sell. The reason in most cases is an unrealistic price! This is the most difficult aspect of selling to get right because what your home is worth to someone else is dependent on changing variables;
a. The price of other homes in your area
b. The availability of other homes in your area
c. The availability of other homes in your price range
d. Fads and fashions e.g.deco homes have experienced a resurgence in popularity of late which has raised their value
e. Market conditions e.g. the leaky building syndrome is affecting the sale of homes with specific claddings, particularly in Auckland.
f. Interest rates (lower rates will usually allow buyers to comfortably borrow more, thus altering the price they are able to pay for a property)

When setting price, I advise getting a professional valuation. For around $300, you will know what you can expect to receive in today’s market conditions. Even if you decide to market your home at a higher price so that there is room for negotiation or if you settle for a lower price to ensure a quick sale, you have a good idea of what your home is worth. This can give you the confidence to not accept any unreasonable offers. A professional valuation can even be sold or signed over to the successful purchaser if they require it to arrange finance from their lending institution (dependent on time frame and a small fee may apply)

Some sellers use their own local knowledge of the market to settle on a price. If you have been attending Open Days and keeping track of the sales of similar houses in your area for the last few months, then you will probably have a good idea of what your home is worth (by similar’ I mean similar in section size, presentation, number of bedrooms, garage space and age) Remember that what a home is marketed at is not necessarily the price a buyer paid for it so make sure you get the facts right.

Real estate agents regularly price homes and so one method of gauging price is to have a couple of companies around to estimate value and give feedback. They will refer to the record of recent agency sales in the area to support their predictions. Some agents will accept your decision to try and sell privately with the hope of getting your listing if you are unsuccessful. Others have been known to ‘talk up a home’ valuing it at the high end in order to get your listing. Of course this may not necessarily be what you end up selling for.
The GV (Government Valuation) now referred to as the RV (Rateable Valuation) is used by some buyers and sellers as a ‘ball park’ estimate of price. This price is not based on the homes condition, style or decor but the land value and size of the dwelling. To this end a property may fetch considerably more or less than the RV. A more cost effective source of residential sales information is called evaluer and is available on the web. For $34.95 a casual subscriber can find out key information on the subject property including ten recent sales in the area (see www.qv.co.nz or the Q&A in this issue for more information)

Many buyers have been looking for their ideal home for a number of months and have attended numerous Open Days. These potential buyers will have a very good idea of what your home is worth based on a comparison of other homes they have seen. You could choose to market your home without a price (NPM or No Price Marketing) and gauge the market feedback before settling on a price. Even if you do name a price it is useful to ask visitors to your Open Home for feedback on your price and presentation. In our experience, homes that are well presented, well marketed and well priced, will sell within eight weeks.

So it’s as easy as that. Get your price, presentation and profile right and you’ll get the sale. Happy selling!