Are you getting ready to sell your home?
If you have not sold a property in a while then there are many things to consider.
Beware of discounted fees
The fees for selling your home are an important consideration but beware of agents offering deals or inducements to get you to list with them.
Instead, look for a salesperson who has a reputation for being a strong negotiator.
You need someone who will get you the best price for your property, not someone who charges the lowest fee. Ironically, they could end up being the most expensive, because they achieve a lower price, due to not having marketed your property to a wider audience because they had to spend minimal on advertising in order to cut their fee.
They also might have refused to conjunct with other salespeople’s buyers because their fee is too small to cover 2 salespeople and their respective Agencies.
So, when you ask, “what are the costs to sell my home”, a better question to ask is “what is your company’s policy on conjunctions with other agencies?”
Your best interests
You want to know that the salesperson is truly working in your best interests.
Some leading salespeople will refuse to do conjunctions with other agency’s buyers, but the more buyers you can get for your property, the more your salesperson can leverage your final selling price.
All salespeople are supposed to work to a code of conduct, so surely, working with as many buyers as possible, even if it means sharing the commission would be in the seller’s best interest?
Read more here about NZ real estate salespeople code of conduct
You get what you pay for
Don’t be enticed by salespeople that offer to pay for advertising your property.
There is always a catch.
After all, they will have to recoup that cost somewhere won’t they?
Also, make sure that your salesperson is digitally savvy. You don’t want to miss out on a huge chunk of the market by paying for expensive print media only.
Lastly, an “appraisal” or current market analysis should reflect current market conditions and be supported by information on comparable sales.
It is law in most countries that a realistic comparative market sales analysis is supplied by a real estate salesperson before listing a property for sale
Rule 10.2 of NZ Real Estate salespeople ‘s code of conduct states
An appraisal of land or a business must— (a) be provided in writing to a client by a licensee; and
(b) realistically reflect current market conditions; and
(c) be supported by comparable information on sales of similar land in similar locations or businesses.
Markets move faster so current data is important
Markets move faster than people and data on settled sales can be over three months old.
So, instead of asking “what is my property worth” ask “what comparable sales have there been within the last month”.
You should also ask what the “on the market” numbers were compared to the “final selling prices” of those comparable sales, as these can be dramatically different.
Choosing the right salesperson can be tricky, so do your research wisely or contact a sellers advocate to guide you through the process. You might be very glad that you did.
©2021 e-propertymatters.com|women-in-realestate.com| Author| Kathryn
