Residz Team 4 min read
It’s often the case that people need to sell their homes. In some instances, the homeowner needs the money for an extended road trip, or has tried to save money on their mortgage but has over-extended and can’t meet the payments. In other cases, the owner discovers their home needs expensive repairs, or their family is expanding (or not reducing because adult children stay home longer) and the home is too small. Whatever the reason, you could argue that your house should always be for sale, with a ‘dream price’ you’d like to achieve, just in case. Here below, we show you new ways to attract more buyers, including signalling that dream price to those ‘just looking’, and listing your house online for free.
First, let’s look at the property market as it switches over from one in which buyer’s FOMO was real, to a ‘buyer’s market’ in which seller’s FOMO is more likely. According to Nila Sweeney’s article in the Financial Review, “The first three months of 2022 saw the highest number of newly advertised homes for sale over a March quarter since 2014, soaring 19 per cent above the five-year average in Melbourne and 15 per cent higher in Sydney.” Some states, like Brisbane and Adelaide are still performing well for sellers, but it’s a changed environment from 2021 and might take all your creativity, time, and patience to find the right buyer.
Of course, when the right buyer is found, it makes all the work worth the effort. And, there will need to be more effort if you have to sell. When every street or two has a house or unit for sale, you must do three things:
80% of property buyers, be they investors or those who want to buy a house or unit to live in, will begin their search online. The remainder might see the For Sale sign outside your house, your listing in the real estate agent’s window or a printed publication, or via word of mouth. No matter where they start, most Australian home buyers will end up browsing leading real estate websites including Domain and RealEstate.com and more recently Residz.com, a free platform that provides important data about 12 million homes around Australia. More real estate agents are listing properties for free on the Residz website, and this is one of 10 ways you can use Residz to make your own real estate journey easier.
With tens of thousands of unique visitors, Residz.com is gaining popularity in a country known for treating real estate like its favourite national sport. The appeal of Residz.com comes from the extraordinary data and investability index tool (which assigns an investment score) for every address in Australia. Better still, a free property report is available within 30 seconds for each address. For home buyers and sellers, Residz’s homepage is regularly updated to feature new real estate listings. Each listing clicks directly through to the real estate agent selling the house or unit. For a buyer browser, it’s an appealing way to discover new locations for property investment. For a seller, it’s a no-brainer as it’s free to list!
Earlier, we suggested homeowners could signal their ‘DreamPrice’ to potential buyers. This is another feature of the Residz.com website. A DreamPrice is an aspirational sale price set by the homeowner. Although a property displaying a DreamPrice is not currently for sale, Residz will feedback interest to the homeowner anonymously. With no obligation to sell, setting a DreamPrice is a good way to expand the sales leads for your property for when you do decide the time is right.
One of the most helpful pieces of information to come out for sellers recently was the news that buyers are placing ‘lifestyle’ at the top of their wishlist when choosing a home. A recent U.S. survey found 87% of house buyers look for a location that aligns with their lifestyle and we know from sales data that Australians are the same. The survey showed top dream home locations split among:
Our article on the topic shows how you can use this information to your advantage when selling your home. As well, it’s useful to know the two most important features of a home nominated in a survey are:
It might be a bumpy ride to get a lukewarm or indecisive buyer over the line. Our neighbours have just been through this experience, with their home finally selling 1.5 months after a failed auction. As well as ensuring you keep your home immaculately presented, look at areas where you can offer flexibility, whether it be price, settlement terms, or by throwing in some furniture or white-goods (in our own case the seller gave us the fridge, washing machine and dryer - although also left us a lot of junk under and around the house).
With the prices of high-end properties in Australia’s two biggest capitals beginning to cool, homeowners in those cities are under pressure to sell quickly and keep as much of the profit as they can. Asking your estate agent to list your house or unit on Residz is an extra step that could pay dividends but doesn’t cost a cent. For buyers, there are 12 million reasons to go to Residz and type up suburbs. You never know if your dream house at a DreamPrice is listed there.
Image: Off-road in Iceland by Tim Trad