Category: Blog

Today we publish the next of our blogs in our 12-week blog series, THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO SELLING YOUR HOME.

SHOWING YOUR HOME

ACCOMMODATE VIEWINGS BY PROSPECTIVE BUYERS

You have done a lot of hard work so far and now is not the time to drop the proverbial ball. If the estate agent calls for a viewing by an interested party, you need to be as accommodating as possible. Selling your home is as much about the presentation, as we have highlighted throughout the staging and marketing sections, as it is about getting as many feet through your property. You will have to clean, again, but stay focused on the prize!

BE FLEXIBLE WITH HOME SHOWINGS

Showing properties is less of an occurrence than it used to be in the marketing of property these days, largely as a result of the visual effectiveness provided by online technology. But, if your estate agent believes a “Sunday showing” of your home will benefit the marketing process, please don’t turn him or her down. Of course, you will have to clean, again; no dishes in the sink or a dirty dishwasher and bathrooms need to sparkle. And if you find it too uncomfortable or distressing to have strangers in your home whilst you are in attendance, be sure to visit some friends for the two or so hours of the showing. It’s a little inconvenient, but it will get your house sold!

CONSIDER HOLDING AN OPEN HOUSE WHEN SELLING YOUR HOME

Not every home is necessarily appropriate for an open house, but if your estate agent feels yours is, you should consider employing that marketing route. An important consideration is whether your property is in area close to major traffic or on a major artery. Also ask your agent if the open house will be advertised online. There are many eventual buyers of a property who initially had little interest in a specific property, but then ended up buying it after visiting it as an open house.

TAKE YOUR PETS SOMEWHERE FOR SHOWINGS

Many of you will probably be agasp at this, but some people really don’t like pets. You may not agree with this and may even avoid such people socially, but that does not exclude such a person from actually buying your house. Buyers certainly don’t want to see a bowl full of dog food or smell the cat litter box. Take the pets(s) to a friend or a pet hotel for the day.

DON’T HIDE MAJOR PROBLEMS 

One of the most serious and critical mistakes a homeowner can make is to hide ANY problems with the property from a potential buyer. You are just opening yourself up to all sorts of problems during the conveyancing process and may even run the risk of legal recourse. If you are aware of a problem or problems, it will even be to your advantage to have your home inspected by a professional prior to listing the property.

In terms of home staging, it is always critical to fix the problem before home showing. You will know by now that, by not fixing the problem prior to home showing, you will definitely be limiting the number of interested buyers. If the cost of fixing the problem outweighs the perceived benefit, you may also consider pricing the property lower to compensate for the problem and then disclose the problem upfront to any potential buyer. Or you may consider offering the buyer a credit to fix the problem.

NEXT WEEK: SALE NEGOTIATIONS AND THEREAFTER

Today we publish the next of our blogs in our 12-week blog series, THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO SELLING YOUR HOME.

EFFECTIVELY MARKETING YOUR HOME

DON’T SKIMP ON LISTING PHOTOS, INSIST ON PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY

Until a few years ago, one may have got away with photos of an inferior quality. Nowadays, all photographic content needs to be presented at an exceptional level, when selling your home.

Ask your agent, prior to the signing of any mandate, for samples of the photographic content his estate agency has presented in the past. Visit the agency’s website to review their photographic presentation and compare it to that of the competition. You need to ensure that the estate agent employs a professional photographer. The photography session needs to be arranged for the day, in plenty of natural light. The photographer needs to ensure that the time of day and the angle of natural light, best presents your house.

CONSIDER A VIDEO TOUR

The addition of videography is fast becoming ‘the next kid on the technological block’ in property presentation. Drone technology allows for the setting and the possible views of your property to be best shown to any potential buyer. Be sure to speak to your Agent about this prior to signing off on a mandate.

REVIEW YOUR LISTING ONLINE

Once your property has been photographed and, possibly, video graphed, the agency will add these to your property listing on-line. Look at your home listing on the various websites. Ensure that both the visuals and the conveyed property information is both of a high-quality and accurate. If anything is missing or unsatisfactory, contact your agent immediately and ask for it to be rectified.

YOUR PROPERTY NEEDS TO BE MARKETED THROUGH ALL POSSIBLE CHANNELS, ESPECIALLY ONLINE

It was strongly recommended in a previous section that you ensure that all possible marketing channels are used by the estate agency in the marketing of your property. This is particularly relevant for on-line marketing channels.

Your property listing should, at the very least, be presented on the agency’s website and on one secondary, property-listing site. Importantly, these websites supply minute-by-minute statistics of the number of visits to your property listing. The statistics will also reflect the number of times the agent has been contacted for information on, and/or viewings of, your property. So, don’t be shy to regularly ask your agent for feed-back.

In addition, Social media is regularly used to advertise properties to a defined user audience. The exposure of your property to relevant buyers is increased by such advertising. Ask your Agent whether your property will get exposure on Facebook and/or Instagram and how the buyer-audience has been identified.

Also, good estate agents will most times use an email or SMS campaign to notify your neighbours and the immediate surrounds that your property is in the market.

PUT UP A SIGN ON THE PERIMETER OR THE PAVEMENT WHEN SELLING YOUR HOME

Yes, we are living in a digital age and online marketing of your property is critical. However, that does not mean that certain more traditional aspects of marketing and exposing your property is not necessary anymore. Be sure to ask the agent to display a For Sale sign on the perimeter of your property. This is particularly important if your property is situated on a reasonably busy main artery in your town or city.

You may want to keep the sale of your property private by not displaying a For Sale sign. However, in doing so, you may run the risk of missing out on a neighbour who has just been waiting for your property to come onto the market !

NEXT WEEK: CRITICAL ASPECTS OF SHOWING YOUR HOME

Today we publish the next of our blogs in our 12-week blog series, THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO SELLING YOUR HOME.

STAGING YOUR HOME FOR MAXIMUM SELLING IMPACT

PREPARE FOR THE SALE WHEN SELLING YOUR HOME

You have decided on an agent to assist you in the marketing of your property and between the two of you, you have agreed a price to market the property at. That probably means that you have gone some way to reducing the emotion attached to selling your home.

Now it is time to follow through and maximize the chance of successfully marketing your property by assessing your current home unemotionally in terms of how it will present itself to a prospective buyer. Houses change into homes as owners tailor it to their specific needs over time. However, your and/or your family’s needs will never equate exactly to those of a prospective buyer.

Therefore, put your ‘buyer’s hat’ on and be prepared to change a lot of what you have become used to over the years. And ask your estate agent to advise you on preparing your property for sale.

DO HOME STAGING – IT BOOSTS THE APPEAL AND SELLING POWER OF YOUR HOME

The first impression is the only impression

A prospective buyer visiting your property for a viewing has already judged your home before he or she walks through the door. After all, the general area in which your property is situated and the very street in which it is located, has already made a certain impression on that person. Whilst you do not have much control over the latter, you can and should influence the potential buyer’s impression from the moment he or she steps onto the pavement in front of your house.

START FROM YOUR PAVEMENT AND WORK YOUR WAY IN

One of the first things buyers are going to notice as they enter your property is the landscape, i.e. the lawn, plants, flowerbeds etc.

• Fix/paint the entrance gate (if necessary)
• Mow the lawn and pull out weeds
• Trim trees and flowers or plant new flowers for some colour
• Get rid of oil marks from driveways
• Clean the pool
• Clean up outdoor areas
• Fix any holes in, or leaning, fences
• Unblock gutters
• Wash the windows
• If necessary, repaint the exterior walls, driveway gates and boundary walls

LESS IS BETTER, SO REMOVE CLUTTER

Any homeowner builds up a tremendous number of fixtures and fittings over many years of turning a house into a home. However, the prospective buyer is only interested in seeing as much of the actual house as possible. This includes the floor-space of every room and the physical dimensions of cupboards, showers etc. A cluttered home will make the house seem much smaller than it is. You want to maximize the perceived space in your house.

• Make sure the entry way is clear and clean
• Remove any furniture which may seem excessive; rent a storage space if needs be
• Present some cupboards half-empty (and neatly stacked or hung), to illustrate the space available
• De-personalize your home as much as possible. Prospective buyers will have difficulty visualizing the house as their future home, the more clutter they see
• A good yardstick is getting rid of one-third of the stuff in your home
• Maximize the perceived space in the home – clear out all the non-essentials.

 DON’T OVER-UPGRADE, BUT DO MAKE SURE YOU REPAIR EVERYTHING THAT’S BROKEN

Fixing what is broken is critical and will always pay off, but massive makeovers seldom do when selling your home. Therefore, fix everything, because when a buyer sees one thing broken, it is only natural to start wondering about what else may be a problem.

• Fix broken doorknobs and/or locks
• Repair broken window latches
• Fix a leaking toilet
• Repair leaky faucets
• Clean or re-paint ceiling stains
• Fix broken Cupboard handles
• Ensure Closet doors are on track
• Fix faulty and/or exposed wiring
• Clean any grout

PAINT YOUR INTERIOR IF IT NEEDS IT

There is not another home improvement that will give you more bang for your buck than a fresh coat of paint. Dark colors will reflect less space and old paint makes rooms look decrepit. Paint with contemporary, light and neutral colors.

CLEAN PROPERLY AND THOROUGHLY

A dirty home is one of the things most off-putting to a potential buyer. It makes it almost impossible for him or, especially her, to visualize themselves in the house in the future. It is one of the quickest, most sure-fire things to turn a potential buyer away and this applies particularly to the kitchen, the bathrooms and any carpets. This is one of those things where spending a few hundred Rand can save you thousands by preventing the buyer from thinking they need to replace the carpets immediately. As a result, consider a professional cleaning for the entire house if it really requires it.

GET RID OF ALL ODORS

This is something you should not take any chances with. Ask an outside person, like your property agent, for an opinion on any odors in the house. This may include smoking (a massive no-no!), pet or cooking odors; any of these, particularly the first two, will more than likely chase most buyers away.

LET THE LIGHT IN!

Presenting a light, airy house to the buyer is critical; it is next in line in importance, only to the location and the kitchen. Good light is the one thing that every buyer cites that they want in a home. Things to do to maximize light is cleaning the windows, remove unnecessary curtains, replace fused light bulbs and increase wattage, where necessary. If there are any shrubs or bushes outside windows which deplete light inflow, cut them back to let in sunshine.

WHEN SELLING YOUR HOME, THE KITCHEN COMES FIRST, SO MAKE IT APPEALING

Remember, you are selling your kitchen as much as you are selling your home. On the one hand, we have warned against over-spending on upgrading and/or performing unnecessary upgrades. However, if there is one area in which you can break this rule, it is the kitchen. You are almost certain to get your money back. Replace counter-tops and any tacky cabinetry. Paint, with neutral colours! You can even consider installing a new appliance or two if the existing ones are in really bad shape or look outdated.

NEXT WEEK: CRITICAL ASPECTS TO EFFECTIVE MARKETING OF YOUR HOME

Today we publish the next of our blogs in our 12-week blog series, THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO SELLING YOUR HOME.

#9: UNDERSTANDING ALL ASPECTS OF A MANDATE  

It is important to understand what different options there are when it comes to granting an estate agent a mandate.

• Open Mandate:

This gives the owner and a number of specified estate agencies the right to market the property. It is an’ instruction to sell’ by the seller to a number of estate agencies. The owner still has the right to market the property and has no contractual obligations to the collaborating agencies.

• Multiple Mandate:

This gives the owner and a number of specified estate agencies the contractual right to market the property. It is an ‘instruction to sell’ by the seller to a number of estate agencies. The owner still has the right to market the property, but has contractual obligations to the collaborating agencies.

• Joint Mandate:

This gives the owner and two specified estate agencies the contractual right to market the property. It is an ‘instruction to sell’ by the seller to two estate agencies. However, the owner still has the right to market his or her own property.

• Sole Mandate:

This gives the owner and one specified estate agency the contractual right to market the property. It is an ‘instruction to sell’ by the seller to one estate agency. However, the owner still has the right to market his or her own property.

• Exclusive Sole Mandate:

This gives one specified estate agency the contractual right to market the property. It is an ‘instruction to sell’ by the seller to one estate agency. The owner forfeits his or her right to market his or her own property.

WEIGHING UP YOUR RIGHTS AGAINST THE AGENCY’S EFFORT IN SELLING YOUR HOME

A mandate is there to protect the relevant parties involved with selling your home.

From a seller’s perspective, it may seem as if he or she is giving more rights away as one moves up the scale of the various mandate options. However, an estate agency will always prefer to market the property backed by an exclusive sole mandate or, at least, a sole mandate.

The estate agent’s reality is the time the agent will be spending on marketing your property over the next few months. That time starts with preparing the valuation. This is followed by the conducting of viewings and eventual negotiations on your behalf. Considerable time is then spent on assisting you in the execution of any inspections required and the fulfillment of specific suspensive conditions.

The estate agency’s reality is the cost it will incur in marketing your property over the period. This starts with the photography session, which is followed by the listing on one or more secondary property sites. It will include the occasional boosting expense to give your property more exposure at selected times. In addition, the agency will be using, and paying for, social media advertising to promote your property selectively.

It is only natural that the more secure a mandate owned by an estate agency, the more marketing time, effort and cost it will expend on a property. The owner/agent relationship is always critical in the success of the selling of a property. This relationship is normally best served by providing the property agency with a sole mandate to ensure you receive maximum effort from the marketing process.

Please note that such a mandate should also specify the time (mostly 3 months), the marketing price and the fee/commission payable to the agent upon transfer of the property.

NEXT WEEK: STAGING YOUR HOME FOR MAXIMUM EFFECT

Today we publish the next of our blogs in our 12-week blog series, THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO SELLING YOUR HOME.

CLICK BELOW should you prefer to skip this 12-week educational and proceed straight to a FREE EMAILING of the entire document:

#6, 7 & 8: SETTING YOUR ASKING PRICE & BEING AWARE OF ALL COSTS WHEN SELLING YOUR HOME

We have already warned against becoming emotionally involved when selling your home, as this is what often results in properties coming to the market at an unrealistic asking price.

But there are other factors which will also determine whether prospective buyers see your property as fairly priced:

• ask yourself from the outset whether you “want to sell” or “need to sell”. If you find yourself in the former situation, you could lean towards the higher end of the valuation scale. However, if you are in the latter situation, you need to price your property at the bottom of the valuation scale

• a buyer only has a certain amount of funds available, or only has access to a specific amount of bond finance. This has to be used to secure the most appropriate property possible for his or her particular needs. Couple this to the advances in technology, which permit the buyer to research every possible property in the desired location. It becomes critical for sellers to be realistic about the price they set for their home

• obtain an understanding of what current market conditions are, i.e. is it currently a sellers’, buyers’ or a neutral market. A sellers’ market means that demand for property is strong and you could price your property slightly higher. A buyers’ market means that properties are not fetching the prices it has in the past. This could be the result of recent property prices having just become too expensive or as a result of the prevailing economic conditions.          

PRICE YOUR HOME ACCURATELY

In the preceding section, we highlighted the advantages agents have in the process of valuing your property. This includes the benefit of agencies having access to digital platforms such as CMA (Comparative Market Analysis) to:

• extract the selling prices of comparable properties sold in your area over an extended period
• provide you with a projected valuation, based on your initial purchase price and compounded interest rates, over the ownership period
• establish how many properties had been sold in your area for different periods, providing you with a view of prevailing market conditions
• extract municipal valuations of your property and those in your surrounds.

An agent who uses this tool effectively, will be able to provide you with an accurate valuation of your property based on factual and extensive statistics.

BE AWARE OF CERTAIN COSTS YOU WILL HAVE TO INCUR DURING THE PROCESS

Sellers are often caught unawares by costs which they have to incur by law. These include:

• Electricity compliance
• Beetle certificate
• Plumbing compliance
• Gas certificate

Any non-compliance identified during the inspection will, in turn, translate into specific repair or upgrading costs to the seller.

These compliance inspections mostly occur during the conveyancing process. However, the seller may take it upon him or herself to have the inspections done prior to the marketing of the property. This will mean that you can present a prospective buyer with compliance certificates, reflecting your property’s “clean bill of health”.

A note of caution, though, when embarking on the compliance process. You may find there are a few service providers who may quote you on items which not necessarily require repair or upgrading for your property to be considered compliant. Therefore, be sure to use your agent’s knowledge and experience to access reputable and trustworthy service providers.

NEXT WEEK: SIGNING A MANDATE

Today we publish the next of our blogs in our 12-week blog series, THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO SELLING YOUR HOME.

CLICK BELOW should you prefer to skip this 12-week educational and proceed straight to a FREE EMAILING of the entire document:

#5: ASK ABOUT YOUR AGENT’S REAL ESTATE COMMISSION WHEN SELLING YOUR HOME

You have made sure that you understand exactly what service you can expect from an estate agent. You now need to ask the agent about the sales commission you are eventually going to be charged. Once you select your agent, you will be asked to sign a sole mandate with the agency. Long before that happens, you want to have the sales commission issue resolved.

On the one hand, the commissions charged by estate agencies often seem out of sync with the service you may receive. This may not necessarily be as a result of poor or inadequate service on the agent’s part. You have, after all, carefully pre-selected the agent based on the thorough process described earlier. However, sometimes properties sell relatively quickly. The time, effort and cost expended by the agent during the marketing process often does not match a very large sales commission.

What is more, sales commissions have historically been calculated as a percentage of the eventual selling price of a property. It means that a R 5,000,000 property will incur a lot more sales commission than a R 2,000,000 property. You may think that this is equitable, as a more expensive property requires more time, effort and cost to market. However, this is simply not the case.

Statistics show that there is a massive discrepancy in this price/commission relationship. After all, the ratio of the cost, effort and time is most certainly not 5:2 (R 5,000,000 vs R2,000,000).

The times, they are a changing

That is the reason for the current revolution in the real estate industry. Estate agencies such as our’s provide a more equitable solution by charging a flat fee for any property transaction. And, contrary to the pervading opinion of the ‘traditionalists’, that flat fee still gets the home seller the full, personal real estate service. We just do it more efficiently through the use of effective systems and infrastructure and then pass the saving on to the seller.

So, it is critical that you negotiate the sales commission with the agent prior to signing the mandate. It should certainly not be the traditional 7.5%, those days are long gone. And it should preferably be a flat fee, unrelated to the price eventually fetched by your home.

NEXT WEEK: DON’T SET AN UNREALISTIC PRICE FOR YOUR HOME

Today we publish the next of our blogs in our 12-week blog series, THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO SELLING YOUR HOME.

CLICK BELOW should you prefer to skip this 12-week educational and proceed straight to a FREE EMAILING of the entire document:

#4: ASK ABOUT THE EXACT SERVICE YOU WILL BE RECEIVING FROM YOUR AGENT WHEN SELLING YOUR HOME

So, you have made appointments with several estate agents to visit your home. You have met them personally and have obtained a valuation of your property from each of them. It is now the time to ensure that each one of them will be marketing your home effectively.

So, ask each agent:

• how long the person has been an estate agent
• how long he or she has lived in your area
• what he or she thinks of your property and the area it is located in
• ask the estate agent about both the positives and the negatives of your property
• find out what advice he or she has for you to improve on the negatives, i.e. basic cosmetic changes and de-cluttering or more major upgrading
• how he or she envisages presenting the positives of your property effectively in the marketing process
• what technology he or she will be using in presenting your property effectively (photography, videography and/or drone technology)?
• about the marketing mediums and sites he or she will be using to market your property (newspaper, magazines, website, social media, external property listing sites)
• whether the agent may not already have some buyers who may be interested in your property
• about the viewing of your property by potential buyers. It is critical to ask whether the viewing will be facilitated by the property agent in person? What time of day are such viewings likely to take place? How long does such a viewing typically take? What notice period you are likely to be given for a viewing?
• whether the agent will handle all the price and other negotiations between you and the potential buyer and
• will the estate agent assist you in the execution of any suspensive conditions which may be attached to the sale, the arrangement of electrical and other inspections and the actual conveyancing process.

Finally, you must ask the Agent for references and/or testimonials from past Clients.

NEXT WEEK: ASK ABOUT YOUR AGENT’S REAL ESTATE COMMISSION

Today we publish the next of our blogs in our 12-week blog series, THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO SELLING YOUR HOME.

CLICK BELOW should you prefer to skip this 12-week educational and proceed straight to a FREE EMAILING of the entire document:

#3: PLAY THE ESTATE AGENT FIELD

You now understand what you can expect from an Estate Agent and you need to decide on who to appoint to market and sell your home. Don’t just pick the first one you see on a board somewhere. Even worse, don’t phone someone who has been a dear friend for many years and just happens to have become an intern estate agent two months ago. There are very few quicker ways of putting a friendship at risk than doing that!

Instead, source the best real estate agent out there. Do that by casting your ‘net’ as wide as possible. You may know of an excellent agent through a friend who has recently sold a property. If you do, don’t just employ the agent immediately. Pencil him or her in as the first one on your short-list. If you haven’t been referred to any specific agent, the internet thankfully provides a massive amount of easily accessible information. This is particularly relevant for real estate agencies and agents.

Spend some time in searching the most prominent estate agencies in your area and have a good look through their agents’ listings. Note that ‘prominent’ estate agencies these days do not necessarily mean the well-known names only. The success you have in the future with selling your home will depend on how effectively your property is marketed and how many potential buyers an agent may reach with the presentation of your property.

So, put a ‘buyer’s hat’ on and visit the internet sites which advertise properties.

There you will see:

• the properties currently being marketed in your area. This has the added benefit of providing you with a good idea of pricing in your area.
• the visual presentation of the various properties by each agency. Discard those with inferior photography or poor property listing information. Short-list only those who exhibit the best quality photographs and employ videography and/or drone technology
• the number of properties featured by an agency and the specific agents. The better agents normally have a number of properties listed, mostly because they are good agents and therefore in demand. At the same time, be careful of those ones with a very large number of listings. It may indicate that they are not selling quickly enough. And how much time are they really going to have available for your property?

You may have to spend a few hours going through this exercise, but selling your home is obviously a very important undertaking. The reward is that you will end up with a short-list of high quality agencies and/or agents to choose from. Once done, either call the agency to send out an agent, contact the agent directly or, in many instances today, just book an appointment on-line for an agent to come and visit.

The objective of such a visit? To obtain a valuation of your property from each agent. It will not only provide you with a good idea of the price at which your property is likely to be marketed at, but you will be able to assess each of the agents in person, in terms of their personality and ability.

NEXT WEEK: ASK ABOUT THE EXACT SERVICE YOU WILL BE RECEIVING FROM YOUR AGENT

Our 12-week blog series, THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO SELLING YOUR HOME, starts today.

SELLING YOURSELF VS USING AN ESTATE AGENT.

CLICK BELOW should you prefer to skip this 12-week educational and proceed straight to a FREE EMAILING of the entire document:

#1: WHEN SELLING YOUR HOME, DON’T BE EMOTIONALLY INVOLVED

Selling your home is an emotional experience. However, selling your property should always be a business transaction. Being emotionally involved with a business transaction, will most times lead to the making of poor marketing decisions. A Seller needs to understand this.

For instance, you may not see the need for changing, or even upgrading, certain parts of your home for presentation to a buyer. Or you may attach an unrealistic value to your property, because it is the family home.

You need to remember how you felt as a buyer when you first viewed the property. That is, before it became your home. The new buyer has no emotional inclination to the property.

His or her interest is only in whether the property speaks to their specific needs. The only other consideration is whether the asking price justifies the offer on the property.

#2: UNDERSTAND WHAT AN AGENT DOES

There are obviously homeowners who do market and sell their properties themselves. If you elect to do that you need to, first, be aware of what that process will demand of you and the best way to do that is to understand what an agent does.

A good agent:

• Uses his or her access to formal, paid-for property valuation sites to obtain and provide you with a realistic  valuation of your property
• Will be able to professionally assess the positives and negatives of your property.
• Advises you on how to best utilise property pro’s & con’s in the marketing process.
• Understands how to use technology to present your property in the best light through the most effective mediums available
• Probably already has one or more buyers who may be looking for a property like, or similar to, yours
• Facilitates the viewing of the property by potential buyers in person
• Protects you from being personally exposed to any comments on and views of your property
• Prevents you from potentially having an un-vetted stranger in your home
• Handles all the price and other negotiations between you and the potential buyer
• Assists you with the execution of any legal obligations which may be attached to the sale.
• Facilitates the arrangement of electrical and other inspections and the actual conveyancing process.

NEXT WEEK: PLAY THE AGENT FIELD