How important is the first 2 weeks on the market?

So we are close to putting our PPOR on the market (NW Sydney) and have been speaking with agents. The agent we prefer suggested putting on the market as Just Listed for the first 2 weeks then if not under offer then show the price range.

They mentioned that they won't be telling the buyers what the range is for the first 2 weeks but on the flip side try to get what the buyers budget is to see if they are in the correct range for the house then go from there.

Just wondering if this is a good tactic? I heard the first few weeks are quite crucial because the longer you go the less bargaining power you have as the interest tends to trend downwards. Therefore would it annoy the buyers if the agent doesn't give a range straight up?

As a background, there is not much stock in my suburb, interest is pretty good and we don't need to rush the sale however would like to get a sale before spring before more stock comes on.

 

Tough one. If you price too high, or without a price you risk qualified buyers that could well be willing to pay what you expect not coming to your opens. If you price low and you dont get the expected demand then you might have to sell low.

For us we had ours listed as for auction, no price listed at the suggestion of our agent. But we didnt get enough people through the door though early on during the sales campaign. So we cancelled the auction and put a price range on the listing we were happy with. We immediately then got a buyer willing to pay what we were happy with in the middle of that range. (There was also another party willing to buy it from that same weekend but they were not quite at the same offer level). It was also a North Western suburb with very few properties on the market.
Now to contrast, another property was listed in my suburb for auction for the same date as mine but very underquoted price imo (different agent).

Anyway, that vendor had heaps of people going to his opens and he ended up accepting an offer a week before their auction date. It may well have been a very successful auction but we will never know now. I actually think he undersold his home by about 100k though.

So, if you have heaps of demand it can turn into a silent auction but you really need people to see the place first.

Edit: I will add our house was weatherboard on low side of the street and the other a brick on high side of street and they had driveway to rear access to possibly add a granny flat so naturally there's a lot of people who would prefer the other house

 

Do you know what price range it should sit in compared to similar sales in the area?

 

Yes I've done my research. The agent was pretty much spot on with the price range however due to the low stock and people with similar houses (imo not well presented) asking for up to $50k more, I feel like we should at least try to ask for get 10 to 20k above the agents "real" price range. Reason is that we could use the other houses on the market to our advantage that people can buy ours that's a little cheaper and better presented.

 

I would go with the Just listed/Contact agent etc. From your earlier posts, I remember you said you were very close to the new train line? I think this could be a huge drawcard.(unless you're really close to the main roads). I live in the area and have seen prices pick up again after the last interest rate cut. I would be going as high as you think you can, especially if presented well etc.

 

Thanks for the advice. Yes I'm close (800m away) but in a quiet part of the estate so no traffic. My place is not top end of the market however its not low end either, its in the middle but there seems to be a gap and little stock in houses sold for that much so its hard to judge.

I'm not greedy however would be kicking myself if I didn't test the waters with a price a bit higher than the agents expectations.

 

Rich
The first 3 weeks are important as enquiries slow after that date for both sales and rentals.

I can't comment on the agents strategy, it's not something I have done personally and would hate to interfere negatively with something I know nothing about. I'm also not familiar with the nsw market.,

Have a look at agents track record, what kind of results are they getting using this strategy. I'm assuming it must work for them if they are recommending it.

Are they seasoned agents? Have been selling in that market for many years? They may have tried other selling strategies and this is the one that works for them.

Perhaps @Nick Valsamis can offer some insights as he would be more familiar with selling in nsw than I am.

 

I hear you. It's quite unpredictable in this market. Probably @JacM can provide some input, read she works around the NW.

 

Hi Rich W.

I can not comment as to what works best in your specific area however in my area I find that in general not having an asking price you really do limit the interest. You are spot on that the first couple of weeks are hugely important to the success of your sale. You are new and fresh to the market for every buyer out there at the start and this is when your property is most valuable.

My feedback from buyers when discussing properties with them is that if there is no price ie. contact agent etc. it is perceived to be an unrealistic vendor/expected price. It sounds like the old adage "No price. No interest" was true for @Gockie also.

It sounds like you are well informed with the market and in tune with your agent. My advice would be to set a price slightly higher than the appraisal range but no too high that you get no interest. This has proved highly successful of late in our area with well priced properties attracting more than one buyer and going to a buyers deceleration.

Again this is what works for us in our area and may or may not be advisable for your specific situation (it probably is).

Mick

 

Thanks for the advice. That's not really the case as our expectations are pretty reasonable. I guess the agent trick is to not give away their hand first to see if someone is willing to say they would pay a bit more than the realistic range.

 

Not having an asking price puts folks off, or attracts the folks trying to buy at rock bottom.

Depends on how keen you are to sell, too.

If you want top dollar, it may sit for a long time if the market has stalled.

If you want to sell it in one week; find out what the recently sold comparables in the immediate area are/were, and price it at that level...maybe have it listed with a "$XYZ+ buyers"

We tried to sell our PPoR last year for top dollar - hoped for a passionate emotional buyer.

Didn't get one, and eventually sold it for what it was worth 3 months later.

Could have put it on the market for what it was roughly worth, and sold it that week.

 

At least you tried and didn't kick yourself later wondering if you could've sold it for more. We are in no immediate rush so this make work for us.

 

The first couple of weeks are your best time. You get all the buyers who have not found what they want, hopefully a fairly large group.

After that, you only get buyers new to the market so it will be a trickle of serious lookers.
Marg

 

You call them tactics, I call them games. Yes, as a buyer it would annoy me, but I'm prepared to play the game. At an open-for-inspection, if the agent refuses to give me a figure when asked point-blank, then I refuse to give them a figure too. Fair's fair! We both have something each other may want - you have a bricks and mortar, and I have cash.

I also like to loiter around the main entrance to overhear the inexperienced buyers, who drop a number, and their conventions with agents. You get to learn soooo much from this.

 

Agree with this but it's NSW and so you arent allowed to do "$xyz+", it could spell huge troubles for the agent....
Makes it more of a challenge.

 

Hi @Rich W I am very familiar with the NW area so let me give you a buyer's perspective

*I gather you're selling via Ray White/Belle/Louis Carr/Murdoch Lee or maybe Guardian/LJH if further north-west (not exactly sure where you're selling?) as they love this sales strategy and employ it often. The problems we see, on behalf of the buying public, however are:

1. Providing no price guide at all in the first 2 weeks is not only frustrating for buyers, but gets some offside, who leave and pursue other properties. Given that the agent has to provide an estimated selling price on your listing agreement, it is perfectly reasonable for buyers to request this when asking for a price guide. Unfortunately, the old response "It's only newly listed so we're not providing a price guide at this stage but instead listening to the market and providing feedback to our vendor blah blah blah" is, quite frankly, a load of hogwash. What buyer in their right mind is going to tell a selling agent what they believe the property to be truly worth? This is called conditioning the vendor and really works more in the agent's favour than anyone else's.

Though the new under-quoting laws now restrict selling agents in the language they employ to sell property (no "offers over" "+" or anything outside of 10% range of the ESP on the listing agreement) they can still at least provide the consumer with recent comparables that are closest to the likely sale price of your property. At the very least this provides buyers with something tangible and somewhere to go, when it comes to pricing. We like the agents that give us the closest 3-6 within a realistic price range, not simply the last 12 local sales that have a range of 20-100%!

2. When a selling agent tells me "We're not sure what it's worth" they'd better either be fresh to the industry/from a badly run or out-of-area agency or selling a VERY unique property (that is genuinely challenging to price) Why any seller would employ an agent who cannot ascertain value or appraise a property is beyond me, in this environment. A good agent who knows his/her patch and prices should be able to confidently provide a ballpark figure on price at the outset.

3. All buyers want more and you will be no exception- it's human nature The selling agent knows this and, if they're great at their job, they'll manage this expectation with reality and communicate effectively throughout the campaign to get you the best possible outcome. It does ultimately come down to the skill of the sales agent to achieve the best price in a private treaty campaign (auction I'd argue less so).

4. If your home is one of only a handful on the market, you may want to consider going to auction for a possibly better outcome. I attended one for a client a few weeks ago in Castle Hill that went for a ridiculously high price and hundreds of thousands over reserve. I'm not saying this will happen as I know little to nothing about your property but there's been some pretty amazing sales depending on what/where in the Hills.

All that aside, if you have faith in the agent, know them to be reputable, a good operator and they can demonstrate their results to your satisfaction then you may be pleasantly surprised. My observations above are just that so take them as you will.

By the way, feel free to send me your listing as we always have Hills clients

 

+1 @Jacque
as a potential buyer, now start looking at syd market, I usually dont bother if no price guide hint at all from agent

 

I wouldn't say the first 2 weeks are make or break but you would have the most interest during that time period. The highest price buyer may come any time and even after a few weeks so you want to do everything possible to attract them.

According to REA, "26% of people search by price range and 93% of buyers ignore listings that don’t disclose a price.” So generally it would be better to show a price to be able to attract as many potential buyers as possible.

Their reasoning that they can find out what the buyers budget is doesn't seem that well thought out unless you actually trust that the buyer will tell you their best price right off the bat.

Yes that gives you the advantage if you have a better property that is priced better to potential buyers. Are the competing properties selling at lower than asking price though? If they are then you may be quite accurate with the price estimate.

I would use a price but considering that stock is low, it may be okay not to use a price as well if they have a sound strategy along with it.

 

As a buyer I prefer a price as others have mentioned no price means the vendor is likely having unrealistic price expectations.

However even with the price being disclosed I still ignore it as I have seem some properties asking price be 20% higher (100k or more) above what would be considered FMV. I laugh at these (as I cannot work out why a vendor thinks theirs is worth far more) but also find them very interesting if they have been on the market for a long time.

If you are going to auction you typically want a lower introduction price (well here in Melbourne) as you want more people there to bid. Issue with auction if no one bids or if you had one bidder they will know there is very little interest.