Sorry, this is much longer than intended....
In the past 6 months, I've sold 3 properties. Our PPOR, which sold within a week of putting it on the market (miraculous in the current climate), with a fabulous agent, who I'd highly recommend.. Deborah Gersbach from Walsh and Sullivan, Baulkham Hills. But she's not who this thread is about.
I also sold 3 of my mothers properties, where my brother and I are executors of the estate. They are next door to each other, but we had very different experiences selling them...
When we were first looking at selling them, we went to a number of agents to get feedback/ quotes/ selling advice. I'd been looking for a PPOR in this area for a number of years (we ended up buying the 3rd property in the line from the estate).
All the agents in the suburb quoted exhorbitant rates for advertising (up to $25K depending upon what options we took). But we had very good feedback from one particular agent, and I'd seen them operate at open homes that I'd been to and knew they were effective. So, we initially put all 3 properties on with them. (none of the agents gave us advice not to sell all at once, which clearly ended up being a better strategy). My brother didnt particularly like this agent, but I pushed for them, based on what I'd seen of them in the market..........
None of the houses were renovated, and they were mostly empty, the market was dropping quickly in the area... so there were plenty of reasons they didnt sell. But we didnt get one bid for any of them at the auction, and then they got cold very quickly.
So, we took 2 properties off the market, and just kept one on, which was the biggest and best property. I found that the agent, who was very good at selling 1million plus properties was not so good at selling cheaper, less desirable properties. They continually came to us with really, really low offers (like $150K below) and didnt seem to be able to negotiate upwards.
After 4 or so months on the market, we decided to buy the biggest of the properties (Its a great property, 6 bed, 3 bath, pool.... but a bit dark and cold, which my hubby didnt like. So, we bought with the promise of a big reno to bring more light into the property)
We put the 2nd property on with this agent for another 3 months or so. They wanted to put the property on the market at "offers over ***", with the dollar amount around $25K under what we wanted to get and then negotiate up from there.... but all offers were way way below the offers over price, and they never negotiated up! they were continually showing the property to bargain hunters, and trying to come back to us to lower the price, but we were already at the bottom of the market in this suburb, for properties with good "bones" and continually asking us to spend more on advertising. They were very stressful to work with.
We finally looked for a different agent, and a week after taking it off this original agent, and beginning to do a small reno, the first agent came back and said they had someone who had previously seen the property, and was interested. This person ended up purchasing, but the agent was really close to being dishonest in the process, which went for about 4 weeks from the "renewed" interest to unconditional contract.
They kept telling us part of the story... eg they wanted access to do a "building inspection" before they made an offer, and then wanted an extended cooling off period to do building inspection (the first had just been with their builder father to see what needed to be renovated). Also, we negotiated a price, and then after the price was finalised, the agent told us they wanted an extended settlement.
This process of half truths continued right thru the cooling off period until the contract went unconditional and we could stop dealing with them. Still waiting for settlement, which I think ended up being 3 months plus the extended cooling off period. We ended up accepting a price around $50K lower than we felt market rates were just to get it sold, because my other siblings were getting restless. But for a 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom, full brick property in this suburb... we definitely got way less than it was worth.
So, then we moved onto property 3, which was basically a knock down, rebuild, which was tenanted. So, selling for land value essentially.
My brother had found an agent who had rented a property that he owned in the area, and been very good. They were a Jenman agent... and that didnt sit so well with me. Minimal advertising, no open homes. But since I'd stuffed up on the first agent, I was happy to let my brother take the lead on this one. We had also been going to give them the 2nd property, and they'd arranged all the quotes for renos, prior to them having a contract signed.... so we felt bad when it ended up selling thru the original agent.
The agent managed the tenant really well. Because I live just a few doors away, I could see that they were showing people thru regularly. They gave us an email update every week or so, but didnt really ever contact us otherwise. After about 6 weeks on the market, they asked for a meeting, which my brother and I felt pretty nervous about.... would it be another "your price is too high" meeting, like we had continually with our previous agent. No, he came along with 2 offers in writing, with clear conditions for settlement. One offer slightly higher, but less appealing settlement conditions. The other within 10K lower than the first, but quick and more attractive settlement (keeping tenant in place). He had negotiated for both offers were made on the condition that the house was sold as-is and no further negotiation would be made based on building inspections etc. and it was within $25K of our asking price, at basically what we were expecting to get.
We accepted the lower offer. When they tried to come back and change their conditions during the cooling off period, the agent went back to them and said our acceptance had been based on their written conditions and we would accept the other offer if they changed them. Deposit paid on time, as a result, and the contract is now unconditional, and will settle just one or two weeks after the 2nd property.
So, my lessons learned...
1. the "loudest" is not always the best. Actions speak louder than words.
2. agents may be good at selling in one segment of the market, but not necessarily in another
3. Dont write off Jenman agents, just because they are Jenman. It seemed to be a very efficient process.
4. listen to my brother's gut feeling more. He has been right about so many things during this "executing" process. I am more and more impressed with him each day.
All properties sold now....... and we move onto the really hard part of the estate... the stamp collection!!
In the past 6 months, I've sold 3 properties. Our PPOR, which sold within a week of putting it on the market (miraculous in the current climate), with a fabulous agent, who I'd highly recommend.. Deborah Gersbach from Walsh and Sullivan, Baulkham Hills. But she's not who this thread is about.
I also sold 3 of my mothers properties, where my brother and I are executors of the estate. They are next door to each other, but we had very different experiences selling them...
When we were first looking at selling them, we went to a number of agents to get feedback/ quotes/ selling advice. I'd been looking for a PPOR in this area for a number of years (we ended up buying the 3rd property in the line from the estate).
All the agents in the suburb quoted exhorbitant rates for advertising (up to $25K depending upon what options we took). But we had very good feedback from one particular agent, and I'd seen them operate at open homes that I'd been to and knew they were effective. So, we initially put all 3 properties on with them. (none of the agents gave us advice not to sell all at once, which clearly ended up being a better strategy). My brother didnt particularly like this agent, but I pushed for them, based on what I'd seen of them in the market..........
None of the houses were renovated, and they were mostly empty, the market was dropping quickly in the area... so there were plenty of reasons they didnt sell. But we didnt get one bid for any of them at the auction, and then they got cold very quickly.
So, we took 2 properties off the market, and just kept one on, which was the biggest and best property. I found that the agent, who was very good at selling 1million plus properties was not so good at selling cheaper, less desirable properties. They continually came to us with really, really low offers (like $150K below) and didnt seem to be able to negotiate upwards.
After 4 or so months on the market, we decided to buy the biggest of the properties (Its a great property, 6 bed, 3 bath, pool.... but a bit dark and cold, which my hubby didnt like. So, we bought with the promise of a big reno to bring more light into the property)
We put the 2nd property on with this agent for another 3 months or so. They wanted to put the property on the market at "offers over ***", with the dollar amount around $25K under what we wanted to get and then negotiate up from there.... but all offers were way way below the offers over price, and they never negotiated up! they were continually showing the property to bargain hunters, and trying to come back to us to lower the price, but we were already at the bottom of the market in this suburb, for properties with good "bones" and continually asking us to spend more on advertising. They were very stressful to work with.
We finally looked for a different agent, and a week after taking it off this original agent, and beginning to do a small reno, the first agent came back and said they had someone who had previously seen the property, and was interested. This person ended up purchasing, but the agent was really close to being dishonest in the process, which went for about 4 weeks from the "renewed" interest to unconditional contract.
They kept telling us part of the story... eg they wanted access to do a "building inspection" before they made an offer, and then wanted an extended cooling off period to do building inspection (the first had just been with their builder father to see what needed to be renovated). Also, we negotiated a price, and then after the price was finalised, the agent told us they wanted an extended settlement.
This process of half truths continued right thru the cooling off period until the contract went unconditional and we could stop dealing with them. Still waiting for settlement, which I think ended up being 3 months plus the extended cooling off period. We ended up accepting a price around $50K lower than we felt market rates were just to get it sold, because my other siblings were getting restless. But for a 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom, full brick property in this suburb... we definitely got way less than it was worth.
So, then we moved onto property 3, which was basically a knock down, rebuild, which was tenanted. So, selling for land value essentially.
My brother had found an agent who had rented a property that he owned in the area, and been very good. They were a Jenman agent... and that didnt sit so well with me. Minimal advertising, no open homes. But since I'd stuffed up on the first agent, I was happy to let my brother take the lead on this one. We had also been going to give them the 2nd property, and they'd arranged all the quotes for renos, prior to them having a contract signed.... so we felt bad when it ended up selling thru the original agent.
The agent managed the tenant really well. Because I live just a few doors away, I could see that they were showing people thru regularly. They gave us an email update every week or so, but didnt really ever contact us otherwise. After about 6 weeks on the market, they asked for a meeting, which my brother and I felt pretty nervous about.... would it be another "your price is too high" meeting, like we had continually with our previous agent. No, he came along with 2 offers in writing, with clear conditions for settlement. One offer slightly higher, but less appealing settlement conditions. The other within 10K lower than the first, but quick and more attractive settlement (keeping tenant in place). He had negotiated for both offers were made on the condition that the house was sold as-is and no further negotiation would be made based on building inspections etc. and it was within $25K of our asking price, at basically what we were expecting to get.
We accepted the lower offer. When they tried to come back and change their conditions during the cooling off period, the agent went back to them and said our acceptance had been based on their written conditions and we would accept the other offer if they changed them. Deposit paid on time, as a result, and the contract is now unconditional, and will settle just one or two weeks after the 2nd property.
So, my lessons learned...
1. the "loudest" is not always the best. Actions speak louder than words.
2. agents may be good at selling in one segment of the market, but not necessarily in another
3. Dont write off Jenman agents, just because they are Jenman. It seemed to be a very efficient process.
4. listen to my brother's gut feeling more. He has been right about so many things during this "executing" process. I am more and more impressed with him each day.
All properties sold now....... and we move onto the really hard part of the estate... the stamp collection!!