How to spring clean your stale property listing

It’s now spring and sellers who have been stuck with a stale listing, desperate to get their home to the right buyer for the right price, should be looking to re-vamp their sales approach.

Property Observer provided a number of open home tips for those trying to sell in winter. Many will still apply, but with a new season now upon us it’s worth giving your entire approach another look, particularly if your property has been on the market for far longer than the average.

Spring is known in real estate circles as the ‘selling season’ and listings tend to increase over the period. Sellers still attempting to move their properties from winter may see a benefit, however you may also be facing an increased level of competition in the market.

RP Data’s Robert Larocca looked into the industry’s assumption that sellers wait until spring to list their properties and found that this is actually true. Last year, he found that over the last five years to September 2013 there had been an average of 29% more homes listed for auction in spring than in the preceding three months in Melbourne, although it did vary from year to year. The importance of ensuring your listing is competitive cannot be overstated.

Usually, a stale listing comes down to three major things – the price, the presentation and the marketing campaign.

The price

Has the market moved since you listed, and were you listing it at a reasonable price in the first place?

If you’ve pitched the price too high (having a look at what is currently selling on the market should help you ascertain this), then you need to re-consider or face having the listing sit for longer on the market. A small discount may be all it needs to push itself onto a buyer’s radar.

Ask your real estate agent to be honest with you about the market’s movements lately and enquire about what else they’re selling that is similar. These are your competition and if they’re priced lower then you may have a problem.

You can read Patrick Bright’s article on how to determine value if you’re interested in double checking the price you expect to achieve for your property.

The presentation

Head onto a listings website and take a look at your property. Is the best picture chosen for the thumbnail ‘teaser’ image? Do you have professional photographs? Is the copy well-written?

It may be time for a complete overhaul, some new photos and some better information showing off your property’s best features.

Remember, not every property presents well in Winter, so it may make sense to get those photos done again, as well as to have home opens in the spring season. Dampness, issues with rain and other drabness can more easily be dealt with in the brighter days.

Consider a walk through of your home and see if there are any improvements that will also help make your property present a little better.

You may want to consider:

• Staging your property with furniture
• Cosmetic renovations to improve visual aesthetics
• A general tidy and other effective tips for your open inspection

The agent and marketing campaign

If you’re selling through a real estate agent, and most will, it’s time to get honest with them. Why do they think it’s not selling? If you don’t think you real estate agent is doing the best job possible, it may just be time to select another.

Here are some tips for finding a proactive real estate agent to sell your property quickly and for the right price.

Part of this is about the marketing campaign, and how they are following up enquiries, as well as how they put your property out there. Above we looked at how to ensure you’re presenting the property well on its listing page, however it might just be time to discuss paying a bit extra for a featured listing, or ensuring you’re on the right portals. When speaking to real estate agents ensure you ask for their justification around the marketing spend and their campaign.

Ask them the following:

• What effect will print advertisements have for my property?
• Is a signboard necessary?
• Should we be considering an auction campaign?
• Which portals should I list on? Why?
• Are featured listings worth the spend?