Well you sell an apartment, your experience and getting the best price depends on several things.
- The agent’s advice and negotiation skills.
- The agents access to the best buyers for your apartment.
- The quality of your apartment’s presentation and marketing.
There are two things that determine the financial success of buying and selling an apartment. The price you pay for it and the price you sell it for.
Therefore, when it comes to selling your apartment, it is critical to get the very best advice from an apartment agent and do everything you can to maximise the presentation and marketing. Otherwise, you may have an unpleasant experience, get a lesser price, or worse still, not sell at all, leaving you out of pocket.
It is helpful to be 100% committed to getting the best price for your apartment. Wood Property are apartment only agents and are therefore perfectly placed to provide you specific advice on the best way to sell your apartment and for the highest possible price.
Here are the 5 Golden Rules when selling your apartment.
Appoint an apartment agent
If you select an apartment agent, they will guide you through the entire process to ensure you make the right decisions for you and your apartment. A great apartment agent will also make every other decision throughout the marketing and selling program logical and simple.
It is important to remember a house agent is different to an apartment agent so select an agent such as Wood Property who only sells apartments. You need to ensure your listing is special and important to them and you will get experienced salespeople who are focused and passionate to achieve the best result for your apartment.
Two things many sellers ask is “how much? …and how much?”
- “How much is my apartment worth?”, and
- “How much is your fee?”
These are two important questions, but they are not the best criteria to select your apartment agent. Some agents may suggest a high price to attract your interest in hiring them. Of course, it’s about the money, but the best agent will get you the best price by implementing a high-quality marketing and presentation programme. The agent’s job is to advise you on how to optimise the presentation, marketing and find the best buyers to achieve the best price.
The second “how much” question relates to the agent’s fees. This is also not a very good criteria to select an agent. Fees are negotiable and can be agreed but first you should find the best agent for you and your apartment. The net cost of the best agent will always be the cheapest. In other words, the best agent will get you the best net price (sale price less the fee) making them the cheapest. A lesser agent may cost you much more in a lower sale price or selling time and/or poor advice.
Also remember, an agent’s fee for service is only paid if the property is sold at your agreed price.
Apartment Agents have Apartment Buyers
An apartment agent like Wood Property has a current and categorised contact list of apartment buyers who are more likely to be looking for an apartment like yours. House agents have house buyers, and some agents have a bit of both.
Wood Property understand the needs of apartment buyers who tend to need more guidance with things like finance, understanding OC’s and overall building issues, and reviewing a contract of sale.
Wood Property work closely with buyers via Apartment Hunters Workbook giving them assistance on how to search and buy apartments. They keep their buying needs updated via our apartment buying portal and are contacted with listings and inspection times.
Select the best method of sale
Should I sell by auction or private sale? It is an important question, and the answer will depend on how you and your apartment rate on the following questions.
- How special or unique is your apartment?
- How strong is the market for this apartment?
- How committed are you to present and market the apartment in the best way?
- How realistic are you on the market value?
- How comfortable are you with the theatre of auction day?
The higher you score in each question the greater the case for an auction. Your apartment agent will advise you specifically, but it is worth a discussion as it is an important issue. An auction works best when several people compete and bid the price up to meet or exceed your reserve price. For this to happen you must have an apartment that is highly desirable, and a buoyant market (or the marketing power of a reality TV show!). The natural process of an auction pushes the price up, but this assumes there are competing buyers who bid. A good agent will be able to create similar competitive tension in a private sale process by skillfully negotiating with genuine buyers.
Make the apartment presentation pop
This is where it helps to remember your commitment to sell the apartment for the best possible price because marketing and presentation costs can be expensive, (esp online ads) but it is vital to do it well.
The rate of change in markets, buyer preferences, media and technology, regulation, economic conditions and demographics is rapid and consequently so is the best way to sell your apartment.
The best presentation and marketing depend on your specific apartment and your apartment agent will advise you on the right strategy. It is often considered expensive to promote an apartment for sale especially as (unlike the agent’s fee) it is money spent that is not conditional upon the apartment selling. Remember your commitment to sell the apartment and do everything you can to achieve the best price.
Apartment buyers are active on real estate websites and will trawl dozens of properties and select the ones to inspect based on the photos and how the apartment appeals to them. This reinforces the need to maximise your apartment’s presentation both physically and online.
Vacate the renter (investment owners)
If you are an investor and have a renter living in your apartment you may have a decision to make.
While you can’t ask a renter to leave if there is a lease in place, if the lease has expired (or will expire in the next few months) the question is… do you leave the renter in your apartment while you sell it, or do you ask them to move out?
If you ask the renter to move out you lose a few months’ rent, but the difference in the presentation, sale price and speed of the sale, easily outweigh this cost or lost rent.
If the renter stays in the apartment during the marketing, you can’t control the quality of the presentation either in person or on the web. The photos used on the web listings will be taken while the renter is there and will almost certainly not show your apartment in its best light. This will limit the number of people engaging and inspecting your apartment. If it doesn’t look good online people may not inspect it so your sale will miss many buyers.
Even if a renter looks after your apartment beautifully, once they hear their home is being offered for sale their life is disrupted and they may vacate during the marketing. This means buyers can suddenly be met with removalist boxes and mess at an inspection.
Unfortunately, forgoing rental income is just a cost of sale and you should almost always ask your renter to move out prior to sale if you can. Just remember if your renter is on a fixed term lease (ie not monthly) you can not ask them to move out.
