Selling a residential property requires careful planning and execution to maximise the sales price. To protect your interests, a wide range of professionals should be consulted including:
- A good real estate agent to manage the sale
- Solicitor and a property conveyancer to handle the legal paperwork; and an
- Accountant to advise you on capital gains and reporting income to the tax man
Brisbane Property Sales Agent
On the property front, it’s important to research local market conditions, property values, and recent sales to understand the best time to sell. A good sales agent can provide you with an accurate assessment, and then market your property to interested buyers.
Prepare the Property for Sale
Before listing your property, repairs, and improvements should be made to enhance its kerb appeal. A deep clean of the property will be needed along with decluttering of personal items.
Set the Right Asking Price for Your Property
Your real estate agent will provide you with a comparative market analysis (CMA) to help you determine a competitive and realistic asking price.
Avoid overpricing a property as it can deter potential buyers. Competitive pricing can generate more interest, generate multiple offers, and enable a quicker sale at a higher price.
Properties that are overpriced can languish on the market and become stale. Vendors are then obliged to wait for a sale at a high price or drop the price to encourage buyers.
Develop a Marketing Plan to Sell Your Property
A good real estate agent will develop a comprehensive strategy to market your property. These days online platforms, social media, and traditional marketing methods are all needed to reach a wide audience including interstate and overseas buyers.
The property marketing should highlight the property’s unique features, investment potential, and desirable qualities to attract potential buyers.
A great way to boost buyer interest is to stage the home with furniture so that buyers can visualise themselves living in the home. Professional photography, videos, and virtual tours are also useful tools to promote key benefits.
Showcasing the Property
Your agent should then schedule open homes and private showings to allow potential buyers to view the property.
It’s important to make the property accessible and to present it in its best condition. The agent should also respond promptly to buyer inquiries and provide accurate information to interested parties.
Negotiating Your House Sale
Your real estate agent is a professional negotiator and will be focused on maximising the sale price. During this stage it’s important to evaluate offers carefully, considering not only the sale price but also contract terms and contingencies.
Be open to reasonable negotiations and strive for a win-win outcome. For example, a win-win could include the buyer agreeing to your price but negotiating a two month delayed settlement to give her time to sell her current home.
Complete Property Sale Due Diligence
During the due diligence stage, it is important to provide potential buyers with information on your property. You should also cooperate with potential buyers while they are organising pre-purchase building and pest inspections, bank valuations appraisals, and other requests needed to close the sale.
Close the Sale
A certified Queensland real estate solicitor and conveyancer should be communicating with you throughout the offer, negotiation, and close of sale phases.
These experts will ensure a smooth and legally compliant closing process. They will review all contracts and documents carefully before signing, and they will coordinate with the buyer, agent, and other parties to finalise the sale.
How Do You Sell Property With Tenants?
If possible, it is best to sell a vacated property so that it can be properly cleaned, repaired, and staged ready for marketing to buyers. If you need to sell a tenanted investment property it will require more planning and negotiation to ensure a smooth sale.
A tenanted property presented in an average state is unlikely to attract top dollar. Employing a great agent to work with your tenants to have your property presented is a wise investment. The agent should also be skilled at guiding potential owner occupiers eyes past the current tenancy to create a vision for them of their new home.
On the legal side, there are more documents that need to be issued to the tenants to advise of the sale and to gain access when required. The tenant’s concerns about privacy and their peaceful enjoyment of the property will also need to be managed carefully.
Respecting the Tenant’s Needs
Your selling agent should start by having a chat with the tenants. Who knows, maybe they want to buy the place.
Jodi and I have some close friends who were renting a place they loved. When they were advised it was to go on the market, they immediately asked about making an offer to purchase the property. They got the place and the vendor sold with no marketing costs. Everybody came out in front.
On the other side of the coin, the tenants may be looking to get out of the lease early. If you are looking for both investment and owner occupier buyers then this situation may suit everyone.
Tenant Privacy Rights
Most importantly your tenants need to be reassured of their privacy and security of belongings. Communication with the tenants and demonstrating you care about the impact this may cause to them will help open up a cooperative relationship. It will also help to ensure the property is well presented for inspections.
It is not always possible to meet everybody’s needs exactly however, your agent should involve your tenants when deciding on open inspection times and provide a written schedule.
Tenant Cleaning For Open Inspection
By now we have hopefully established a strong or at least workable relationship with the tenants and are ready to start our open inspections. The tenants cannot prevent inspections provided the right process is followed however there could be one more hurdle to overcome.
Messy tenants might seem to cause roadblocks but there is really not much that can be done. If the place is essentially clean, the rent is paid and the property is undamaged, it can be hard to get people to pick up the toys or clothes of the floor.
Tenant Incentives During Open Homes
The tenant may well be asking “What’s in this for me?”. Well, a few things come to mind. They may want to stay in the property long term and are hoping for an investor purchase. Then a quick tidy up will hold them in good stead when investors come through the open.
Maybe they see the process as an ordeal and need a little incentive to feel something is in it for them. A small rent reduction for the sale period, or even coffee vouchers or movie tickets could alleviate any inconvenience from being asked to leave their home for an hour or so. It’s a small investment to help boost buyer offers.
But hey let’s make sure we see results before handing out any cash or gift vouchers. You need an agent who can show understanding of the tenant’s situation and also one who makes sure you are getting the desired result.
When an agent and the tenants work well together your open homes and scheduled private inspections will go smoothly. You might also gain agreement for those last minute inspections from buyers who cannot make the opens. The key goal is to help boost those offers and achieve a sale at the best possible price.
What Our Clients Say
Andrew made the sale of our home an absolute breeze. His experience and professionalism are second to none. Andrew went above and beyond in many facets of the sale and gave us the support and honesty all sellers need. We could not recommend Andrew highly enough.
Lauren Yeo – Brisbane
Cannot recommend True Power Realty more highly! Excellent service and communication. Our investment property is in great hands!
KP Malek – Brisbane
Jodi and Andrew are accommodating in finding and managing tenants during the entire process.G Patel – Suburb, BrisbaneAmazing
Eddie – Brisbane
