Does selling an apartment in a particular season make a difference? When is the best time to sell? In this podcast Apartment Specialists answer the following questions and discuss the factors that affect the sale of an apartment. Watch this video and get more insights.
TRANSCRIPTION:
Good day, Andrew Murray from the Apartment Specialists. Does selling in a particular season make a difference? For example, selling an apartment in spring, is that a good time to sell compared to winter. Now with apartments, there is actually no difference. There are times where you should be selling, which we will cover later, but really selling during the season like waiting to the spring, autumn, or whatever has just completely changed.
There are a few factors that I think are the reason for this. Number one probably is, apartments look the same all year round. The only thing that’s changed is maybe there’s going to be a few more clouds in the sky with the view.
Number two is, you don’t have a garden. A lot of people like to do the improvements in the summer or leading up to the summer when the weather is better. But an apartment is inside, so you can do your renovations any time of the year.
Also, technology, when you think about it, people are looking at apartments online all the time. They do most of their research online and they are actually not going to open homes as much. They will actually get a huge list of apartments and the ones they are actually viewing, maybe only five or six.
The other factor is the learning factor beecause apartments are very different to houses. This is a big change most people are going through in New Zealand. They have got to learn about body corporates, pre-contractual disclosures, and how to make sure you Are not buying a leaky building, understanding the market because there is so many more apartments on the market than house – it takes longer.
So someone may start looking in spring but may not end up finding apartments, or be comfortable with purchase come winter. There is no difference to sum it up. The time when you don’t want to be selling or putting your apartment on the market is very late December.
Now, the reason for that is because in that period, When the lawyers are gearing up to go on holiday, but more so that everybody else is thinking about Christmas shopping. And you just don’t have the same people looking for apartments in the last two weeks before Christmas.
Anyway, I hope that helps. Talk to you soon. Andrew Murray, Apartment Specialists.
Don’t go for a choice of lawyer upon a recommendation from someone you know. Unless it is a lawyer that has expertise in the sale and purchase of apartments. Apartments are different to houses and can be complicated in terms of regulations and inspections of not just the property you are purchasing but the entire building too. If you require further information in regards to finding the appropriate lawyer to aid your purchase and sale, we can assist at Apartment Specialists.
TRANSCRIPTION:
Choose your lawyer on their expertise, not because of friends or you have used them before. Choose them on what they are good at. Now, I am talking obviously about lawyers that you can use when you buy or sell an apartment. And I do not mean it by saying in bad terms towards other lawyers. I am talking it in the same sense that, if you asked to sell your house in Papakura or in Wellington or Christchurch, I am not the best man for the job, if you ask me to sell your apartment; the same thing goes with lawyers.
Good day, it is Andrew Murray from Apartment Specialists. I will be talking about the importance of making sure a good lawyer who has expertise in apartments is looking after you when you are buying or selling. I have seen this mistake cost people tens of thousands of dollars, either through when they are purchasing an apartment. Not picking up particular issues or when they are selling deals.
What sparked this podcast was recently, I just had a lawyer and I was almost going to settle. It was about three days before settlement and the lawyer who was acting for the vendor rang back and said, “I don’t know what to do.” I rang back and go and had a conversation with him. We spoke about them and basically gave them the gist of how to convey the property. It was a lease on an apartment, so it was more complicated than normal.
The person said, “Look, I’m down in Hamilton,” which is a city in Central North Island. “There aren’t any apartments down here. We haven’t dealt with this and I literally don’t know what to do.” And I said, “Look, can you please tell me this so then I can tell my vendor.” Just be straight with them, and say, “Look, you’re not the best person for the job.” They can get another lawyer who is. Obviously, it happened but it should have never happened. Another reason is when someone is purchasing and I have had lawyers who are asking all the wrong questions.
Even though, in most of the cases, the buildings are fine, because I have to disclose them yet. They are asking questions that are completely irrelevant to apartments or they do not understand the Unit Titles Act and the due diligence. What they are doing, on behalf of the purchaser, is not the best due diligence. What I am saying is, before you choose your lawyer, make sure they have expertise in apartments and unit titles. How many have they actually done before? And if they are in a town or a city where there is no apartments, you can pretty much almost guarantee they have not dealt with them before.
Again, this is not putting down the law community. It is the same reason why a lawyer specialises in family law or a lawyer specialises in commercial law. You are good at what you specialise at. Anyway, I hope that helps and please follow this advice whether you are purchasing or selling. Especially when you are looking for a lawyer.
Have you ever thought about the commission that you need to pay your agent when they find a buyer for you? In this podcast, I will discuss more about commission and how you should deal with your agents, especially if you’re the one who found the buyer.
TRANSCRIPTION:
Good day, Andrew Murray from The Apartment Specialists. Now, what happens if while you’re selling your apartment through an agent, you find a buyer? Now, there are two ways I look at this personally. One is if the buyer came through the marketing or the initiative of the real estate agent, well then, the real estate agent deserves the commission because they created the opportunity. They positioned your apartment, they marketed it well, they used their expertise.
Now, if you came across the buyer just because– through friends or at the pub or just stumbled across it and you created that opportunity yourself, well then, as a real estate agent we’re paid because of the results we deliver. So if we didn’t create that result, how we operate at The Apartment Specialists – and my personal belief – is we don’t deserve the commission. You shouldn’t have to pay for us. You just have to pay for the marketing that we did to create that initiative, because I believe it’s fair, but you should not have to pay that commission.
But unfortunately in New Zealand, that is not actually how it is, so if you find a buyer and you’re listed with another agency, just be aware that you’re going to have to pay the commission even if you found a buyer yourself through your own initiative. That’s something very important that you need to know. Anyway, hope that helps and talk to you soon.
You can help your real estate agent getting a record price for your apartment by ensuring you give them all the information. Figuring out your goals and letting us into what they are can only help us reach them.
We need to know your time frames, and what urgency there may be to sell and what price you believe you may be able to get. We can then guide you into what would be realistic, for example if you need your property sold within two weeks the price will be very competitive over what we may price it as due to having a longer amount of time to sell.
Asking what you can do to improve your property is a great idea, a good agent should make these suggestions too. Sometimes getting the deck cleaned, having some staging furniture or painting a tired wall may make all the different to achieve a record price.
Lastly, ensuring the agent has the ease and flexibility with access to your property. This is going to help reaching a high price as more buyers will be able to view the property. You will be easy to have more parties’ interest in property if you allow the agents to market it well and pay for these fees, this definitely ensures you are on track to reaching a record price.
TRANSCRIPTION:
Andrew Murray, Apartment Specialists. How can you help your real estate agent get the best price for your Auckland apartment? This is actually a really good question and it is always about what we can do for you. But the thing is, there’s quite a few things – three main things where you can help your real estate agent get the best price for you.
Number one is give us all the information. Now, I don’t mean you have to give us all your personal information or what the situation is behind why you are selling the property. But we need to know what your goals are. You’ve got to remember that you are our boss and we’ve got to know how we can please you, i.e. What are the timeframes? If you’d like to have this property sold in four months, three months, two months, one month. Or it is urgent and needs to go in two weeks. Because without that information, we can’t make the right decisions.
I understand because if you want it gone in two weeks, we would have to price it very, very competitively and very, very close to basically where it’s worth. And your likelihood of getting a record price is very slim because of the timeframe. You would still be able to get the market value for it. But getting that premium is going to be a lot more difficult. For example, if you actually told us “Look, don’t worry we just want you to get the highest price for our property. You can take as long as you want”, that’s ideal because then we know that and we can price it accordingly to get that value.
Number two, ask what you can do to improve the property. A very good agent should already ask you this and should be telling you this, and going, ‘Look, what we need to do is this, this, and this to get this property looking fantastic.’ Let’s say that the agent doesn’t do that. As an owner, ask the agent, “Is there anything that needs to be done that can improve it?” i.e. Maybe the deck needs to be cleaned or the windows need to be cleaned. Or, for example, it needs a new couch, put a new couch in. Because these things make such a difference.
Number three is make it as easy as possible for the agent to market your property because there’s a saying in the real estate world which is “you can’t sell a secret”. If you don’t make your property visible to as many people as possible, you are not going to have as many buyers. That also affects the result. So take on their recommendations. Often, an agent will give you three different options. The third option is really just making them look good, in my opinion. It is the second one down which is probably the best. Definitely, do not skip on marketing. Remember that the most important thing with selling an apartment is your online presence. The paper is now redundant and I very strongly, strongly believe this, because that’s what I do every day.
Anyway, next week we are going to talk about how much commission is charged for selling an Auckland apartment. What are the different agencies charging? How much should you be charged for?
Know the right and effective apartment marketing strategy that works. Get the all the details from this podcast.
TRANSCRIPTION Okay, so we’re going to go to Trade Me here and we’re going to search for apartments. City centre because that’s where most apartments are. Any property type: apartments. Bedrooms: two. And search.
Now what we are going to do is we’re not going to look into resulting marketing from the ones coming out in the last couple of days. Because it’s not going to show us what marketing actually works.
What we’re looking at, as I’ve mentioned before, is comparing this marketing from that marketing and what’s the result.
As I’ve mentioned before and I’ll mention again. More ads, and more clicks on your ads means more leads, more leads means more views, more views means more contracts. It means high prices.
So let’s go down to probably a week ago. 10 days somewhere around here.
So here’s a listing with one photo. As I’ve mentioned last time, a listing with one photo compared to a listing with say for example a listing here with 12 photos is going to have a much higher click rate. There’s far more leads in the future here.
So lets go to Havoc on Hobson. Okay so there’s one photo, it doesn’t show you much. 683 Views. So 683 people come in and look the same photo and thought to possibly inquire.
Okay let’s talk about another one. Here we go, another one. First Home Buyer or Excellent Investment Opportunity. We’ve got four photos, so a few more.
As a buyer, they come along and click here, they can see it themselves. What can you see? The apartment or the building. And this was done on the 30th of May, two weeks ago.
You know the first week is the most important time to get your inquiries. 982. So more obviously because it has been around bit longer but really not much at all. They’re having the auction next week.
Now here is an example of a trader. Now a trader is somebody who buys an apartment and then sells it for profit. Most of their properties are actually from real estate agents. We personally don’t sell to traders but what they do is a great example of how you make a profit.
They are able to sell to buyers $15,000 to $20,000 above what they pay for it. They are trying to make a profit. When you look at the images, they look great. Professional, you want to buy, it’s making it look the best.
Let me look at the views, 2,478. I mean that speaks for itself. When is it? Over two weeks ago? Probably you should also know that, there are traders. A lot of people have been looking for a while, so often, they don’t want to buy because they know they would be buying at a premium. Meanwhile, what it does show is how they have marketed this apartment.
Okay so let’s go down and get to the crux of it. Let’s look at one of my listing’s here. But let’s go to one that’s even further, this one at 900. This one was done on the 10th of June.
Back here were from the 6th, and the one I’m looking at was the 30th and “Never Again 1946”. Very good headline, 14 photos, I’m going to click through here, first look at that. Photos. Professional picture. Talk with the photographer to make it look as big as possible and there’s a lot of things here, we will talk about that in another podcast. Writing the text, how you write it, that kind of thing. It sold for a record price as of yesterday.
Meanwhile let’s look at the hits. 2697. So it has the most hits in the least amount of time than any apartment on this page.
Now that is very remarkable, but it’s not actually remarkable. It’s very simple. It’s just about marketing and it comes down first of all to: professional photos and probably, how you market, probably how you position it. What’s the title called. I mean, this is what I love. It’s about lead capture. That’s what this is about. This is about marketing. That’s what you pay us for. To bring in the most leads and then get those leads and create a perception, a very large perception of how you’re doing that and how do you make it look good.
I’ll give you an example with this and I see it time and time again. This one was just on the 6th of June. Just recently. Look at this there’s text but look at the photography. I mean this was the professional photography. And if you’re the buyer, would you want to look at that?
I mean it’s how you work with the tenants. It’s how you create a relationship with them. You say look, I want to annoy you the least amount possible and the way I can do this is to sell as quickly as possible with the highest price at the quickest amount of time for the vendor with the least amount of stress. I don’t want to stress you out, you don’t want to be around in your apartment 24/7 so let’s get some good photos so I can sell it quicker and get that value up.
And there would always… my times with the tenants, they would always cooperate with you because they want to help you. Because I don’t want them to be out of their apartment. It’s uneasy for them. And you would want them to like you.
It was 6th of June, 2000 and something, lot of hits down to 605 hits. Now if you ask me, I mean this is one of things, selling price, three good units that were presented well. Now if you ask me, how many was it? 605 hits. In my opinion, it’s all about marketing you make up for sale.
Talk to you soon and thank you for listening. Cheers!
