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auckland apartment sales art selling auckland apartment online 2

Auckland Apartment Sales – The Art of Selling Your Auckland Apartment Online

Posted in Apartment Marketing, Blog, Imageless, Not A Property, Property Value, Selling, Things To Know About Apartments, Value Updates. 2 Comments

When selling your Auckland apartment it takes professional looking photos and a little staging to add glitz and glamour to your property. Many apartment owners consider this to be an optional add-on but more and more buyers are making decisions based on what they see online. Many buyers in this market have to do their research online as they don’t live in Auckland. Others would rather gather information online than waste their time driving around and travelling long distances to look for apartments. That’s why it has become a necessity in the Auckland apartment sales market to include quality photos in your online marketing. This will provide buyers with a valuable image of the apartment you are selling.

Why You Need to Market Your Apartment with Quality Photos

There are often many apartments being sold in one building at one time. You need to make sure your apartment presents well and stands out from the rest. A recent successful example of this is:

In one particular building the apartment listed to the right of the one we sold was listed for $250,000 (and it is actually a better unit). It has been listed since April 2013 and at the time of writing this guide it still hasn’t sold. We sold our client’s in under two weeks for $265,000 purely because we made the apartment look it’s very best.

What’s the first thought that comes to mind when marketing your Auckland apartment? Isn’t it that you want to get the highest price for it? What if it’s a rushed sale? Do you have to lower your apartment’s value simply to sell within a given timeframe?

Unless you have to sell your Auckland apartment within days you should always aim for the highest price. However, before asking for this, you have to attract many buyers and hold their interest. You have to excite international buyers via your online photos and you have to make local buyers want to get in their cars and view your apartment. Moreover, when it comes to rushed sales, you don’t have to lower your property’s value simply to sell it off. You need to aim for the highest price and promote your apartment through quality photos. This is what Apartment Specialists is about to show you how to do….

Below is a comparison of a living room in an apartment that we recently sold. These are before and after photos of the same room. The first photo shows you what the room looked like when we arrived. The second shows you what a little bit of staging can achieve.

Burton Street Apartments | Apartment Specialists

Brown Street Apartments | Apartment Specialists

Which room attracts you more?

A Guide to Flattering and Seductive Apartment Photos

Watch this short video before you start reading our guide as it will provide you with some great examples of the good and the bad.

You now know that photographs can be powerful bait when attracting the interests of buyers and property investors. We have come up with a simple yet powerful guide to help not only Auckland apartment owners but other agents in the Auckland apartment sales market. Use this guide yourself or ask your agent to follow it. You can do the staging yourself or hire a professional photographer.

Pre Photoshoot Preparation

Take Time to Build Relationships with Tenants

This is not related to photography but this is an important step when staging an apartment. Most Auckland apartment owners do not live in their apartment. Their apartment is often under a rental agreement. If a tenant lives in the apartment that you are about to sell and they do not cooperate, the thing is, you won’t get those professional looking photos that you want. They might not even allow you to take any until their lease expires. That’s why it’s important to build a relationship with them. You can then simply talk to them ahead of time, tell them that you want to take photos on this certain date, and if it’s okay, you will move their stuff around and then put everything back.

Staging Kit

It’s important that you prepare a staging kit or props beforehand. I’ll be honest and say that some tenants do not have classic and sophisticated tastes when it comes to furniture and accessories. So it is handy to arrive with duvets, throws, pillows, bed sheets – anything that would likely improve the appearance of a room or a view.

Photoshoot Checklist

Exterior Shots

When doing exterior shots remember to get photographs of the following:

Façade of the apartment building
Exterior amenities (i.e. gardens and parking areas)
View from inside looking out
If there is a coutyard or deck, get photo of these areas
View of the street from apartment looking down

Interior Shots

Shots of whole room areas including:

Master bedroom
Kitchen
Dining area
Living area
Bathroom

Improve on your Auckland Apartment Sales with these Photoshoot Tips

Use Lights to Brighten the Area

When taking exterior photos, make sure you do it in the middle of the day when the sun is up and the sky is blue. The sun’s rays make the view more stunning.
If taking interior photos, make sure that all lights are turned on and you use a flash. This will fill in any shadows and even the colours of the images. If you have contrasting colours in the background it makes the colours stand out.

Houses For Sale In New Zealand Auckland | Apartment Specialists

The More Photos the Better

All buyers love to see more than just the façade of an apartment building, the more photos of the apartment the better. This includes all rooms and the interior and exterior views. If the apartment has a spectacular view of the sea, a park, etc then add them as well. They add value and excitement to buyers.

Move Things Around

When taking shots, always remove the clutter like dishes, clothes and all stuff that is not furniture or appliances. Remodel and move furniture and appliances in order to stage the rooms properly. This will make the rooms look larger and attractive.

Auckland New Zealand Real Estate | Apartment Specialists

House For Sale In Auckland City | Apartment Specialists

Real Estate For Sale Auckland | Apartment Specialists

Remember to Go Pro

If you are hiring a real estate agent or agency to market your Auckland apartment, ask for samples of photographs of apartments that they have sold. Now that you know that they have a huge impact on the value of your apartment you need to see what they can do. If you decide to go pro then there may be an additional cost but this will definitely be well worth the investment.

We would love to hear your feedback on our guide and see your before and after photos. If someone you know is selling their Auckland apartment then email them this guide or even better share it on Facebook.

myth 9 auckland apartment auctions

Myth #9: Auckland Apartment Auctions – Only the Owner and the Agent Know the Reserve

Posted in Apartment Marketing, Blog, Buying, Imageless, Not A Property, Property Value, Selling, Things To Know About Apartments.

Apartment Specialists Podcast No: 26

Summary:

I go in-depth about auction in this particular podcast so you will know what to expect when you’re dealing with an agent. This is another myth that you know about.

TRANSCRIPTION:

Andrew Murray, Apartment Specialists. This is quite a big one. When auctioning your property, only you and the agent have an idea what your reserve is. Now, that is a myth and it shouldn’t be a myth.

Now, I’ll explain to you – I’ve been in two major offices in the open CBD Market for starting my own company. Basically, both did their auctions in the same way. So, what would happen was, you’d have a meeting – you’d have your sales meeting – and those who were auctioning the properties would introduce their property. They’ll ask everybody not what it’s worth, but what would the reserve need to be to guarantee it to sell. And then, the agents would set out the price. Say, that’s worth 200. Say, to guarantee it to sell, it would need to be 180,000. And if it was a 500,000 property, to guarantee it to sell, it needs to be $440,000. Then it would be the agent’s objective to go and try to get that reserve.

The next week in another sales meeting, the agent will report back – different sales meetings or in different agencies at different trends are the ones that I saw – some would go, “What’s reserved?” or “It’s A plus-plus”, which means it’s better than you want it. Or, A-plus means it’s on the money or A, it’s pretty close. B-plus, it’s a little bit far away and B, yes there’s a bit of distance there. Other ones would be going like, “Yes, that’s exactly where you wanted it guys. Go get your buyers” and it’s going to the auction.

Now, it didn’t really sit right with me but that’s sort of how it’s done in the Auckland apartment market when it comes to auction. And what would happen was a whole mentality: that by telling an owner that everybody knows your reserve and knows it’s a low reserve, that’s going to bring in more buyers – it’s going to bring in more competition. Now I disagree with that because it’s bringing in buyers that want a bargain. They’re bringing in buyers who don’t want to pay retail. And so, that’s not the kind of competition you want. Yes, there is an argument that it does make the base of the auction and it can help in that way. But what it does is – it means that your apartment could sell for less than you really want to or what it should be selling for.

So, how to stop this or make sure this doesn’t occur is, why even get the reserves prior to the auction? Why not keep it in your head and you and your partners head? And if the auction gets to the price you wanted to, well then let it sell. If it doesn’t then go from there. Because if you think – put your mind in a bidder or in a buyers mind – you’re bidding for an Auckland apartment – and they already got in mind what they want to pay. If it is a good auction and the other buyer is also emotional – you got two emotional buyers and they’re pushing the prices up. You will at least know that it’s met the reserve. If anything is going to make the buyer say, “Oh, that must be market value”  or “That must be what owner wants. I don’t want to go too much higher.” So how is actually giving the reserve to the buyers an advantage to the vendor? I don’t see the logic – maybe there’s a side that sees it, but if they do please write in a comment or tell me.

That’s a myth. So, when you’re auctioning your property, if you do choose to auction it as a property that is suitable, i.e. not an investor apartment where emotions involved, don’t disclose it. You don’t have to; keep it in in your head. Then, you can make the best decision for you.

I hope that’s helpful. Next month – I’m sorry next week – I’m going to talk about an interesting question. One that you probably wouldn’t expect from me. What’s my opinion on private sales? If you don’t want to use a real estate agent – because a lot of people have had bad experiences with them- how do you sell it privately? And I’ll just do a quick podcast on that.

Cheers. Bye!
myth 8 sellers aware auckland apartment undersold trader resold

Myth #8: Sellers are Aware when their Auckland Apartment has been Undersold to a Trader for Reselling

Posted in Apartment Marketing, Apartment Selling, Blog, Imageless, Not A Property, Property Value, Selling, Things To Know About Apartments. 1 Comment

Summary:

We will be talking about the Auckland apartment market and how can you determine if your apartment is being undersold to a trader. I will also tackle some of the common myths associated with a trader – All these in this podcast.

Apartment Specialists Podcast No: 25

TRANSCRIPTION:

Andrew Murray, Apartment Specialists. You know, when your Auckland apartment is being undersold to a trader to be resold. That’s a myth. You don’t know. Most of the time, you don’t know.

One tenth – so one out of every ten Auckland apartment sales or apartment transactions on the Auckland apartment market is dealing with the trader. So that means over a hundred owners each year are selling to traders in one suburb in the city centre without even knowing in most cases.

Occasionally, clauses have been used. But these clauses are very misleading and give a completely different picture. So how can you be sure this isn’t happening to you? Everybody thinks, “Oh, I wouldn’t be that stupid to undersell my apartment”. Well, the thing is, you don’t actually know. Because me – being an apartment agent – it took me probably a year, or six months to a year, to actually figure out the values. So you as a vendor, how are you supposed to know when I’m doing this day in and day out? And the reason why – a huge reason – is sales don’t always represent values.

Every apartment is different, every condition is different. It’s a real minefield. So if you even suspect that your apartment’s being sold to a trader, put in the agreement on the vendor side, “Subject to evaluation”. Then you actually know – and just for the sake of that $500 you spend on evaluation – you’ve got peace of mind knowing that you’re not throwing away money.

Probably the best way to ensure that this doesn’t happen from the very start is when you choose the agent to represent you. Create a separate form saying that the agent will ask every prospective buyer – he puts in a contract – the purpose of the purchase. Is it an owner-occupier? Is it an investment for “x” amount of years, or it’s to resell? And through doing that, you can actually ask the agent have they asked the purchaser a question and what is the reason for the purchase. Now, if they say it’s to resale, they have to say it because you’ve actually given them a document or put a clause in for the sole agency saying they have to do so. You’re not flying blind. Because it happens time and time again. And some of the top agents in the Auckland apartment market sell so many apartments to traders and no one has any idea.

I hope that helps and make sure you do put that clause in. If you’re unsure and you feel like you’re in an area where you can’t make an educated decision – because you feel like you’re just relying on the information in front of you – put it subject to evaluation for the vendor and that’s not normally done – but in the Auckland apartment market that needs to be done. Or as I see it – if you can – ask to have that clause in the agreement. You can even say, “I don’t want to receive offers from traders”. And every offer, I would like to know what the purpose of the purchase is. I hope that it’s been helpful.

The next myth I’m going to talk about will help educate you guys is the auction market. An auction is the best method of sale when it’s unique, when it’s going to bring in emotional buyers. I very rarely use this because I can get higher prices through listing with a price. But there are times when auction is the best method. In this market, the sad thing is that’s not the case. And I’ll go through that in my next podcast and how you can ensure that you’re not falling into that category.

Thank you. Cheers! 

 

myth 7 auckland apartment market sellers cant break sole agency agreement

Myth #7: Auckland Apartment Sellers have No Way of Getting Out of a Sole Agency Agreement

Posted in Apartment Marketing, Blog, Imageless, Not A Property, Property Value, Selling, Things To Know About Apartments, Value Updates.


Apartment Specialists Podcast No: 24

Summary:

In this podcast, I discussed about the myth of the sole agency and the reason why you need to get out of it.

TRANSCRIPTION:

Andrew Murray, Apartment Specialist, the Auckland apartment market. Today, I’m going to be talking about the myth of the sole agency. The fact that, you can’t get out of it. The thing is, you can.

I often get called by this guy, “Andrew, I’d like you to represent me. You’ve been recommended by Joe Blogg because the agent that I’m with at the moment is just not working for me”. For number of reasons, it could be promises they haven’t kept. Or it could be that they’re just not getting along.

Now, real estate is an interesting industry. And the Auckland apartment market’s where you can’t try before you buy. The agent promises the world – and if they don’t deliver – you’re stuck with them for 90 days. The same thing is this: if you’ve got a vendor that has to sell on a certain time frame for various reasons –  generally because of financial commitments – and it means they have to go through an agent they don’t want to go through or they don’t feel are doing the best job for them.  And often, this leads to accepting offers that they didn’t want to accept.

The key thing here is to remember as the vendor, you are in control. Make sure you are always in control because the problem with the real estate industry – especially in apartment market from my opinion is – the vendor loses control when they sign that sole agency and they need to get that control back. They need to better dictate the terms. They need to be able to hold the agent accountable.

So when you find the agent who you want to represent you, ask to have a clause added in the agreement saying you can terminate that agreement if you feel they’re not representing you or they’re not delivering what they promised. So it’s their business loss, because what other industry can you actually lock someone in? So remember that. And that should really, really help you because it’s also going to make them work harder. Because they know that if they don’t, they’ll lose the job or they’ll lose you as a customer. And that’s how it should be as it is in every other industry.

I hope that helps. That’s a really, really an important one that I feel very passionate about. And so remember that.

Next week what I’m going to do is, I’m going to talk about another myth – that you know your apartment is getting sold or undersold to a trader to be resold because you don’t. And I’ll give you a few tips on how you can tell.

Cheers! Bye!

myth 5 agents able close deal auckland apartment sales

Myth #5: All Agents are Able to Sell Apartments in the Auckland Apartment Market

Posted in Apartment Marketing, Blog, Imageless, Not A Property, Property Value, Selling, Things To Know About Apartments, Value Updates.

Apartment Specialists Podcast No: 22

Summary:

In this podcast, we will talk about the common methods used by agents when selling Auckland properties and the policies they follow.

TRANSCRIPTION:

Andrew Murray, Apartment Specialists. Myth: All agents are able to sell your apartment.

Now in the Auckland apartment market, there are over a hundred apartment specialists. Now, unlike the housing market, these specialists represent all different demographics – different cultures, buyers that don’t go to newspapers, don’t go through Trade Me and only buy through particular agents because of relationships – and that I mentioned earlier.

When selling your apartment, an agent will nearly always say, “Yes, I do sales with other agents.” But the simple fact of the matter is, they don’t. You’ve got one of the major agencies – it’s their policy to not let other agents from other agencies actually bring an offer. I have actually called them and sent emails saying, “I will give you a listing price. I’ve got a buyer from overseas who’s going to pay really good money and give you a listing price for your apartment.”

And I get a response back saying, “Sorry. It’s not our policy to sell to other agents or give you a referral fee.” At the end of the day, every agent is out there doing a living. It’s a job for a reason. This is not doing what’s best for the vendor – now that’s an extreme.

Then you have the majority of the agencies in the Auckland apartment market which do conjunctional sales. So they will let another agent from another agency through the apartment. But the thing that they don’t tell you is – they will restrict the commission and that ranges from 20% or 30% or 40%.

So for example – if I have a buyer who’s going to pay top dollar for an apartment that’s been listed by another agency, I’ll ring them up and I’ll go, “Can I take a buyer through and will you do a conjunctional sale? They’ll say yes – they may only give me 30% of the commission.

Now if you ask yourself, if an agent has a really good buyer who’s going to pay top dollar – and that agent is trying to make a living, are they going to direct their buyer to a property where they’re going to get paid less or where they’re going to get paid freely?

So the key question is, when you’re choosing an agent to represent you, ask them not only do they do conjunctional sales – which is very important – but do they share the commission fairly and evenly?

Actually put a clause in that agency agreement saying, “That you, the agent, will share the commission after expenses, 50-50, with another agent from an other agency”. And you actually put that in your ad. What that does is – it means that you’ve got a whole market looking for you – which ensures that you get the highest price for your Auckland apartment.

Now I hope that’s been helpful – quite an insight. It’s hard to know what’s going on in the real estate industry unless you’re in it. Hopefully that’s given you a little bit more.

Next week, I’m going to talk about something that very few people are aware of. All apartment agents get paid differently, even if they’re in the same agency. And there are reasons for that. And that also has implications for you being a vendor.

Anyway, I’ll talk about that next week and talk soon.

Cheers!.

incentivise auction selling auckland apartments

Myth #2: Agencies Incentivise Auction as It Gets the Highest Price When Selling Auckland Apartments

Posted in Apartment Marketing, Blog, Buying, Imageless, Not A Property, Property Value, Selling, Things To Know About Apartments, Value Updates.

Apartment Specialists Podcast No: 19

Summary:

We will tackle why owners of agencies incentivise auctions and why they do this sort of thing. Get the facts straight from this podcast.

TRANSCRIPTION:

Andrew Murray, Apartment Specialists. Myth number two. Agencies incentivise auctions because it is in the best interest of the owners.

In my own opinion, that is a complete myth and from my experience it has been a complete myth. Owners of agencies incentivise auctions because it’s in the best interest of the agency.

They do that for three reasons.

Because an agency is like any company, it needs to predict next month’s income. And the best way of doing that is through auction – because auctions are more likely to sell. The reason is because of the pressure of an auction – the amount of money spent on the advertising. The owners go all in. They’re not going to that point and go “Oh, we’re going to spend that $4-5,000 again”. So for an owner, they can predict and look okay we’ve got 10 options next month, that means on average we sell 90% of all our options. So that means there’s nine sales right there.

Now at the moment, in the housing market, they’re in line. In my opinion, in the housing market, if I had a house, I’ll sell it by auction because that is the best way to sell at the moment. Currently, because there is a lack of supply of listings and there are more buyers. They’re emotional buyers so there are more. But if you looked at it three years ago, it would be the worst way to sell your house because we all know what was happening. There was nobody around to buy. It was a crash – it was a financial crisis.

Now if you look at apartments, where there is a huge amount of supply – over 611 apartments currently. Well, why are auctions being used if they aren’t having the same result in the housing market? Why are they being used to sell lease-hold property when there aren’t any buyers? It’s because the owners incentivise them. They’re giving their agents more commission or more commission goes to a listing agent. Then the agent finds a buyer because it’s selling by auction. The other reason why agencies want auctions is because all the advertising of the publicity, that’s half ego and it’s half because it kind of works. The more publicity you have, the more market share it appears you have. And so other owners are more likely to go to that agent or agency because of the advertising.

So I hope that’s really given you a different point of view of how auctions are being used. In my opinion, why there are so many auctions in the apartment market, where especially in buildings where they are lease-hold buildings. You don’t have owner-occupiers purchasing them. It’s all about the numbers – there isn’t the emotion and continually- again and again -I’m not getting the best prices, listening to the prices, yet auction is chosen again and again.

Okay, next week we are going to talk about something completely different – rental companies. Being that 70% of the Auckland apartment market is rented, it’s a pretty big topic. The myth is that all rental companies are equal.

Thank you, cheers.

understanding auckland apartment buyer

What is your target market you are selling to?

Posted in Apartment Marketing, Blog, Imageless, Not A Property, Property Value, Selling, Things To Know About Apartments, Value Updates.

SUMMARY: 

As agents we get to know the different types of buyers and building as well. This means we understand our target audiences. Every single building has a slightly different market and what makes us experts at Apartment Specialists is being in the know.

An example would be if we were selling in a building with high percentage of Chinese owner/occupiers. I would then to market the audience as well as dealing with local Chinese agents and buyers.

TRANSCRIPTION:

Andrew Murray, Apartment Specialists, number nine – Knowing your buyer.

Now, what do I mean by that? Well, it’s what we’re here to do. As real estate agents, what do we do? We sell and we market. And to sell or to get those people to sell to, we’ve got to attract them – which means we need to know the type of audience.

For example, if your apartment is going to be most likely sold to an investor – we’ve got to target investors, and vice-versa with owner occupiers. Otherwise, you’re most likely not going to get the best result. Yes, you could get lucky, but we’re talking about most likely. Because again and again and again, we’ve got to be getting the best result for our vendors – which means we’ve got to know our market. Every single building has a slightly different target market.

For example, I may be selling a building which is 40% Chinese. Well, I’m European. So, how am I going to market to the Chinese? Well, what I do is, I deal with about 20 different Chinese agents. I deal with Chinese buyers’ agents, and that’s just to give an example. Also, what if a building is popular with the French? Well, I’ll deal with the French buyers’ agents, and vice-versa. There’s a lot of different ways that we can market in this industry. And it’s about knowing the right one for our vendor’s apartment.

So ask your agent, what is the target market? How are you going to reach them? And how is that going to maximise the amount of enquiries and leads created? That is a huge, huge point that determinants how much will you get for your apartment.

Anyway, hope this helps and I will talk to you soon with the other theme.

Cheers!