Selling Your Property - What Buyers Look For
Thursday, November 02, 2006
What do buyers look for in terms of the house itself?
Many agree that location is a decisive factor, but so are
tangibles like the price and condition of the property (is the
price worth the additional huge sums of money to put this house
back into mint condition? How much time will I need to renovate
the dilapidated portions of this house?).
Buyers will be on the alert for the following:
Start with the outside of the house and ask yourself the
following questions - because these are the questions that your
potential buyer will be asking!:
* Do these garbage cans, discarded wood scraps and building
materials strewn about carelessly an indication of the seller's
negligence?
* Are the gutters and roof in place? When was the last time the
seller changed the roof?
* Apart from the human occupants of the house, are there
termites and other insects that live here also?
* These overgrown bushes and trees are distracting. What is it
that the sellers don't want us to see?
* Is the lawn is looking unhealthy? Is the rest of the house
like that?
* Have the patios and decks been converted into storage areas?
Why can't we see what they actually look like?
* The paint is peeling off; is that why the house looks so drab
and uninviting?
* Why are there no lights outside the house? Is this the
owner's way of saving on utility bills? Is this a safe
neighbourhood?
The above questions are just a few of the many questions buyers
are likely to ask with respect to the outside of the house. A
house's exterior constitutes the buyer's first impression. And
we all know what they say about first Impressions.
* High and low pricing: sellers who like to make a killing
price their property way too high, making it out of reach to
buyers who are looking at similar properties in the same
location. Don't be priced out. Going to the other end of the
spectrum, you'll know that you priced your house too low when
it's bought the same or next day after you or your agent
advertised it. It was "snatched" by someone else because it was
way below market price.
Obviously, you as seller will try to get the highest price you
can get for your property so you start with a high price.
The buyer, on the other hand, will offer the lowest possible
price he can negotiate. So you start high and he starts low.
This creates plenty of room to negotiate - the gray area that
lies between the highest and lowest prices.
This is where sellers can make the mistake of not demonstrating
sufficient flexibility to the buyer!
This is the reason there are high and low prices in real estate
- what Albert Lowry called practising the give-and-take
principle. "Such give-and-take is part of the bargaining
process. It gives you both room to negotiate. As you and the
buyer make proposals and counterproposals, you are inching
closer to agreement. Then at some point one of you will yield
no further." Develop the extra sense to know when to stop
negotiating.
About The Author: T J Madigan is director of
http://www.realestatesecrets.net.au your source for free real
estate articles and information
posted by Dennis Cheesman @ 5:20 AM,
