The more agents you employ the greater your chances of getting a lower price.
Do no place your property for sale with several agents. You may think this will increase your chance of finding a buyer, but it decreases your chance of getting the highest price.
All of those agents will be in a hurry to sell your property before someone else sells it. The sale will be most important. The price will be forgotten.
Buyers shop around. They will use the agent who can obtain your property for the lowest price.
Test this yourself. When you see one property with several agents, call them all and ask this question: “What is the lowest price I can get this for?” You will be told different prices.
The saying goes that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link.
It is hard enough when buyers shop around for properties, but do you also want them shopping around for the weakest agent too?
Is There Anything Better Than Auction?
Many agents will say “No!” but then again, they’re trained to say that.
There can be no doubt that auctions often get a high price, but can they guarantee to get the highest price?
Buyers Agents represent purchasers, and not home sellers. A Buyers Agent assists purchasers to buy cheaply.
This is what one Buyers Agent ** has to say about auctions:
“I attend many auctions and bid for properties on behalf of my clients. At the majority of the auctions where we were successful, we had “money left on the table” – that is, we spent less than our authorised limits” **
** Patrick Bright – Buyers Agent & Author of “The insider’s Guide to Saving Thousands at Auction”
No Negotiation expert favours allowing competing parties in a negotiation to hear what another party has offered, yet this is what auction does.
A better alternative to auction is to negotiate privately using the Buyers’ Price Declaration.
Based upon an idea developed by economist the late William Vickery – one of several ideas that earned him the Nobel Prize for Economics - this negotiation tool is demonstrably better than auction for sellers, buyers, and agents.
With the Buyers’ Price Declaration, no competing party is privy to another party’s offer. This means that each buyer must offer his or her highest price without being influenced by what somebody else may have offered.
Ask your agent about negotiation with a Buyers’ Price Declaration. If he or she still insists on auction, insist upon a price guarantee.
Hire a Specialist
If you follow the advice in this booklet you will seek out a professional salesperson – a trained negotiator – who uses the Buyers’ Price Declaration as a means to obtain the highest possible price for you.
You should understand, however, that few agents know this tool and understand how to use it.
This means that if you tell an “auction specialist” (usually recognised by the fact that the salesperson “pushes” auction to you) that you do not want to auction and then force that person to handle your sale by Private Treaty, you will have working for you a salesperson that is out of his or her depth.
A Private Treaty specialist seldom does auctions. He or she is a specialist in negotiating high prices face to face.
But just because your agent claims to be a Private Treaty specialist this does not automatically mean that he or she knows and uses the Buyers’ Price Declaration.
Ask questions. Discover whether your preferred choice of agent understands the principles of negotiation and the Buyers Price Declaration.
Weekly Price Review
Price is a major factor in marketing and it is important that you and your agent get it right.
Since all negotiation experts say that if you want to get the highest price you should start high and then come down until the right buyer is found, it stands to reason that price is a very important factor in effective marketing.
- The weeks marketing – what has been done, and what enquiry did it generate?
- Discuss individual enquiries and what they had to say about the property. This includes those who talked with the agent about the property even if the discussion did not result in an inspection.
- Weekly Price Review – is the current price attracting interest? Have any offers been made? At what price should the property be offered in the coming week?
Try not to get too “hung up” on price. In marketing, price is like bait is to fishermen – if one type of bait isn’t working, change the ‘bait”
For more information on selling your property in today's market please call Frank Pike at Marsellos Pike Real Estate on 5495 7777.
For more information on selling your property in today's market please call Frank Pike at Marsellos Pike Real Estate on 5495 7777.
