Origin of Species.
If I had a dollar for everytime I heard a client say ‘we need this price because….’ I’d have just about enough money to park at Clifton Gardens for 40mins.
This may sound harsh but the buying market doesn’t care what you need (or want). Imagine ringing your stockbroker and saying ‘I want $60 for my BHP shares because I want to go to Fiji’ naaah mate.
With market conditions changing sellers have had to adapt in order to achieve an outcome. Don’t get me wrong, the market is still pretty good but gone are the days where agents could just Netflix and chill and sales would just walk in the door.
In a meeting last night a potential client asked me what commonalities I see in campaigns that don’t succeed…what a great question to ask an agent that’s trying to win your favour?!
My immediate response was price and presentation. Presentation is an easy one, I can’t stress enough how if you want to win you need to prepare, the better the presentation (in person and online) the better your result.
However pricing is where most campaigns go wrong. This sounds harsh but the market really doesn’t care what you want, why? The market by definition is a pool of buyers who want to buy the right property at the right price so as a seller you need to address both of these factors.
The right property? Make it as appealing as possible *see above re presentation.
The right price? The trendy acronym in property nowadays is FOPTM or ‘fear of paying too much.’ So how do you address this concern?
The answer is by creating competition. If a buyer can see the competition they are bidding against they will bid…humans are herd animals (how else could we explain planking?).
You must get your starting price right. Defensive pricing strategies based on RP Data reports, valuations and what your neighbours and friends think will guarantee that your campaign will crash and burn.
When trying to create leverage, logic is not your friend…emotion is. Creating FOMO is where the magic happens.
According to Darwin, it is not the most intellectual of the species that survives; it is not the strongest that survives; but the species that survives is the one that is able best to adapt and adjust to the changing environment in which it finds itself. Preach.
Until next week,
David