Tips for Selling in the current climate

 Selling in a cooling market.

Sales volumes in 2023 prove that the Kerikeri housing market is slowing down towards a more sedate activity level not seen since the period after the Global Financial Crisis. It’s important to realise that this doesn’t mean houses aren’t selling. It means we are in a market where buyers have more time to plan, are taking more time to sell their own properties and have less money to spend when they finally do sell. With over 20 years of real estate experience in Kerikeri we have been through the ups and downs of the property cycle before.

So how do you prepare to sell your home in these quieter conditions?

Here are some key things to focus on to ensure you achieve the best outcomes.

1. Present your property to stand out

Preparing and presenting your home for sale is a critical factor to achieving the best price no matter what stage of the cycle you are selling in. In the winter of the cycle, it is even more critical for your property to stand out from other properties on the market competing for a smaller pool of buyers who have plenty of options available.

Making extra effort to present your property at its absolute best can make all the difference. Your agents should be able to provide you with advice on where to put your efforts to attract the best interest.

2. Realistic pricing

It is essential to ensure that you have a realistic price expectation from the outset in the current market environment where buyers have low levels of urgency and a wide range of choice.

Your property will be skipped by buyers who assess it as overpriced, and they will move on to purchase properties of better perceived value. This is not the stage of the cycle to pad your pricing for negotiations. Pricing that is not spot on can result in little or no serious interest and lengthy times to sell. Worse, it often results in achieving a lower sales price.  

Ensure you work with agents who have a proven history of working through a robust appraisal process to fix saleable prices for their vendors. We are coming out of a period where many agents who came into the industry in the last 6 years, have marketed properties for auction, tender or by negotiations without a price. Therefore, many have not had the experience to assess the factors and market conditions that contribute to a competitive price.  Always be cautious about the agent who provides a high appraisal, as much as it may seem agreeable at the time, it often leads to ‘chasing the market down’ in a slower market. 

This is a situation to avoid at all costs. Setting an unrealistic price prior to marketing results in no sale being secured after a period and so the seller adjusts to a more realistic level. In the meantime, market prices have dropped even further so the revised price is still too high, and a sale still cannot be secured. The process continues so that the buyers’ assessment of value is always below the newly reset vendor’s expectations. We have witnessed sellers in the winter of other cycles losing hundreds of thousands of dollars by not being prepared to take our advice on market value. 

In summary, there is no point in the cycle where it is more important to set the price expectation at a sellable level and pay attention to the advice of your agent or obtain an independent valuation to avoid chasing the market down. 

3. Boost your marketing

As with presentation, the quality of marketing is always important to achieving the best results regardless of the prevailing market conditions. It becomes even more essential as market conditions cool off. Leveraging marketing strategies to differentiate your home and make it stand out from the myriad of other listings is vital. Your marketing campaign must consider the likely target audience, key messages and images, positioning, and be presented in a variety of media to extend the reach.

Open homes are a great method for creating motivation with competing buyers in a hot market. They become less important in a cooling market as they attract mostly passive buyers and can distract good selling agents from spending time showing hot buyers through a range of homes. The latter is particularly important in Kerikeri as buyers are often coming from out of town in the weekend and the best way to understand their needs is to spend quality time with them. 

Open homes still have their place in campaigns with fixed deadlines or in the first few weeks after launch but otherwise are not a good use of time. Often, they are held to show the vendor that the agent is doing something. The best job a good agent can do for their vendors in a cooling market is to build relations with buyers, understand their motivations to be best prepared to negotiate for their vendors, actively search for solutions for the buyers’ requirements, and work the chain created by a successful transaction. 

REAL offers a comprehensive core marketing package at our cost but you may want to consider making an investment in additional advertising packages to lift your property above other listings in a slower market. The time to do this is at the beginning of your campaign to attract as many buyers as possible in the first few weeks after the launch. Who hasn’t noticed how a property that has been on the market for a while becomes stale? Soon, we are hearing from buyers “is something wrong with the property” or “is it overpriced”. Giving your property that extra boost at launch time can make all the difference in a slower market and is often money well spent.

4. Select the right agency

The slower the market the more important it is to be prudent in your choice of agency. REAL has consistently outsold every agency including the other large national brands for 20 years in the Kerikeri residential market. Creative solutions come from collaboration, working together to solve problems. REAL may not have the largest team in Kerikeri but we have the most dedicated, full-time, effective group of professional agents, period.

5. Select the right agent

We are coming out of a market where agents have been so focused on getting listings and holding open homes, they have lost focus on doing the hard work required to understand purchasers’ requirements and assisting them to find the right property. It is important to look for a team of agents who support one another, has bench strength and longevity to have navigated the winter of the property cycle before. 

Anyone can sell in a hot market. Agent selection is even more important in a cool market. At REAL we make that decision easy as you get 7 dedicated agents who are fully vested and engaged with the sale of your home. Our commitment in this challenging market is to be honest with our appraisal even if we think your feelings might be hurt, to provide the most professional advice, to deliver a quality, competitive marketing package with world-wide reach across multiple media channels and to negotiate the best possible outcome. 

Final thoughts

The media is portraying the property market as gloomy over recent months. Just because prices are down does not mean this is not a good time to move. If you are buying and selling in the same market, then there is generally little difference when you sell in the cycle, whether winter or summer. In fact, being sold and in a cash-position can often lead to some very good buying in the winter of the cycle. If you are moving to a market that has dropped more than ours, such as Wellington or Auckland, then it might be the best time in decades to make that move. 

We hope these few ideas will help you to plan and prepare your next move to ensure you achieve the best outcome of the highest price in the shortest timeframe the current market will support.

Pop in for a coffee and chat with any of our team about preparing for your next move. We are on standby to help.