Real estate agents are often asked why certain houses stay on the market for months and years while others, seemingly comparable, are sold within weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany inexperienced vendors overprice their properties out of a mistaken belief that this is the way to achieve the best price,\u201d Bellarine Property managing director Christian Bartley said.<\/p>\n
\u201cFar from encouraging purchasers to make offers, overpricing actually discourages them. For a start, an overpriced property actually attracts the wrong market group.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Bartley said that if purchasers are used to seeing other properties that offer more for the money, they will give negative feedback.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot because the property is bad per se but because of the way it compares with others in the same price range.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Mr Bartley, for a vendor leaving a reasonable negotiating factor of around five per cent, the optimum time to get the best offers is in the first few weeks \u2013 before the property becomes \u201cstale\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter that, inspections are likely to be fewer in number and many of these will be new purchasers coming on to the market for the first time.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd the longer a property stays on the market, the more buyers feel they have the upper hand in any subsequent negotiations and will drive a hard bargain.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Bartley said there are many stories about inexperienced vendors who turn down early offers because it is \u201ctoo soon\u201d or because they think they will do better later.<\/p>\n
\u201cVendors have plenty of time to regret their decision when purchasers lose interest and subsequent offers are lower or non-existent.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is nothing \u2018wrong\u2019 with houses that are sitting around \u2013 except the price. After all, even properties with serious white ant damage end up finding buyers \u2013 if they\u2019re priced right.\u201d<\/p>\n