Why there’s never been a better time to go to market

Selling a home successfully is a numbers game. The bigger the pool of buyers, the better the odds are of getting the best price.  

While selling off market can be an appropriate method in certain cases, vendors could be doing themselves a disservice by slipping under the radar especially in the current environment, according to director of economic research at realestate.com.au Cameron Kusher.

“It is clear that there is very strong demand to purchase homes at the moment,” Mr Kusher said.

“The level of general and high-intent (those more likely to purchase than normal searchers) search behaviour on realestate.com.au is at unprecedented highs. We’re also seeing sales volumes early in 2021 significantly higher than they were in both 2019 and 2020 prior to the impact of COVID.

“Without listing a property for sale, how are you going to reach the maximum audience? There are also so many new buyers in the market at the moment the only way to reach everyone is to advertise.”

That’s precisely the message behind Brisbane-based Hutton & Hutton’s ‘Sell Loud’ campaign, encouraging sellers to reap the benefits of the current market.

“We’re in a seller’s market, buyers know the market is on the move,” said group CEO of Hutton & Hutton Peter Hutton.

Mr Hutton said selling off market can be an easy way to sell homes as it cuts out the competition and is often quicker and cheaper than executing a traditional marketing campaign. But the process often doesn’t deliver the best results for vendors, he said.

“It seems to undermine the process that provides value for a seller and that is buyer competition,” he explained.

“That one buyer in isolation may well pay a really top price [off market], which can be the case but often it’s not the case. Often that buyer is putting up a price that they feel comfortable with, and if the seller feels comfortable with it too, that’s great, but who knows, maybe if they turned around and put it on the market they would sell higher.”

Mr Hutton pointed to an example in the inner Brisbane suburb of New Farm where he sold a large family home on market.

“It was a beautiful house that had been in one family for five generations. We did a very low key first week on the market and I got three offers straight away, all around the same sort of money,” he recounted.

“I went back to the sellers and said: ‘Look, there are three buyers, one is threatening to leave because we’re not playing ball the way that they want us to play. I feel we need to take it to auction’. And that’s what we did.

“We ended up having seven registered bidders at the auction and that property sold for $3.36 million. Now all three of those buyers initially put in offers just under $3 million.

“That transparent situation of an auction actually created an environment that allowed buyers to get to where they were comfortable going. They weren’t overpaying, but certainly the market was proving to be up around that $3.3 million mark. I’ve seen property sell that way for years, and it’s not just auctions but private treaties also.”

Citing his example, Mr Hutton added that return on investment is often “sizeable” for vendors who choose to go to market.

Melbourne based buyer’s advocate Cate Bakos said selling loud as opposed to off market often delivers the best sale price.

“If the property is one of those heart-stopping, crowd-pleasing homes that is destined to draw a huge crowd, the difference could be considerable,” Ms Bakos said. 

“Social proof and relative scarcity are the two most powerful ingredients for a high sales result, particularly in a high income area. A vendor who chooses to deal solely with a selected buyer could be doing themselves a disservice if they aren’t exposing the property to a broader market.

“I’d rather pay market value for the property I love at auction than overpay for an asset purely because I am enjoying the privilege of less competition.”

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