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www.thevillagenews.co.za
5 February 2020
MY HOME
Ensure that your home is ready to sell in 2020 By Stephen de Stadler Managing Director Fine & Country Hermanus, Arabella and Kleinmond
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e were greeted with a pleasant surprise last week. The Reserve Bank announced an unexpected 25 basis point reduction in the repo rate, which will translate to a reduction in the prime lending rate of all the significant banks in South Africa by the same amount. The theory is that the reduction in the cost of lending will encourage consumers to either borrow more or have more money available for spending, which in turn translates to economic growth in the medium to longer term.
We refer to the reduction as unexpected, because most economic commentators predicted that the Reserve Bank would wait at least another quarter before reducing rates again. We certainly hope that the rate reduction will have the desired effect and continue to stimulate what is undoubtedly a more active
local residential property market (when compared to the last quarter of 2019). Let’s therefore get our own backyard in order, as it were, and prepare our homes for some active and exciting selling in 2020. The first important aspect is to ensure that your home is sales-ready. Make sure it is clean and presents a good first impression. A newlypainted front door is infinitely more inviting than a shabby coat of old paint. A neat garden shows the prospective buyer that this space is manageable, whereas an overgrown mess of vegetation may create the false impression that the garden cannot be handled by the occupants of the home. Those minor repairs (the loose barge board, the broken window catch, the cracked window) should be taken care of before the home enters the market. Some buyers are able to look beyond small issues, but many do not. The second requirement is to call for the assistance of an estate agent you
Those buyers who may potentially be interested in your home will not
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Ask the agent to prepare a detailed analysis which allows you to clearly understand the basis from which a suggested selling price is derived. Also expect to see a comprehensive marketing plan. Consider the fact that correctly-priced properties have a significantly better chance of selling than overvalued homes, and that the concept of value is always a relative one – relative to current market conditions and the current expectations of buyers. Any buyer who is considering spending a certain amount of money will attach a fairly defined list of requirements to that price range. If your house is overpriced for the current market, the buyer in that range will discount your house as not delivering the listed requirements, whether these are the number of bedrooms or quality of finishes.
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can trust. Perhaps some may consider that an oxymoron, but why would you assign the selling of what is one of your largest assets to someone that you cannot trust.
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even see it, because they will be searching in a different price band. Once you have made your decision regarding the estate agency or agent you wish to proceed with, commit to that agency. In most cases, increasing the number of agencies marketing your house will not increase your exposure. Also, provide enough time for your house to be sold. It often happens that an agent has been marketing a home for a few months, only for the home to be sold a week or two after the mandate expires. The seller might then comment on the lack of service provided by the first agent, but without taking into consideration that the house was sold by the second agent at a lower selling price than the seller had insisted upon in the first place. In a buyers’ market, estate agents spend a lot of time engaging in the practice of price counselling. Sellers who insist on pricing their homes at a higher level to start with, should also take into consideration the feedback received from the market as to the relative value of their home.
The third and last requirement, once your home has been successfully listed by your trusted agent, is to ensure that your home is ready for viewing. Declutter to the extent you can, so that the prospective buyer can see the space in the context of his or her own furnishings. A colleague in the UK recounted that a professional musician who had converted the lounge into a music room, where the baby grand piano left no space for any other furniture, took great exception to the agent’s request to stage the room as a lounge for a particular viewing weekend – and this was after the property had already been on the market for more than a year. You do know where I am going with this, and needless to say, the home was sold once the family room was decluttered so as to accommodate the musical instrument, and the lounge was appropriately furnished. The views expressed above are those of the writer in his personal capacity and may not necessarily reflect the views of Fine & Country as a national and international brand.
