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Why Harcourts and myself should be your choice of Salesperson real estate company when you decide to sell your home - and how to present a house for sale.
One of the number one reasons why Harcourt’s is so strong in New Zealand is the quality of its sales force and its presence on the internet.
It is a fact that when looking for a property people usually go to trade me first especially Aucklanders for some reason. Then they go to our industry owned site of realestate.co.nz and then Harcourts. We have the most hit from any other company in New Zealand.
We have an operating system called Harcourts one which is incredibly useful and user friendly.
It helps us with managing our data base and makes sending out properties and newsletters to people easy and it gives us lots of up to date useful information to send.
Harcourt's have a very effective referral system were we can send out referrals to around the world to other Harcourt's branches instantly and keep track of buyers also. I often get buyers from Auckland and wellington sent through to me.
We can use this system with our mobiles so if we need to let people know about a new listing we can make contact with the buyers instantly.
Harcourt's is one of only a couple of companies that are recognized as an education provider able to take people from getting their sales persons license to becoming an agent and going right through to owning their own company.
Lastly and very importantly Harcourt's is a New Zealand company and is growing around the world. Now boasting over 900 offices in 9 countries including New Zealand, Australia, Indonesia, Fiji, China, Hong Kong, Canada, South Africa and USA.
This year we have been voted for seven years in a row the most trusted Real estate company on New Zealand.
Why sell your most valuable assert through myself ?
I have always worked In an industries were to succeed I have had to be able to read people well.
I was a hairdresser and had my own salon in Wellington and that is all about communication and making people feel relaxed and important.
I sold computers for a couple of years then sold Encyclopaedia Britannica which was a wonderful job as they sent me all around the lower north island. Looking back it was fantastic training as I would go into a house to complete strangers and within 1 1/2 hours many had committed to between 3-$4000.00. Britannica used to ring them after 5 days to check that they knew what they had bought and didn’t want to change their minds. We were not allowed to door knock as they used to market for us. so that was very good training but I must admit a product with a great name and easy to sell.
Directly before real estate I was an account manager for office Max.
I have a data base of just over 3500 now as you can imagine I sell roughly about 50 houses per year and often there are 4 people involved in every sale times 16 years . On average we sell and buy every 7 years. So different to when I was a child our parents bought one house and stayed for years.
Preparing your house for sale.
If the vendor is seriously going to sell it is so much easier to get them to pack everything away that they can live without for a few months as they are going to pack it anyway.
Improving the flow is important. Keeping furniture out of corners if possible. Get rid of all nets or pull them back. This helps give a feeling of space. Tinted windows are becoming a problem as they make the house dark. If it is not to much trouble and they can afford it, is to repaint bright rooms neutral or freshen up bathrooms can transform a house.
I believe the strongest sense that can put a person off a house is a offensive smell. Even if a house is at the top end of the market and immaculate if it has a strong doggy smell it can stop the house sale in its tracks.
A house I sold in my first couple of years which was the highest priced house sale for a while, took over a year only because of a really strong dog smell. I could give you a few examples of fabulous houses that are just gorgeous and when people come out from an open home they all comment on the doggy smell. This can be difficult to try and get vendors on side as they often can’t notice it
Mirrors in dark places with a nice lamp creates a lovely feel which is good when you have a house with a lounge that is deep and does not have many exterior windows. It stops it having a cave feel. It really works.
Clean windows as well as getting the house professionally cleaned just takes it up to that next level. I sold a house which was a good example. It had been on the market off and on for about 3 years and it getting professionals in made an incredible difference. Getting the house chem. washed can make it look like it has been repainted. Never get a house water blasted unless you want to paint it.
The old favorites of putting the coffee on and putting a cake in the oven to bake is great.
Above all this though is getting people in the door. So improving street appeal and getting the house to look inviting is paramount. Paint the front even if you do not do the rest of the house. People will not be fooled and will soon see the rest of the house eeds painting but it still gets them in the door. If the house is plain from the road invest in some trendy pots to add interest but once again have it sparkling clean.
We all get used to little faults and often do not notice the cracked windows or chipped paint around doors. So getting a fresh set of eyes can be enlightening.
A major survey was done a few years ago as to what people looked for when buying a house and at the top of the list before location was privacy, then outdoor flow. So if you can try and create privacy and out door living by putting up some screening or even popping some bricks in a area from the living room. Sometimes It can be quite easy to create.
Lastly if you can afford it dressing your home could be worth $10 to $20 thousand extra and sell quicker. The amount of times I have had an empty house on the market and when the owners get some quality furniture in completely changes peoples perception. I staged my own house in Tiritoa terrace and it most definitely helped sell the house and added a few dollars.
I just want to share quickly with you the hardest part of my job which is keeping up with past clients. It is actually physically impossible as you can imagine we sell around 50 houses per year and for each house there is a buyer and a seller. The only way is by newsletter via email or snail mail. When we have a quiet time I love popping in to people to see what purchases have done to the houses.
To summarize Real Estate is a fantastic career. We meet wonderful people and sometimes become social workers which can be stressful. Obviously the rewarding times must out weigh the bad as successful people stay at it for quite a while.
Thank you for taking the time to read my 10 minute speech which I must admit I haven’t covered all the times I got sidetracked with the examples I used when highlighting a fact but I hope you found it interesting.
