Why hasn’t my property sold?
Important Information for Sellers
In Queensland anyone completing a five day course at the Real Estate Institute of Queensland, a TAFE College or an approved training facility can obtain a certificate that enables them to sell real estate. After just five days at school answering multiple choice questions, this person may then obtain a job at a Real Estate office and engage in the listing and selling of property in the state of Queensland.
Those fortunate enough to be employed by a major franchise such as Ray White, LJHooker, or Harcourts would then receive some basic training in listing, selling, marketing, pricing and negotiating. They may then be reasonably well equipped to handle the sale of your property. However, the vast majority of real estate sales people in Queensland, will obtain their certificate and join an office where they receive no training.
As a potential Seller you have a right to know what training and experience your sales person has. You also need to know what properties they have sold, how long it took them to sell them and what the difference was between the asking price and the sales price.
Why should I do this you may ask? Well, consider this: The values in the market are falling at a rate of 5% per month (as they did last month), you need to sell your property fast, to minimize your losses. You are tempted to contract the services of an inexperienced agent or even worse, an unsuccessful experienced agent and they quote you a higher sale price than is realistic. You then spend the next 6 months trying to sell, only to find that you are now $100,000 away from market value, not just $50,000. The advice of that agent has now cost you $50,000. Now you call in a professional, experienced agent who has to overcome the damage. Who suffers? You, the Seller suffers. And what compensation will you get? Absolutely NIL!
Sadly, even in these obviously tough economic times, there are still an abundance of agents who don’t have the knowledge, experience, skill or training to be able to give you an honest appraisal. When we go to a listing and the seller wants substantially more than market value, we are always surprised to hear how many agents were willing to take on the listing and even charge substantial amounts of money for advertising. How would you feel if you paid $30,000 for advertising knowing your agent knew your expectations were unrealistic? Well it happens, all too regularly.
The number one comment we receive from buyers in today’s market is ‘why are there so many over-priced properties for sale in the area? Is it greed? Is it stupidity? Or is it just agents telling sellers whatever they want to hear in order to get a sign up and a listing on the internet. Sadly it’s probably a combination of a few factors.
For several decades, Queensland enjoyed a lack of supply and an excess of demand. Potential buyers could sell their family home in the Southern States and relocate to South-East Queensland with a pocket full of cash. They could buy a replacement property for about half of what they sold theirs for and put the balance of their money in the bank and live happily ever after. Unfortunately after about the year 2000 Queensland properties became almost as expensive as Sydney properties, and now more expensive than Melbourne properties. Hence, interstate migration has come to a grinding halt.
So when you see 250 properties for sale in a postcode and then you discover there are less than 50 sales a year in that postcode, ask yourself the question – Why?
