The prices being achieved for houses in Cairns today, are frankly some of the best we have ever seen. You can still however, absolutely miss the mark as a seller when it comes to setting the right price for your property – an error that has become more expensive as the year has gone on.
In 2021 and early 2022, many of us – and I include buyers, sellers, agents and even valuers here, had to strap in for the ride as each month saw the needle move on prices, with “expensive” becoming “good value” becoming “cheap” depending on when you looked at a property in the year.
In the context of that (comparatively) rapid growth, sellers could absolutely test the market with a price that looked ambitious compared to recent sales, and more often than not, that then paid out with those cheeky prices not only achieved but even exceeded in many cases.
Fast forward to today however, and the pace of growth has slowed and the particularly ambitious are often having to come back down to earth on expectations. This isn’t to say the market has gone backwards, but more that we have seen a consolidation of price movement and the prices of a month ago (or 6 months ago) are remaining relevant rather than a distant rearview mirror.
After conditioning ourselves to instant gratification and minimal effort (“sold first open home!”, we now need to bring back in the good habits we had before, and react to market changes. This means that today, price is potentially more important than at any time in the past 2 years, with sellers needing to either get the number right upfront, or respond quickly to feedback. And I can promise you, that lack of feedback (enquiries, offers, etc.) is itself feedback – so don’t be tempted to sit on your hands just because no-one (other than the agent) has outright told you something needs to be done.
Tempering your own expectations should also involve extensive research on house prices before launch – whether it be your own homework or agent opinions. Substantiate your estimate with recent sales and current data and beware of outliers – that one house that blew pricing out of the water 6 months ago might have had its own sprinkle of fairy dust (and a cashed up, emotional buyer) that is becoming a little rarer in this market.
Shoot for the stars, but make sure you’ve got the fuel and map to get you there before you take off.