Sell Now, Pay Later?

Sell Now, Pay Later?

“Buy Now, Pay Later” (BNPL) needs no introduction at this point, as Afterpay, Zippay, Humm and any number of other catchy titles are now household names, used to attract would be shoppers with the prospect of having their cake NOW, rather than later, paying off that new dress/suit/phone/computer in “just 4 easy payments” with the retailer or business paying a cut to their financial dealer of choice in return for the increased spending traffic and getting their own financial fix sooner.

Provided much more readily and easily than a credit card, with ostensibly less costs to the consumer, BNPL has gone from a tool to enable the rare splurge, to now being applied to every day purchases, from garden tools to groceries, its become a more readily used option to stretch the budget between paydays. The cost of living, well, it bites.

For a period of time, the real estate industry had its own BNPL fix, providing sellers with access to funds not just for the advertising of the property once on-market, but even an option for funding the all-so-important prep work BEFORE the “For Sale” sign went up. Sellers could put forward a proposal for funds, get approved (and paid), and then have X days or until their property sold to pay back the principal and any fees applied.

For the odd client, this could be a godsend – freeing up cashflow to present a property the way everyone would love to, rather than dealing with it as-is and accepting the dream price might not marry with the nightmare presentation.

From the plethora of options out in the market just a few short years ago however, this kind of “everything and the kitchen sink” funding model from the big advertisers seems to have exited stage left, with current owners left with the more traditional pathways of cre                                                                          dit cards, personal loans or putting together the necessary cash however you can. Granted, this kind of finance has skated a thin line in the financial world to avoid extra regulation that applies as soon as the word “interest” comes into the conversation, but for all the providers in the property space to exit, suggests something wasn’t quite right stacking up with the business model or its use.

Now there ARE still these kinds of options in the market, but they are a lot less simple and many require individual real estate offices to sign up (at a cost). Some agencies may even offer their own service of “pay on success” or similar, but it shouldn’t be an expectation. Pulling those responsibilities into an office can go poorly, and goodness knows when things DON’T sell for whatever reason, they can end up holding the bag. The GFC taught a lesson in that regard that a lot of agents wont soon forget…