Love it or hate it, when you are buying property, the major property portals such as realestate.com.au and Domain are going to be your first ports of call, more times than not.
Whether it’s a quick, casual browse at a lunch break, or a constant stream of links sent by your significant other (“did you see this one, it’s sooo cute”). Both sites are also excellent gauges of property availability, which is possibly the most important factor when pricing and selling your own home in this market.
Having a look at Bayview Heights last week, there were a grand total of 16 properties on market, across all categories. Bring that back to houses and you have 13. Make it actually available homes (i.e. not already under contract) and 7 is your number. That’s less than one page. A lot less. Not that long ago, you would have been looking at multiple pages of properties, in just about any suburb. Today, having only a handful of options is a common occurrence.
If you are a seller, this is great news – if someone is looking specifically in your suburb, you’re going to have a great share of eyeballs. But while those focused buyers are well and good, what MORE can you do to get even more eyes (and wallets) turning to your home or investment property?
Well, this is where it can pay to invest in marketing your property to the fullest, even in a strong market where you can be tempted to scrape by with just the bare minimum – especially when it seems all an agent has to do is stick up a sign and wave their arms out the front to be flooded with buyers.
The first and most relevant thing I will suggest to a seller, is to expand your net. While of course you want your property to stand out in Bayview Heights (or Mount Sheridan or Palm Cove etc.), you also want to attract buyers of similar properties in OTHER suburbs that could be persuaded that their dream home might be somewhere different than they thought it was. And I say that knowing that the last time I purchased a property, my initial criteria and the final choice didn’t have much in common!
How do you achieve this? Well, there is still something to be said for print advertising and being able to step outside of search fields – a good advert and the right imagery have captured more than one emotional buyer. Beyond that though, digital is the space to be, with Facebook and Google targeted advertising more common (and effective) than ever in making the most of your audience reach. Need to know more? Talk to your local agent.
Tom Quaid is the REIQ Zone Chair for Cairns