Article by Lucas Wilson
In what may come as a big surprise, the month of May, 2020 – 3 months since the covid-19 pandemic began here – saw the highest number of buyer enquiries into the Wilsons office since before 2016, when we started recording their numbers!
The law of supply and demand says that when low supply is met with high demand, prices increase. We only have a relatively small sample size to work off when it comes to a week by week commentary of prices – but if it’s any indication, this week we listed a property and had a sale agreed within 3 days of being available to inspect, at $35,000 above it’s asking price, after 15 separate inspections!
I don’t have a crystal ball as to what the market will do in the foreseeable future, as we and the economy slowly emerge from this unique crisis. As restrictions ease, so too will the government’s, and the banks’, financial relief, and who knows the mid-term economic effect of what we have been through, including the measures that the government has put in place to see us through.
In any case, if you are selling and buying in the same market, trying to ‘pick the market’ is largely fruitless, because if you sell high, you’ll buy high, and if the market falls and your sale price drops, so too will the price at which you make your next purchase.
But if you are looking to sell and simply take advantage of the unique set of circumstances that has:
- Seen many people holding off putting their properties on the market (supply = low), while
- Many buyers who have clearly been financially unaffected by the coronavirus situation, want to get on with their lives including plans of purchasing, perhaps looking towards the lifestyle offered by a district like ours, and/or seeing the record low interest rates as an opportunity to take advantage of (demand = high):
Then right now can present a great time to sell your property.
It can be done safely from the sense of abiding by all social distancing and sanitising protocols. Even though “open inspections” are allowed again, here at Wilsons we’ve always been the specialists when it comes to private, one-on-one inspections. We’ve always recommended that only genuine, pre-qualified buyers should be coming through your home, at a time that suits both parties on any day of the week rather than restricting to a single short timeframe. We believe it is best done on a one-one basis so we can really get to know the buyer and their situation and therefore best negotiate a great outcome for you – rather than simply being “name-takers” standing at the door with a clipboard. While we’re sure that the World Health Organisation would still recommend private one-one inspections at the moment over open inspections, we’re also confident that if there was a “World Negotiation Organisation” – they would also recommend the flexible, private inspection method!!
Selling with Wilsons is also completely safe from a financial point of view – on two levels:
- We pay for all marketing, and charge absolutely nothing, other than our selling fee, which is only payable if you are happily sold. If no sale eventuates, you pay ZERO. There are no additional expenses, not for photos, not for signage, not for brochures, not for website or newspaper advertising, NOTHING.
- We are the best trained agents in the district, using a SMART-sale negotiation method which essentially guarantees the best price. This includes stated asking prices, rather than avoiding price or quoting vague price ranges – two things that buyers loathe, and not only deterring your target market, they can work against you from a negotiation standpoint. We’ll happily show you how.
Another benefit is the fact that at Wilsons, we truly work as a team, so when you choose Wilsons, you have us ALL working for you. This means your property will be exposed to our “All-Access Collaborative Database” of buyers, rather than the “Fractured” databases found in most typical real estate offices, whose structures promote competition between salespeople rather than collaboration. To give you some context, when you choose Wilsons to sell your property – all 2,323 enquiries contained in the above graph will be accessible, regardless of which of our representatives took the initial enquiry.
And it’s not just any team! I’m proud to say that every member of “Team Wilsons” takes absolute pride in putting our clients interests first, and are all dedicated to being the best they can be. Not only this – together we are committed to our local community, whether this is financially distributing a portion of every fee back into the community, or active involvement in many community or charity events, causes and/or programs.
We’d love the opportunity to help you discuss your real estate needs. This can be done without any obligation pressure, or cost. Perhaps you’ve made some improvements to your property during the isolation period, and are simply curious to see if you’ve added any value, or where your property sits in today’s market. That is fine – we’d love the chance to be of assistance.
At this challenging time, we’ve risen to the challenge! Phone Wilsons any time on (03) 5561 2777
