Are you thinking of selling your home in 2021? A vendor advocate may be the game changer you need. Just like a coach brings out the best in the athlete, the vendor advocate manages the smooth sale of the home. Selling a home is stressful. You need to get the timing and pricing right to attract buyers. Plus, you need to choose the right agent — someone you can trust to act in your best interests. When agents are among the least-trusted professions in Australia, a vendor advocate can help you navigate their aggressive tactics. If you want the best possible outcome when selling your home, a vendor advocate is a must.
1. Getting an expert in your corner
Your agent doesn’t always have your best interest in mind. They will say and do anything to get your listing, and then to persuade you to sell quickly. Vendor advocates can protect you from sneaky tactics agents may be using to persuade you to choose them or accept a low offer. We can determine the right strategy for selling your home: price, agent, timing, preparation and more. You’ll have someone to help you make decisions. Someone you can call if you have a question, a worry or well-meaning friendly advice from your neighbour that you are not sure about. Selling a house in Melbourne is often a million-dollar transaction, so it pays to have an expert plan your strategic approach.
2. Alleviating the stress
Selling your home is stressful! There’s plenty of decisions and logistical logistical elements to juggle. You have to deal with sales campaigns, open homes, surprise inspections and more. Plus, there’s agents, who can be rather pushy to get your listing. Once you’ve signed with an agent, they can be pushy again. They’ll be pressuring you to pay more for marketing, or agree to a campaign that suits them, not you. A vendor advocate can’t take all the stress away. But we can make the process much easier. Firstly, we deal with your agent, so you are free from daily sales calls. We’ll guide the strategy and keep agents doing what they do best, without unnecessarily extras. We are someone to turn to when you need to make the many little decisions that come with selling your home.
Vendor advocates help you with the biggest worry of all — getting the right sale price.
We know what markets are doing, and can help guide your price expectations. We know when to reject an offer and what to accept. This means you are more likely to get the best possible price for your home.
3. Preparing your home for sale
Many homeowners make the classic mistake of overcapitalising on the home before sale. We can advise you on the preparations you need to get the best possible sale price. For example, some vendors decide to put in a new bathroom, thinking they’ll get their money back on auction day. This is often not the case. A quick spray of outdated tiles could have been a more sensible approach. We will inspect your home and advise you on the quick fixes that will help the sale. Plus, we’ll tell you what not to do, too.
4. Finding the right agent
This is a minefield! Everyone has advice for you. Your neighbour is in BNI and wants you to use his agent. Your colleague said they got well above asking price with her agent. But another sponsors the school fair, so they might be good? A vendor advocate will help you select the best agent for the sale. It needs to be someone you can trust.
Experience matters too. There’s no point choosing someone who sells $10 million homes when you have a $1 million property. You want someone with a good track record, reasonable price expectations, strong local knowledge on the market and a good network of buyers on their list. We have a highly refined process to weed out the good agents from the bad. We’ll take you through this, so you feel confident you’ve chosen the best agent for your listing.
5. Negotiating your commission
Many vendors don’t know that you can negotiate on agents’ commissions. Or, perhaps you don’t feel comfortable to ask for more generous commission terms. We know what agents should get in commissions. Cheeky agents may try to throw in an incentive-based fee to boost their bank balance. Agents are extremely good negotiators — it’s their job. So it can be challenging to take them on. We’ll negotiate your commission rate down to a reasonable rate on your behalf. You won’t have to worry about back-and-forth with the agent. This can potentially save you thousands!
6. Getting the right salesperson
Another trick agents use is putting the best sales person to meet with you before you sign. You believe that they will be the person selling your home and will be there at every open house, charming your buyers. But, you’re surprised to find that someone else (who you’ve never met) is now in charge. Your charming agent is nowhere to be found and you have a junior agent as your main point of contact. It’s not junior agents that are the problem. It’s the misleading tactic from the agent that we find objectionable. A vendor advocate will make sure the designated sales person will be the one who actually sells your home. Even finding out if your agent is going on holiday or is busy selling other homes can be most helpful to your campaign expectations.
7. Holding the agent to account
It’s not just about making sure the right person is selling your home. Agents differ in their diligence. Some are very professional, while others promise the world and fail to deliver. They can be slow, unresponsive or haphazard. We expect written reports, strong record keeping and prompt correspondence. We ensure agents deliver. Disorganised, unresponsive agents can cause stress for vendors. So we keep them to account and ensure you get the best possible service from your agent through each part of the process.
8. Deciding the right pricing strategy
Agents have a saying: ‘quote them low and watch them go’. This means they love to quote low prices to get as many views as possible. Then hopefully buyers will compete at auction and the price will soar above the quoted listing. Consumer property law requires agents to quote fair and reasonable pricing. This prevents underquoting to some degree.
We never want to overcook your sale price.
This means that we don’t quote too high and scare buyers off. Pricing is a very delicate strategy. Quote too low or too high, and your ideal buyer will overlook you. Buyers tend to expect the actual price to be a bit higher than the listed price. So if you quote too high, buyers can add an estimated $100,000 to the quote and they think they can’t afford it. But if you quote too low, it’s misleading and attracts buyers who aren’t in the right price range.
Vendor advocates have access to private sales data and market insights that help us determine the true value of the property. This helps us guide your price expectations and set the right pricing strategy.
9. Managing the advertising strategy
Agents make plenty of profit on your advertising spend. Of course, many elements of the advertising are worth every cent. They play a valuable part in the success of the campaign. But, many agents love to go above and beyond. They’re spending your money to advertise themselves. .
Some agents push videos that cost up to $1000 (which buyers never watch). Always consider whether the advertising is more beneficial to the agent than the homeowner. Be careful not to spend your money advertising the agent instead of the home.
We can guide the advertising budget. We know what typical marketing campaigns cost and can eliminate unnecessary expenses, leaving you with more money in your pocket. We’ll challenge agents on the marketing strategy. Let’s only agree to necessary costs that help the sale, and avoid lavish extras.
10. Navigating offers
Did you know that some agents put in fake offers? It’s all a strategy to reduce your price expectations. They want to sell your home as soon as possible. Then they move on to the next property. Many agents quote you a high price to get your listing, then start massaging down your price expectations.
They tell you they’ve had a verbal offer at a low amount.They give you a low offer that you reject.Then, during the auction, you are more likely to accept a price that’s higher than the offer you previously rejected. Little did you know it was all part of the agent strategy.
A vendor advocate can spot a fake offer a mile away. We deal directly with agents on your behalf and prevent any sneaky tactics that mislead your expectations.We’ll have a strategy in place for dealing with offers prior to, during and after the auction. This gives you more confidence when deciding whether to accept an offer or wait till auction day.
11. Getting support on auction day
You will be a bundle of nerves. You’ll be stressing about whether your home will sell, will bidders turn up, will the auctioneer do a good job and more. Making calm, strategic decisions is difficult under these circumstances. We’ll be there with you and by your side during the auction. We keep you calm and remind you of the strategy. Just having someone by your side can make the world of difference. You’ll have plenty of well-meaning people wishing you luck on auction day and giving you unwanted advice. Your vendor advocate can help you navigate this stress and leave you feeling composed and in control.
12. Planning if the property is passed in
It is not the end of the world if your home is passed in. In some cases, the auction is not the final step of the sales process. Most homes that are passed in at auction are sold a day or so afterwards. So your vendor advocate will have a tried-and-tested approach to facilitate a post-auction sale.
Vendors tend to panic when a property is passed in. Agents can take advantage of this to get you to accept a below-market offer. As we’ve said, agents want to move on to the next home and get it sold. Your vendor advocate is a steady hand to guide you. We don’t want you agreeing to anything you regret later. We give you confidence in undertaking the negotiations and help you make the best decisions to get the best outcome.
13. The cost is absorbed by the agent
The cost of a vendor fee is not yours to cover. It comes out of the agent fees. This means that you won’t be out of pocket when for the vendor agent bill — it is part of the sales negotiation and doesn’t impact your sale price.
This means that to you, the homeowner, the vendor advocate is free! Given the many benefits you get from working with an advocate, it really is a no-brainer to appoint a vendor advocate when you sell your home.
To summarise, the benefits of a vendor advocate are:
- getting an expert in your corner
- alleviating stress
- preparing your home for sale
- finding the right agent
- negotiating commission
- getting the right salesperson
- holding agents accountable
- deciding the pricing strategy
- managing the advertising strategy
- navigating offers
- getting support on auction day
- planning if the property is passed in
- it’s free (because the agent covers the cost)
If you have more questions about our vendor advocate services
Book in your free discovery call and we’d be happy to help you. Simply contact us to arrange a convenient time to chat.
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