7. Consider deadline sales
Deadline says are a mixture between an auction and a private treaty. Using this tactic, the real estate agent will deliberately not place a price on the property, and allow buyers to stew over the asking price during the open inspections.
As part of the advertising campaign for the property, there will be a deadline date set, where buyers must have their best offer submitted by this date, or they miss out on a chance to bid for the property.
On the day of the deadline sale, the agent will then reveal the offers to the vendor and the highest offer is usually accepted.
Lee O’Keefe from Bayside Residential Real Estate says that if there is an acceptable offer made before the deadline, a new deadline will be set, giving all other interested parties just 24 hours to put in their best offer, and the best one will win.
If no body makes an acceptable offer by deadline, we can either put the property back on the market with a price on it, or begin counter offers with the current bidders,” O’Keefe explains.
O’Keefe says a deadline sale is a great approach during a slow market where the property would not generally attract a large amount of attention from buyers.
“For instance, if there was a property which didn’t have a great deal of street appeal, we would sell it via a deadline sale, because if we had placed a price on it and run the campaign as a normal private treaty, there is a very good chance we won’t get much interest,” he says.
“If we keep the price off it and show the interior photos, the price range appears more flexible for buyers. From here it just comes down to what the buyers feel they want to pay for the property.”
O’Keefe says that this is a good tactic in the current climate where some areas are very price sensitive.
“We need to compete with the competition, because properties prices have dropped quite a bit. But more so, I find that buyers get too wound up on price, and sometimes they will spend 5% more than they wanted to if the right property comes up. So this tactic allows me to show buyers the property first and then accept offers from there,” Lee explains.