Residz Team 5 min read
A major fear for home sellers is that their home will sell at a low price or remain unsold. So, there’s much anxiety for property sellers in Sydney and Melbourne as experts declare home buyers are now “in the driver’s seat.” With data showing homes take longer to sell and at bigger discounts, home sellers must be realistic about the competition they face. If you plan to sell your home, it’s time to consider all the factors that buyers use to compare your home with other properties on the market.
What buyers are looking for
It’s hard to imagine now, but at the height of the property boom buyers were getting anxious about bidding wars, homes were rising in value by tens of thousands of dollars a quarter, and I wrote a list of 20 wild facts about the property market. That frenzy is over in the major capital cities, and leisurely buyers are now calmly viewing properties with a more critical eye and a picky wish list. They’ve heard friends’ stories of buyer’s remorse, and they want to avoid it at all costs. Here are some of the things they’re looking at when they compare your home with other properties.
How does your area’s lifestyle compare?
‘Lifestyle’ is a word that came to describe the change in mindset of householders during the pandemic. As remote work took hold, real estate agents offering homes with a great ‘lifestyle’ literally became hot property!
Our recent article shared a U.S. survey which found 87% of house buyers look for a location that aligns with their lifestyle, such as:
Australians have shown similar preferences with lifestyle properties luring city workers away from the major capitals.
Action points:
Most attractive attributes
You think it’s the white kitchen and the polished floorboards, but there are more subtle features in properties for sale that sway or put off buyers. A fascinating NSW Planning and Environment survey unveiled the home features its citizens deemed most important to them, and they are gold for sellers keen to differentiate their property in a buyers’ market.
The items rated highest in importance were:
Action points:
Street appeal
Everyone wants to be respected and admired. Studies show humans vigilantly monitor the status dynamics in their social environment, strive to appear socially valuable, and prefer and select social environments that offer them higher status. (Anderson, Hildreth, Howland, 2015)
The street appeal of your home is the most important aspect of your property, as buyers will subconsciously weigh up if buying your home will lift or lower their status within their community.
Action points:
Safety - Crime rate
Neighbourhood safety is a major consideration for buyers, especially those with kids. When comparing properties for sale, home buyers will place the safety of their family above many other factors. In many cases they will use ‘gut feel’, visual assessment of the neighbourhood, and local anecdotes to judge the relative safety of your area. However there is a way you can make safety a selling feature for your home.
Action points:
Energy efficiency
Nobody wants to be stuck with big power bills when they’ve just bought an expensive new house. As power prices surge, the energy efficiency of your home is bound to be compared to others on the market.
Solar panels and batteries are big winners, but even small things like LED light bulbs and energy efficient built-in appliances can be used to build up a favourable comparison picture of your home’s running costs.
Action points:
Insurability
Australia is becoming an “uninsurable nation” due to climate change, according to the Climate Council.
“Across Australia approximately 520,940 properties, or one in every 25, will be ‘high risk’, having annual damage costs from extreme weather and climate change that make them effectively uninsurable by 2030.” - 2022 Climate Council report
The insurability of your property will increasingly become a key selling point for buyers in certain regions.
Aspects that are or could be of interest to insurers are your property’s potential risk of bushfire, flood risk, contamination risk, and subsidence risk. Both buyers and sellers should seek out this information.
Action points:
Internet speeds
Since the pandemic first hit, many homes have essentially become home offices. As well as having an impact on family dynamics, it’s highlighted the need for fast internet. The 5G network is being rolled out across Australia, and remote and hybrid workers will be keen to take advantage of this highly-anticipated fast speed technology. Buyers who are reliant on the internet in their home will view your home favourably if it can offer top-drawer internet connections.
Action points:
Luxury features
Finally, we come to the items on the wish lists of buyers. While most of us can never afford the lifestyles of the rich and famous, choosey buyers will be pleased if they see some of those lifestyle choices in your home for sale.
What rich people want in their homes was used by Luxury Portfolio International (LPI) to render their first-ever model “Luxury Home of Today.” By using survey answers from individuals in the top 1% to 5% income bracket across 20 countries, LP created the ideal home of the rich.
Items included:
Summary
Comparing your home to others on the market is best done with the help of a professional real estate agent. They can help you play up the features that are most important to buyers, and downplay items that situate your home lower down the ‘property ladder of buyer appeal’. Listen to any constructive or honest feedback from friends, estate agents, and potential buyers. In a buyers’ market you have to be humble and open to suggestions. Good luck!
Photo by Francesca Tosolini on Unsplash