When you last went to an open home, do you remember the agent calling you back and having a chat? Have you ever wondered why they do this? The reason is to compile a valuable document that every vendor within Bayleys receives once
a week – the vendor report.
A vendor report looks at three key ‘feedback’ areas from the market that are important. These include the following:
Features and Presentation
Listening to buyers comments (and taking some with a grain of salt) is essential as over time you become aware of what the ‘majority of people’ think about your home. Through this, you learn what they LOVE about the property, what things they would consider changing, as well as a potential price point for selling. This helps to enhance areas if required or perhaps alter the marketing to reflect feedback.
For example: We listed a property in Burwood. It was an excellent property and from the first open home and our call backs, we learnt that people were mainly looking in the area for proximity to the forest and beach. We consequently changed the marketing headlines and some of the copy before the next open home and attracted additional buyers.
One aspect of our vendor reports that our clients love is transparency. In the reports you are seeing the actual emails that buyers send us, our replies, and all our notes on the calls we make to them. You are kept informed about the comments we make about the guide price, and responses. Over time these reports give a clear picture of who your buyer is likely to be, so when we present an offer, you will know them almost as well as we do.
Price Feedback
Your property will be worth a specific price to different buyers. This will depend on how long they have been in the market, how well they know the market, but also their motivation for buying a home. When we call back open home and private viewings attendees, we often ask questions to find out what the property is worth to them financially. Some people have unrealistic expectations. If you ignore the extremes, a pattern starts to emerge on where the majority think the property’s value lies. This sits in conjunction with the appraisal we provide at listing and our local knowledge. This will help you to understand whether an offer is one to be seriously considered, can be confidently countered, or whether it’s a great offer.
For example: We ran a competition at a high-end home. Attendees filled in a form at the open home with 1) what price they think the house will sell for, 2) what they loved about it and 3) what they would change. After a month a winner was drawn and they were given a beautiful Ecoya gift set. This provided us, and the vendor, with valuable information. From this information, our vendor, who was a builder, was able to help design the next house while considering features that the market feedback saw as relevant. Interestingly, the price feedback was a perfect bellcurve graph and prices ranged from $800,000 to $1,500,000. Therefore we knew that when we got an offer in the high $1.3M range it was one to be seriously considered, and we worked with this purchaser for over one month. The deal was sealed along with some awesome terms. This price set a record for the area.
Promotional Material in Action
Our vendors really appreciate the reporting and feedback from our team. We believe that selling should be a team approach and as our vendors you become part of our ‘team’. When selling a home, you should be aware of everything that is happening. In the vendor report, you are able to see the full web statistics for each week, and access parts of the marketing campaign, including facebook posts, open home posts and website features. You are also able to see the country of origin, so if there is an overwhelming number of people looking at a property from a particular country then we know to respond.
For example: One property recently had multiple views from America. We responded with flagging a ‘virtual open home’ on realestate.co.nz. We were subsequently contacted by a potential buyer who asked for a viewing. We did this through prerecorded footage of the home, using PowerPoint and Zoom. We are still actively talking with that party about putting forward an offer. Although it meant a meeting at unusual and unsociable hours of the night, this is the level of commitment that our vendors receive.
Our standard of commitment to our vendors is:
• Our clients hear from us straight after each viewing and open home
• Regular updates on the progress of the listing. We respond to your preferred
communication style. Whether you want to meet with us or correspond via text, email or phone updates, we can make it happen.
Please: If you choose not to sell with us, please ensure your chosen agent is going to give you comprehensive reports and enquire about their follow-up process. Make sure the agent actually follows up with the buyers who visited your home. Without follow up and keeping in touch with the market, it’s a little like fumbling around in a dark room. If you would like to see a mockup of our vendor reports, please ask. We are happy to show you the level of detail that is a minimum standard for our team.
When it comes to creating an awesome first impression of your home, although appearance is important it is not the only thing that matters. According to many experts, how a property ‘smells’ can also have a powerful impact on first impressions and the buyers connection to a home.
If you get the chance to walk into a five star hotel you will notice there will be a signature fragrance that greets you. As a traveller this has a calming and relaxing effect and helps to set the tone for the hotel and experience ahead. Scent triggers you emotionally and studies have shown that it can have an effect on mood, emotions and also help memory recall in the future.
When your home is on the market it’s important that it smells fresh and inviting, greeting viewers with a pleasant fragrance upon entry.
So what can you do to make your home smell inviting that is one step beyond clean?
Use your good scents
Invest in good quality candles or a diffuser to give a room ambiance. This will help potential buyers relax and connect with the space. We often gift our vendors a quality Ecoya candle, so they can light it prior to viewings.
Before a viewing or open home avoid cooking food that will leave an odour. PS: We do not expect you to bake bread before each open home or a pre-qualified viewing!
Don’t overwhelm the senses
Although a subtle smell is pleasant upon entry, care must be taken to ensure it’s not overly strong or overwhelming. Buyers could become suspicious the scent has been used to hide something. It could also make them feel ill or set off allergies!
Candles are not the only way to introduce subtle scent into your home.
Citrus - this helps reinforce that your home is clean, it is a good scent to use in the bathrooms and powder rooms. Clean these areas with subtle scented products prior to an open home or invest in a good quality room spray to spritz.
Pine and Cedar - these help a home feel fresh and clean. Incorporate a pine frond into a flower arrangement to give a fresh smell to the room.
Fresh Herbs - place a potted basil, mint or lemongrass plant in your kitchen or on the windowsill. These can be brought from the supermarket and kept alive for days if required.
Fresh Flowers - although a great way to introduce scent to a room, be careful with polarising flowers like lilies. Some people are highly allergic to the smell and pollen. You don’t want a buyer’s lasting impression to be the discomfort of streaming eyes and sneezing.
Top Hint: Keep diffuser jars handy after you have used up the oil inside, remove any labels and use them as mini vases in places like the bathroom. Pop in a cute flower or two from the garden to freshen up the room.
It’s common to stage a home with new furniture but consider also making this
effort with the garden too, ensuring that everything is looking just right from the
outside as well.
We are all aware of the benefits of staging the inside of a home, it makes it look appealing and full of promise. Apply the same thinking when readying your garden and help enhance the street appeal and outdoor living of the property.
Take the deep clean, declutter philosophy to your garden. Bring out the mower, weed wacker and hedge trimmer and give everything a good going over. The aim is to create the image of a relaxing oasis, not a time intensive overgrown burden. Garden staging does not need to be expensive, work with what you have and enhance it with some of the cheap and cheerful options below.
Here are a few ideas on how you could stage your garden:
Replace any dead plants in the garden and give plants that look a little scruffy a good trim.
Mark any special or unique seasonal plants with markers to show buyers the promise of what will pop up. For example, if you have peonies, daffodils, or irises in the garden mark where they are. Apart from safe guarding their future so they don’t get dug up (buyers can’t see what’s under the ground) but will love seeing the potential.
Consider placing pots of colour in areas that need brightening. Pick plants that have big colourful displays, place these pots in groups of three or five and stick to one colour scheme to give a nice elegant look.
Apply new mulch to the garden, not the coloured wood chips but consider locally sourced pea-straw, cocoa-mulch or mushroom compost.
If you have a botanical garden, then consider making a hand drawn map of your garden and leave some tips for the new owner. Often a new garden is daunting for a new home owner and this is a nice touch to leave with a property. Furthermore, this is also a good tool for agents to use when reassuring potential purchasers that the upkeep is not labour intensive.
If you have a vegetable garden then consider making that area look pretty and productive. If you are selling in the winter then ensure it is mulched and tidy. Consider placing a pot or sculpture as a feature.
If you are selling in the spring or summer, place new vegetable plants in the beds, label them and give the new owners a crop to look forward to.
Keep lawns and hedges well maintained while on the market, with regular mowing and trimming.
Just like you decluttered the inside of your home, declutter your outdoor space. Pick up toys, tools or gardening equipment and put them away in the shed.
While you are in the shed, have a tidy there too. Stack things neatly and make it look big, inviting and organised. Just like you did with the linen cupboards inside.
Here are some ways to add street appeal and stand out from surrounding houses:
If your letterbox numbers are looking scruffy look to replace them. Invest in a new doormat to provide a nice entrance.
Take the time to enhance your front door. Give it a wash and add interest with plants. Flaxes and grasses always look good in pots and don’t need a lot of attention.
Consider an established topiary plant or talk to us about ideas on how we can add appeal to the entrance to your home.
Clean and stage your outdoor furniture with cushions. Consider a pot of seasonal colour as a feature. Even if you do not have a large outdoor space, a well placed
outdoor table and chair in an area of morning sun could be just the ‘morning coffee spot’ a purchaser is seeking.
Tidy up fences, replace broken or missing palings, remove moss and give the fence a paint if required. Fix gates that squeak, stick or catch. A front door or gate
needs to open easily and scream “Welcome! CHOOSE ME”.
Give your BBQ a thorough clean and place it in an inviting spot in the garden. Let people imagine the possibilities for entertaining. If the cover or tools are looking torn and scruffy consider replacements - you want buyers to imagine having friends over!
It may seem like a lot of work, but New Zealanders love outdoor spaces and doing this extra garden staging could mean your home has that extra ‘edge’ over another one that they are considering.
If you need ideas on what you can do to enhance your outdoor space, we would love to help. Similarly if you want the details of professionals who can help then we have all of these contacts available.
Important Note: Gardening is not for everyone and not everyone has the time or energy for it. If you are not going to enjoy preparing and staging your garden then consider hiring a professional for the job. They are experienced with this kind of work and are likely to have the tools and know-how to be more cost and time effective than you. Remember it’s often the small details in this part of getting the home ready that can have the biggest impact.
Hot Tip: The human eye loves seeing order, patterns and pathways and is naturally attracted to bold block colours. Look around your garden and see how you can create a symmetrical care-free oasis in your backyard.