It’s the question that divides buyers and sellers more than almost any other – should you list a price when selling?
Or should you put it out there without an advertised price?
Harcourts Adelaide Hills agent Kim Shorland prefers to advertise a price guide on all of her listings, however there were occasions where it can be beneficial in delaying the release of one.
“Realestate.com.au reports show 70 per cent of buyers will flick past a property that doesn’t have a price on it,” she says.
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“With the way the market has been tracking over the past couple of years, people often didn’t know where a property sat in the market, and they wanted some sort of guidance.
“We knew we were getting the right buyer to a property by putting a price on it. It’s about giving them every reason to come to the inspection. We’d rather have everyone that comes through knowing they are able to buy that property.
“That said, sometimes the owner wants to get some market feedback before they release a price to the public, and on those occasions I think it’s fine to maybe have the first week or two with no price just to ascertain what the market feedback is, and that’s more for the really unique properties that we don’t have many comparative sales for.”
Ms Shorland says putting too high a price on a property could harm a sale, and that the level of interest in a home can push a sale price to a point that surprises everyone.
Harcourts Adelaide Hills’ Kim Shorland. Supplied
“Personally, I like transparency and I think the biggest issue in real estate is when people don’t know what a vendor wants for a property and they feel in the dark. So being as transparent as we possibly can certainly helps people make a decision as to whether they are going to come to an open inspection or not, especially given how time poor everyone is,” Ms Shorland says.
Williams Real Estate’s John Williams, on the other hand, who specialises in Adelaide’s prestige market, says top end sellers requested no price guide be listed – a tactic Mr Williams says has worked effectively in selling some of SA’s most expensive homes.
Williams Real Estate’s John Williams says he gets better results in the prestige market by not advertising a price guide.
“Our properties are bespoke, different architecture, different sizes and are subject to moving market conditions,” he says.
“It’s hard to put a price guide on properties in the higher end of the market because how do you know what price it is if you have very few truly comparable sales, no market feedback and none of that important information on which to form an accurate price guide? Put too high a price on it and people aren’t going to come. Put too low a price on a property and you risk underselling it. Buyers have a fair idea of what they think a property’s worth and we have confidential discussions with them to arrive at the value of a property without the need to put a price guide on it.”
John and Stephanie Williams of Williams Real Estate. Picture: Brad Fleet
Mr Williams says if putting a price guide on a premium property resulted in a quick sale for the best possible price, he would do it.
“Our job is to work the property and get the highest possible price for the vendor,” he says. “There’s much more work involved in not putting a price guide on a property because of all the following up you have to do, but we’re happy to do it because we get our vendors a better price.”
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