Warm Winter Wonderland
With Scott Mackey
Spring is often touted as the best time of the year to sell a property, but in reality a house can sell in any season because there’s a lot more to the market than just the weather.
“South East Queensland, and Bundaberg particularly, has great weather all year round – it’s one of our region’s drawcards,” says Scott Mackey, Principal of RE/MAX Precision.
“Vendors here don’t have to wait until spring to sell. In fact, now is the time when interstate buyers are escaping their cold to visit us. Stock is low and people are already here looking to buy, and especially during the school holidays coming up.”
That said, if a spring sale is what works best for you – because it fits in with your relocation plans or simply because you think your home looks its best in that season, you can use winter to prepare for the right buyer.
While median times on the market are hitting record lows, in a normally functioning real estate market the average time for a listing has tended to be 90 days. June is certainly not too early to begin conversations with us and primping your property for sale.
Once you’ve decided to get the ball rolling, here are a few ideas to help you around the home:
- Accept that first impressions are important. Look at your home from a buyer’s perspective. Be objective. Be critical. All those little problems that you have learned to live with could lessen appeal and deter buyers.
- Check the condition of your property. You might consider paying for a property inspection. If there are any issues that a buyer might pick up, you can either counter these with a lower-listing price or remedy them before going to market.
- Often a good wash down of the external is all that’s needed.
- Get into the garden and plan for spring appeal.
- Give internal walls a wash with sugar soap to brighten them up, or if you have peeling paint or extremely outdated colours, a fresh coat of paint may be a good idea.
- Storage space sells, so clean out your cupboards to make them seem bigger. Declutter.
- Make kitchens and bathrooms sparkling clean. How they look may affect a buyer’s overall impressions of the house. Consider new hardware and cupboard doors if things are really outdated.
- Make time for a pest treatment after you declutter and do your early ‘spring clean’ so there’s no evidence of dead bugs by the first open.
- Make your house inviting, light, bright and cheerful. Consider the photography that will be used to market the property. What will photograph well?
Use winter to prepare for listing your property in spring. Plan for your property to stand out from its competition through a great marketing program that we can deliver for you.
Don’t wait until your property is competing with all the other listings in spring. The Bundaberg region’s market is hot right now and our team at RE/MAX Precision is waiting for your call.
