The PROPERTY DOCTORS, Sydney Australia Novak Properties

EP. 1373 Heartbroken after a failed sale? Here’s what to do next.

• Mark Novak, Lisa Novak • Season 29 • Episode 1273

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What happens when your property doesn't sell as you expected? Join us to uncover strategic insights for navigating the emotional ups and downs of the real estate market. In this episode, we promise you'll gain the knowledge to transform setbacks into opportunities with the guidance of a seasoned real estate agent. We unravel real-life scenarios where expectations clash with market realities, and how listening to market feedback can be your secret weapon. Discover how buyers “vote with their money” and why timing, paired with flexibility, is crucial in sealing the deal. This isn't just about selling properties; it's about mastering the art of the sale in a world where the three P's—price, product, and promotion—reign supreme.

Explore the intricacies of today's real estate landscape, where unrealistic price expectations can derail a sale even before it starts. We tackle the often-ignored importance of transparency and realistic pricing in overcoming auction failures and discuss how unique property features like location influence market appeal and pricing strategy. Learn why waiting for the market to shift in your favor might not be the best way forward and how understanding auction outcomes can illuminate your path. This episode is brimming with actionable strategies and insights designed for sellers eager to thrive in a competitive market environment. Whether you're a seasoned seller or a newcomer, these pearls of wisdom will equip you to succeed where others falter.

Speaker 1:

Oh my goodness, the house did not sell. This is an emotional roller coaster, guys. We're going to talk to you about what happens if your property didn't sell. What are the strategies that you can use to get you sold?

Speaker 2:

so it happens, lease it happens. I was talking to a client the other day. She said I don't understand how you've got the stomach for this. This is so stressful, so difficult. There were buyers. I hear the same from sellers. Part of an agent's work is just a strong like not just strategy, but a good gut like a strong gut for when it gets tough.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, definitely. We've got some of our, our really really good friends selling at the moment, um, and it's been an emotional roller coaster that we've been trying to coach them through and um, you know, and they, I must say, every single day that we speak, they're like how do you do this all day, every day, and it's not just with one property, it's with it's with multiple properties, and so you know, this is really what divides, though, the boys from the men guys an agent that is going to have the strategy for you if the property sells quickly, if the property doesn't sell at auction, if the property has been on the market for too long. You know, like this is where you really really do require the experience of a great agent that is going to come to you and say don't worry, it's going to be okay, I have a plan for you.

Speaker 2:

Yep, and then if that plan doesn't work what's the next plan If that plan doesn't work? What's the plan behind that plan? So it's just a total, all-round solution to getting a sale. So I love that saying operation was a success but patient died on the table. This is where the operation has to be a success and the patient lives on the table and sometimes it's operation after operation after operation, open-heart surgery on a property sale.

Speaker 1:

But also, mark, I think it's important to understand. You know, when things go wrong on a campaign or when things go wrong and Avendor doesn't get the sort of money that they were hoping to achieve, that you know. We're not standing in the way of great money for Avendor. We are here to report to Avendor and we are here to get the most amount of money out of the market for Avendor. But I think you know what we are not are magicians. We're not magicians.

Speaker 1:

If you were looking for $5 million on your property but the market was telling us otherwise, like you know, in all honesty, avendor does have two options if the money isn't where it needs to be for the vendor, and the two options are meet the market or hold your property and wait for the market to come up. You know they are the two options. But let's just talk about a scenario. I'm going to pick out a real-life scenario at the moment. A great campaign on a property, beautiful property, great campaign on a property. Lots and lots of buyers have come through the property. It's been extremely active. I often find that real estate agents speak in a language that no one else understands except the real estate industry. So a real estate agent reports to the vendor and goes ah, okay, so we had. You know, we had 10 groups come through the property today.

Speaker 2:

What do groups mean?

Speaker 1:

What does that mean? And a vendor's going well, hang on, sorry, is that good or bad? I'm always reporting to my vendors and saying this is what the other open homes look like today throughout the office. So at least they've got a bit of a gauge. Was that good, yeah? Was that bad yeah?

Speaker 2:

Yep.

Speaker 1:

Right. So activity on this property we're talking about a property that is currently on the market, so activity has been great. Buyer numbers have been really great. There has been definitely buyer feedback with respect to where the buyers feel the property sits in the market, but there's been a disparity of about a million dollars between where the market feedback is coming in right and what is market feedback. Market feedback is the feedback that the buyers are giving to us when they're walking through the property, whether they want to buy the property or not. You know you've got buyers that have got their list of 10 properties on a Saturday and they're going in and out of all the we're not. They are, they're going in and out of all of the properties and they're saying, well, compared to these other properties, this is where I feel this property sits in the market. That's the market feedback.

Speaker 1:

So there's been a disparity of a million dollars Mark between where the vendor wants the money, where the vendor sees value in their property, what they think it's worth and what the market feels it's worth. We'll come back to it. What have you got? What was your thing?

Speaker 2:

and people understand analogies really well and I always say people are voting with their money. They can vote with their money to do whatever they like when it comes to buying a property. They will vote with their money to do whatever they like. When it comes to buying a property. They will vote with their money. So you've got to listen to the votes. You may not like the vote count, but that's people voting with their money. And I also liken the analogy to fishing and it's it's.

Speaker 2:

Finding buyers out there is like fishing and know when you have a net out in the water, if you throw the net in the water and pull it back in within five seconds, probably not a good fish, but if you leave that net in the water for days and days and days, the big fish comes, goes inside the net, then swims back out before you pull it in. There's an optimal time to pull in that net to catch the big fish. We call it an auction period of maybe three or four, three weeks, say. But you know at least something that I think probably the biggest strategy we can give sellers today, which is an absolute gold in our industry, is the three Ps. Can you explain that?

Speaker 1:

Yeah. So that's and I want to just get back to the case study that I'm talking about as well, mark but the three Ps are the price, the product and the promotion. So when things aren't moving along as we would like, that's the Bible and we go okay, what's going on? Is it the price? What is the market telling us that that property is worse? What is the market telling us? We're taking that collectively, that feedback, and we're reporting that to the vendor, right. So the price, what is the product? What does the property look like and is there anything that we can change? So you know, sometimes buyers are walking in and they're going I don't like the main road, okay, well, well, there's nothing we can do to change that. Um, and actually that's that's a great conversation.

Speaker 1:

For another segment, mark buying properties and main road locations. I'm a big fan of it. Um, but you know, the promotion of buyers walking and going it feels dark. Can we change lighting? I've just done that in a property and it's made the world of difference and it's stopped all of that feedback. So the actual product itself. And then there's the promotion, the marketing. So having a good look at those photos, making sure that the marketing's doing what it should, and that is generating inquiries and getting people through the door. Yeah, right, so the three p's price product promotion. But, mark, I just want to go back. I want to finish this case study. Right, so all the buyers came through the property. We've been receiving consistent market feedback on price.

Speaker 1:

The vendor's going. That's great, though, but I want X. Right, they're looking for a million dollars more. They're looking for a million dollars more. They're going, but that property over there sold for this. That property there sold for this. I'm definitely worth that and we're going. That's great, but this is what the market is telling us. That you're worse, right? The property goes to auction, the reserve price is set, the buyers turn up and they're bidding. The property does not sell, it doesn't meet reserve, it does not meet the vendor's expectations. Now what?

Speaker 2:

Price product promotion. Price product promotion. Price product promotion.

Speaker 1:

That's right, so you know. And here's the thing. So a vendor that says, well, I'll just wait, I'll just wait Now, let's just look at this Fair enough. And you can, because the options are you can meet the market or you can hold your property. So you have absolutely every right to hold your property, every right to hold your property and hold it until when, because we never know when the market's going up. So you have a look at the moment at what the real estate market's doing and you go, okay, we're looking at, definitely those interest rates are going to come down, right, but that first 0.25 of whatever it's going to be, of interest rates coming down, does that mean the market instantly is going up?

Speaker 2:

well, I think it's factored into the market already, but that's another topic. Like I think, people are already paying more because they know interest rates are going to come down or?

Speaker 1:

or are you waiting post the, or you're waiting post the election.

Speaker 1:

Like there's always something going on, guys, you know in the world that that you know where a vendor says I'll wait and a buyer says I wait. There's always something going on in the world. But the reality is this If you can sell your property for where the market's at the highest price that we negotiated for you because this is an auction right, we're not talking about private treaty. At the moment, this is this auction scenario where all the best buyers in the marketplace were brought to the auction ring Yep, and they all voted with their money yep, that was it. So, wait, wait. You know what are you waiting for? You're waiting for the. The buy numbers were phenomenal, so are we waiting now for the unicorn to come flying through the door? Um, you know, the other thing is at the moment, it's a very.

Speaker 2:

Are you saying just reduce the price and sell it. If you don't, if you, if you're heartbroken after a failed sale which is what today's topic is what do you do next? You just reduce the price and sell it.

Speaker 1:

No, you don't reduce the price Mark. It's not about that. The market spoke. The market spoke right, and that's where and and and that's where it ended up now. But reduce it from what? From the vendor's expectation. So that's what the vendor wanted. But this is what the market said, guys. That's why we advertised it, that's why we took it out to the database, that's why it went on to our social media. This particular property was all over realestatecom and domain. So the people voted that the campaign did what it was set to do, right, and that was to generate inquiry, negotiate the highest possible price out of the market and, as I said, if that doesn't work, because you were expecting more right and in this situation the vendor purchased already and got a good price on the property that they bought yep, yep, yep right, it's a very even playing field out in the real estate market at the moment it's a very

Speaker 1:

very even playing field. And here's the thing, mark post and I'm not talking about private treaty at the moment, guys, I'm just talking about this particular auction campaign um, that the market starts to say this you've really got about a one-week buffer there after an auction to pull the deal together. And then the market generally says one of two things oh, something's wrong with that property or it's overpriced, because it starts to look like old bread on a shelf after a while. The buyers then want the shining new toys that are coming onto the market. Right, I'm talking very, very realistically, guys.

Speaker 1:

That is the cold hard truth, candidly, yeah, that that, honestly, is the cold hard truth. So you know, let, let, let. Again they the options. You look at the price, you look at the product, you look at the promotion, and a great agent is going to be very transparent with where they are hearing and seeing that market feedback. That's it. And so if there's a problem with the actual product itself ie it's on a main road or ie it's next to a school, some buyers love that, some buyers don't these things are going to have an effect on the price. You need to hear what the market has to say about that. That's the truth, they're the buyers, they're the market. What else have you got to say, mark?

Speaker 2:

no, nothing much.

Speaker 1:

Um um, yeah, that's pretty good lise what else have we got to say on that topic?

Speaker 2:

not much. No, I think you've pretty much covered everything really well, exceptionally well.

Speaker 1:

Um, you know, there's a lot of passion there, a lot of passion, but you know, as I said, guys, that that is literally the cold hard truth about it. Um, you know, a vendor always wants the most amount of money and a buyer always wants to pay the least. Our job is to negotiate the most amount of money out of that market for you, but again, I can't reiterate what we are not are magicians. And so you know, at the end of the day, the vendor has those two choices. Sometimes it's the opposite, mark. Sometimes we get one by one.

Speaker 2:

Sometimes you cannot read the label on the bottle from inside of the bottle, like sometimes it's hard to apply common sense to your own property. It's like you're so involved.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's exactly right. Well, I mean, you know.

Speaker 2:

I get that as well. I get that as well.

Speaker 1:

There is an enormous. I had that conversation yesterday with a vendor, like you know. I think you know people think that as real estate agents, we have no emotion, we don't care. You know, it's just about the commission. That couldn't be further from the truth. Like you know, I literally think about my campaigns all day, every day. Where's this one at? What are we going to do? You know, where's this one at? What are we going to do? You know people's situations. Oh my goodness, like we so recognise that there is an enormous amount of emotion there. We so recognise it. You know, and that's why you've got to be extremely mindful when you're delivering this news to people, because there is an enormous amount of emotion involved. We understand that. You know I I get emotional about this stuff, clearly, but, um, you know, as I said very clearly, very clearly but at the end of the day, you know that the market does dictate the price.

Speaker 1:

That is the bottom, bottom, bottom line. And into that equation, guys, it's important, if you're selling, that you need to have a good hard think about what the next step is when you sell your property, because if you're going off to buy another property, the best time to do that is now, when the market is extremely even. It's an extremely balanced market at the moment. Everyone wants to be a seller when the market is roaring hot, but no one wants to be a buyer.

Speaker 2:

Ain't that the truth? Bottle that one up and give it out. That's the truth. Ain't that the truth?

Speaker 1:

So bottom line.

Speaker 2:

In summary, after today, heartbroken after a failed sale, here's what to do next. You've got some great sets and passionate, so passionate strategy that you've offered, today at least, to everyone. But the bottom, bottom line is it's get the price right, get the promotion right, get the product right and keep hitting those things full circle if you're not sold absolutely and, as I said, great agent.

Speaker 1:

If you have had a property deal that fell over or an auction that didn't sell, a great agent is going to come, they're going to hold your hand, they're going to say it's going to be okay.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

Leave it with me. I have another strategy. I'm going to get you sold. That's what a great agent's going to do. Guys, if you need advice on this, please feel free to reach out. As I said, we've got a friend at the moment that we're helping through this stuff not in an area that we look after but we're here to help. If you need advice, reach out.

Speaker 2:

Lisa's really good. Even though this is probably one of my best friends, he still doesn't call me. He calls Lisa.

Speaker 1:

Maybe it's that passion and compassion. Mark, thanks for having me on this morning. I had to step in quickly you're a dynamo lease.

Speaker 2:

Thank you very much for coming on today and um have a great day.

Speaker 1:

I know much that. Can you quickly? Can you quickly come on and do morning minutes? I was like awesome, I've got no makeup and the hair's not done, so I just whacked a cap on Enough, we went and put a bit of liquid on. Guys, have a great day All right guys have a great day.

Speaker 2:

Thanks, ladies, cheers everyone. Bye, my pleasure, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye.