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Chapter 1: What should I consider before selling my house?
You're about to spend thousands getting your house ready to sell. Professional staging, a photographer, maybe a lick of paint on the fence, and the whole time you're wondering, is any of this actually going to work? Or am I just bleeding money before I've even listed? It's a buyer's market, interest rates are climbing, and it can be pretty tough if you're a seller right now.
So what actually moves the needle when you're selling? And what's just expensive hope? Welcome to Ask the Experts, where each week, people from inside the money world help us make sense of what's happening right now. And in the hot seat, Vanessa Williams from realestate.co.nz. She's got the actual numbers on what's working right now, and she's going to lay it out for us.
Making Sense is partnered with realestate.co.nz to get you the info you need in today's market. realestate.co.nz Download the app today. That makes a difference for your life. Okay. Back to it. All right. In the hot seat, Vanessa Williams, realestate.co.nz. And you have exactly what's going on in the market right now. So we love it.
Got a letter that as soon as I saw it, I was like, this is Vanessa's jam. You ready for it? I am so ready. Hit me. Okay. Hi, Francis. We're about to list our house for sale, but I'm nervous. You've said a lot that it's a buyer's market and now interest rates are going up. It feels like there's a lot stacked against us.
Our agent reckons we should get professional staging and a photographer in, but it's not cheap. And I'm not sure if it's actually going to make a difference or if we're just being upsold. Is there anything we can actually do to get a better price? Do we just have to cross our fingers? What's worth it? What's just more money out the door? Thanks.
I think this really speaks to a lot of people's anxieties, right? It is so hard to know what's worth spending money on and where you can cut back. So what do you think?
As much as we and all of the lovely listeners to this podcast and our viewers out there know we should be making financial decisions with our head, unfortunately, when it comes to property, especially ones that we are going to live in, we usually buy with our heart. Mm-hmm. And so when we talk about staging, what does that actually mean?
That means that you're creating a environment that people can see themselves living in the house. Look, it kind of depends on your type of furniture and perhaps your type of buyer. So look, if your real estate agent has recommended that, I always say get two or three in. Because someone might say to you, look, professional staging, this is what it'll cost.
Another might say, well, actually, if we're targeting first-time buyers, which might have less money to spend, actually, your furniture is fine. Or if it is empty, I would certainly really think about staging and really consider that in your budget. Because As we well know, empty houses, they're just harder to visualize what your life might look like when you're in that property.
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Chapter 2: Does professional staging actually increase my property sale price?
Now, on top of that, and I know I'm going to add another cost to our lovely listeners list, but video, right? Video is so important today because, again, it allows people before they've even got to your house, it allows them to understand the layout, which part is off where, what the sort of vibe or the flow of the house is. They now typically they're going to see the photos first.
So you still need to get them to fall in love with that first photo before they'll probably click on the video. But let's make sure that A, that lead photo is looking really strong. B, you have a video. Now, I was just looking hot off the press this morning, some stats on the importance of video on a listing.
So it is almost a 200% increase in the number of engagements that happen on a listing if they have a video versus if they don't. It is a huge number. So that is people inquiring, sending an email, calling, or saving your property increases by 200% if you have a video. It's almost 150% if you have a floor plan. Because again, people want to understand where the layout is.
That is probably one of the biggest questions we get in from buyers to our website going, can you please add floor plans to all of your listings, please? Yeah, it is something that buyers really want. Now, they can range anywhere between a couple of hundred to sort of $500, depending on how many levels and kind of what technology the real estate agent has that you're working with.
But again, if you are selling, that is absolutely something you just can't bypass if you want those lovely buyers on your listings.
it's hard to have this investment up front and there's no guarantee it pays off but in terms of those those stats of how much it does increase things i mean if you can get even two more people on a listing they both want it and they bid against each other you're talking tens of thousands of dollars difference and it's all just nudging things towards that end result right tipping the odds more and more in your favor which in a market like this you do need
If you're looking for property, start with realestate.co.nz, New Zealand's longest standing property site. They've been dedicated exclusively to property since 1996. That's even before Google. Whether you're buying or renting, no other property site gives you as much information.
The Market Insights feature lets you view the median asking, sale and rental prices in a suburb for over one, three or even 10 years. Want to know what a property is worth? The estimated sale price range uses the latest sales figures from the real estate industry. Scroll to the bottom of a property listing to discover what it sold for in the past, the council valuation,
and what you can expect to pay for it even before you view it. Become the property expert. Download the realestate.co.nz app and make informed decisions fast.
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