Friday, September 21, 2012 1:34 PM

You may be asking yourself why is it that some houses and apartments sell really quickly, and others languish on the market for months. Is there a magic formula? At Kellands we see this phenomenon everyday. Putting aside any issues around poor marketing, the time it takes to sell a property can be attributed to a few key factors.


Price.
If a property is priced too highly, it will often remain unsold for a number of months, and in some cases, years. While we appreciate that vendors often have a figure that either  they think their property is worth, or what they need to sell their property for, in order to move on with future plans. The reality is the price is the single most important factor to adversely affect the saleability of your home. In our experience, the longer a property remains unsold, the more likely it is that the market will ignore the listing, or as time goes on, the price is driven down, often to a lower point than what it would have achieved had it been priced correctly in the first instance. Pricing a property for the market is critical and often very difficult to establish, hence the preference for auctions and tenders, which establish the true market value of a property from marketing and competition.


X Factor.
It is very obvious to us when viewing a property, which properties have an immediate X factor. It is not necessarily about how expensive the home is, it is more likely to be how the house functions, the layout, how it flows to the outdoors, the volume of the spaces and the interior finishes. You just get a sense when you walk into the home, this is a really great house.
Location, obviously the most desirable locations are highly sought after, and homes in these locations tend to sell quickly. School zoning, water views, north facing sites, desirable street addresses and proximity to shops and restaurants are all factors contributing to desirable locations.


Architecture, style and size.
Great architecture always adds value to a home or apartment buildings, beautifully crafted character properties, classic architecture from the 30’s through to the latest stunning designs of today are always highly desirable. For families, and certainly they are the predominance in the market, the number of bedrooms is a crucial factor in their search, but these must be coupled with sufficient living areas. Often we see homes that have had bedrooms added but the living spaces are too small or there is not enough of them.
Would you like to know if your house is highly desirable or how you could increase the desirability of your home? Call us, we’d love to help.