having trouble selling block of land

Hi vyaw2003,

I know advertising’s not allowed on the site but it would probably help if you passed on a few more details.

Details like location, size ect may help provide more relevant answers.

You could maybe look at advertising across different states depending on it’s appeal. There’s loads of free/cheap ‘sell it yourself’ real estate sites now. And the nations alot smaller than it once was.

Maybe even post details in your local shopping centre ect. on the notices board. There’s so much exposure you can get free these days before having to pay.

But if you prepared to pay maybe a simple add in the local paper or community papers? Add a story to it, i.e. ”you can’t sell it after a year” and speak to someone in advertising about getting a free editiorial with the add. Sure they would publish a little article if you use your community paper as they could do a little ‘proprty market snapshot ‘with it

All the best

P.S if it’s anywhere down south in WA let me know and I’d be happy to look at. [biggrin]

Ummmm….. just north of Brisbane ??? anywhere along the Sunshine Coast ?
And how much is the asking price.

Also, have you had ANY response of feedback from both your own adverts as well as from the listing agents?

ie… feedback is usually in the form of objections. If you can over come these objections then there is no reason why it doesn’t sell.

If you can get to the heart of the reason why it is not selling, and overcome that, then it WILL sell…

A few more clues might help !

kp

Sorry, that was a joke.

Are there many other blocks for sale int he same area? Maybe you could offer the agents an incentive, eg. double their commission if they sell it for a certain price.

You could also Put the price up a bit and then offer to pay the purchaser’s stamp duty or offer to lend the deposit etc.

Terryw
Discover Home Loans
Parramatta
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Hi vyaw2003,
Without being insulting and stating the obvious;
First, get rid of the non-performing agents and select one who shows a bit of interest. Normally when a property is listed with multiple agents the agents are only half interested as they usually have to split commission with the other agents.
Second, if the property has been on the market for a while, they treat it as a ‘stale’ listing and move on to something more promising. Or, they are probably using your block to sell off. eg; “look at this block (yours) for $X, we have another up the road for less; it’s great value compared to this one (yours).”
Third, the prospective buyers do trawl the agents’ windows and will see your listings all over town. They will take this as a signal that you are a bit desperate to sell and will try and low-ball you to death.
Fourth, get the block valued (if you haven’t already done so) by a registered valuer (your bank may give you their list of valuers). Or you can do a google search to find one in your area, or even the phone book. Whatever he/she says will be fairly accurate, and usually a bit conservative.
Then advertise the block for a little less than the valuer’s figure. You can even ditch the agent if the price is cheap as everyone loves a bargain. At this point the agent will not have to do any work to sell it, so you would be paying him for nothing.
You should sell it in about one day, unless you are holding out for top dollar, or the block is a shocker?
Lastly; why are you selling it? If you need the money for other investing, then you are costing yourself opportunities that may make you a lot more money in the long term than a small price reduction will cost in the short term. Every day you keep the block to hold out for a few more grand you are paying interest (I assume) on a loan so it’s a false economy to hold on. Even worse; the interest (and all outgoings) is not tax deductible as the block does not produce income, but your capital gain (if you make one when you sell) is taxable! That’s a double loss.
Lastly, if you do sell at a loss; that is unfortunate, but you can offset the loss against a future gain.
Cheers,
Marc

It appears that you are taking a passive role in the whole process.
Its important for you to get active and be proactive. After all, its your property.. You need to take charge of whats going on.

If you signed a sales agreement with the agent/s it will have a date or timeframe for the listing.
If its open ended, then it will also have a clause detailing how you cancel the listing. It may say that you have to put it in writing to terminate the agreement.
If thats the case, get off your butt and put it in writing and get things moving…a whole year and no result and you’ve also done nothing ????? unbelievable !!

You need to make some decisions if you want some action.

Start with the agent or agents. You need to ‘interview’ them. A good agent will be happy to substantiate their performance with results and sales evidence. A poor one will always be defensive if ‘interviewed’ or questioned.
Not saying you need to be aggressive or rude. It can all be done politely, but you have to take charge of the process.

As mentioned earlier, there must be a reason its not selling. FInd out that reason. Ask the agent questions. Their reply will be in the form of ‘objections’. Work out if these are genuine or just excuses.

If the agent has been active, then they will also have some feedback from any potential buyers. The reason none of them has bought it is because they had ‘objections’. You need to find out what these are, overcome them, and then it will sell.

So first, start with the listing with the agents, and get that cleaned up. get rid of all the dead wood, and only work with the best one.

Get it appraised or valued and make sure its on the market at a realistic price.
Buyers are negotiable around price or terms but not usually both. So as an alternative, you can consider offering some terms to make it easier for a buyer to sign on the dotted line.

Anyway, the location sounds OK. So why not have a bit of practice here??
Provide some details of the property including price, land area, zoning, location, etc. and try convince me why I should buy it.

Paint a picture of its virtues, and include any bad points as well.

I’m up that way around the 23 Nov. you never know what can come of it.

kp