Selling Property

Using property listings data from online portals to value your property

With the popularity of several property portals that list a huge inventory of property listings, we get many clients who ask us the same questions.

Property owners ask – “I see from …. (website) that other units are asking for …. (price), how come you are telling me I should only list for this ….. (price).”

Buyers and tenants say the same thing, but just in reverse, wanting the price to be lowered.

We understand … everyone wants to get the best deal.

Highest price for sellers and landlords and lowest price for buyers and tenants. We handle clients from both sides (not for the same deal of course) and we see the rationale from both parties.

Using data (especially asking prices) from online portals to determine your asking price is … well, yes, recommended but it’s good to also realise real estate is a heterogenous product.

The facing, height, interior condition, etc could all be very different. Using such data as a “rough gauge” is okay, but the input from your agents and potentials are even more important than the data. Their response and feedback is “real” and “qualified”.

Quite simply, it all boils down to what the market is willing to pay for the property. If all the owners in the same development are asking for, say around S$5,000 per month rent and nobody’s getting their property rented out, pretty obvious the market’s currently not willing to pay this amount. Reason? There’s probably another project nearby that’s more attractive.

It’s a bidding game and winner takes all and if the property owner decides on a price that’s higher than what the market is willing to pay for, then congratulations, you just won the bid and you get to keep the property for yourself.

A better way to determine prices is perhaps through these few methods

1. Request transacted price data from your agent
2. Compare with asking prices (know the strengths and weaknesses of other units)
3. Understand how the market is currently trending
4. Determine a price that’s attractive and reasonable

If the property IS the best in the development (at this point in time), the offers that come in will naturally be higher. You don’t even need to ask for it.

Even if others may transact at a higher price later, the keyword to note is “later” and there’s really no telling how the market will move or what new rules will appear all of a sudden to push prices up or down.

Getting offers is most important, thereafter you get to pick and choose, see whether the price is acceptable.

If a property is priced too high, then less interest = less/no offers = weak platform for negotiation.

And whilst referring to the “highest asking price” seen in the property portal, wouldn’t you wonder …. why it’s still listed for sale (or for rent)?

LOTS OF SHOWINGS BUT NO OFFERS

(pictorial guide) why you are having a hard time selling / renting out your property

(survey) 88 percent of buyers use the internet to find their home

A recently published data by National Association of Realtors® (NAR) in the US reported that to find their home,

• 88 percent use the internet,
• 87 percent use real estate agents,
• 55 percent yard signs,
• 45 percent attend open houses and
• 30 percent review print and newspaper ads.

And when buyers were asked where they first learned about the home they purchased,

• 40 percent said the internet,
• 35 percent from a real estate agent,
• 11 percent from a yard sign or open house,
• 6 percent from a friend or neighbour or relative,
• 2 percent from  print or newspaper and
• less than 1 percent from book or magazine.

91 percent of home buyers who used the internet to search for a home purchased through a real estate agent, as did 70 percent of non-internet users.

Home buyers thought the most important services that agents provided are helping find the right property and negotiating price and terms.

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Thinking of selling or renting your Singapore property? Engage a professional salesperson.

How To Respond To A Low Offer On Your Home

All The Best,

Herb Johnson

859-372-8019 Direct Line

Herb@HerbJohnson.com Email

www.HerbJohnson.com Website

Buyers and Sellers wanted. Referrals Appreciated!

4895 Houston Road

Florence, Kentucky  41042

2011 private residential property price increased 5.9%

Price

Prices of private residential properties increased by 0.2% in 4th Quarter 2011, lower than the 1.3% increase in the previous quarter and is the smallest increase since 3rd Quarter 2009.

Prices of non-landed properties in Core Central Region (CCR) increased 0.5% in 4th Quarter 2011, compared with the 0.7% increase in the previous quarter.

For Rest of Central Region2 (RCR) and Outside Central Region (OCR), prices increased by 0.1% and 0.6% respectively in 4th Quarter 2011, lower than the corresponding increases of 1.2% and 2.1% in the previous quarter.

Supply

At end of 4th Quarter 2011, there was a total supply of 77,089 uncompleted private residential units from projects in the pipeline , higher than the 76,255 units in 3rd Quarter 2011

Out of supply in the pipeline, 39,184 units remained unsold as at 4th Quarter 2011. The unsold units comprised 10,741 units in CCR, 8,350 units in RCR and 20,093 units in OCR

Sub-sales

Sub-sales accounted for 8.0% of all sale transactions in 4th Quarter 2011, higher than the 7.5% recorded in 3rd Quarter 2011.

- Press release from URA

Need to sell quickly in a slow market?

Thinking of liquidating your property investment quickly?

Let us know. We will get you ready and qualified buyers.

Our company charges commission of between 1% (exclusive listing) to 2% (non-exclusive listing) for Sale of Properties in Singapore.

Send in your property details here today

Another Cooling Measure – Additional Buyer’s Stamp Duty for a stable and sustainable property market

Press release on 7 December 2011

Additional Buyer’s Stamp Duty for a stable and sustainable property market

The Government announced today an Additional Buyer’s Stamp Duty (ABSD) to be imposed on certain categories of residential property purchases. The ABSD will be imposed over and above the current Buyer’s Stamp Duty, and will apply to the purchase price or market value of the property (whichever is higher) for the following purchases:

1. Foreigners and non-individuals (corporate entities) buying any residential property will pay an ABSD of 10%;
2. Permanent Residents (PRs) owning one and buying the second and subsequent residential property will pay an ABSD of 3%; and
3. Singapore Citizens (Singaporeans) owning two and buying the third and subsequent residential property will pay an ABSD of 3%.

The ABSD will take effect on 8 Dec 2011. Remission of ABSD will be given for options granted on or before 7 Dec 2011 and exercised within 3 weeks (i.e. on or before 28 Dec 2011) or the option validity period, whichever is the earlier.

The ABSD will apply in addition to the existing Buyer’s Stamp Duty on property purchases, which are applied at following rates: 1% on first $180,000 of purchase consideration or market value of the property (whichever is higher), 2% on the next $180,000 and 3% for the remainder.

- read the complete article at http://www.ura.gov.sg/pr/text/2011/pr11-162.html

- let us know what you think of the latest measure at http://www.facebook.com/singaporerealestateinfo

What to do if the market is slow?

Recently, the sales and rental market has been getting slower. We as agents on the ground (the foot soldiers) feel it first hand.

The number of enquiry calls have been dropping and cobroke agents have also painted a similar picture, and we also receive more email newsletters from cobroke agents advertising their properties for sale and rental (it could mean they have more time on hand to do marketing).

Now, as a property owner, you have already left your property in the good hands of an agent, but when the market’s getting quiet, what can you do to ensure your property stays ahead of the competition and receives an offer quickly.

- Entice more agents to bring clients to you –

One method to attract more clients to your property is obviously through higher commissions. Most property owners will only pay the market rate commission. If you are willing to reward your agent and cobroke agent (make sure your agent advertises this fact to cobroke agents), there will naturally be more clients being brought to view your property. Will the higher commission make economical sense? That’s really up to each person’s perspective and situation.

One thing that property owners need to understand is, at any point in time, there’s a “x” number of clients and a “y” number of properties. If x > y, it will be easy to get your property sold/rented (it will “close by default”), and you can just pay market rate commission. If y > x, then the challenge comes and that’s when your agent NEED to market your property aggressively and think of innovative ways to attract more clients to your property (versus the unit upstairs or opposite neighbour, or even the whole of Singapore). Your agent must also market not only through the traditional classifieds ads, but other new medium as well. Be it twitter, facebook, youtube, online portals, word of mouth, mailers and faxes to companies, etc. In essence, the marketing costs will and must increase.

Professional photos and videos will also help to generate greater interest for your property. We find that listings with professional photos can generate up to 10x more viewership than those without photos and up to 5x more viewership than the normal digital photos taken on a consumer camera or a iphone.

- Price the property correctly –

Correct pricing of the property is a very very very important factor. Your agent must be able to guide you on the price range that the property should sell/rent for and let you understand the market conditions and whether or not the price you asked for is a realistic starting point.

Property owners who often price higher than other people’s asking prices or the last transacted price need to ask themselves – what exactly is their unit’s Unique Selling Point (USP) that will entice the buyer/tenant to pay more than what other owners are asking for.

Within the first 30 days of a property being listed, we can think of the property as being a “hot listing”, where there should be greatest interests. After that, and if there’s no offer, the property starts to get stale (the cobroke agents with ready and prequalified clients) would have already seen the property and do not find the property attractive anymore since their first round of clients weren’t even interested to offer. Usually, after the first 30 days, the property will experience less viewings and resultantly have to do a price reduction.

For property sellers, of course there will be personal reasons as to why the pricing needs to be at a certain level, but we advise that if time is of concern, the best way is to price reasonably attractive, and have viewers come to you with offers, rather than over-pricing and not having anybody see your property at all. No viewers = no offers = nothing. Under-pricing doesn’t mean under-selling … the final price is only determined when you sign on the dotted line.

Experienced landlords who have witnessed the market peaks and troughs should understand that property investment is really like running a start-up business of sorts. What you want to achieve is to minimise the “zero-revenue” period or in real estate terms, better known as the “vacancy period”.

Property investment is a long term process, and in Singapore’s context, the rental yields are not high (but should be enough to cover most, if not all of mortgage if the purchase was timed correctly). The profits of property investment in Singapore typically come from the capital appreciation that one can receive by timing the markets correctly (when buying and selling), and the rental revenue is merely to cover the expenses involved in this operation until when the investment is ready for liquidation (somewhat like IPO-ing or selling the business to others).

- Time to renovate / upgrade? –

Many years back, Paragon shopping centre (in the heart of Orchard Road) capitalised on the economy downturn (with cheaper construction materials and labour costs) and totally renovated and repositioned the shopping mall into a high-end luxury mall. When the market rebounded, they were well placed to enjoy the increased traffic and higher rentals because the building looked new, tenant mix was interesting, and it was a pleasant experience to be shopping there.

If you think this is not the best time to do a complete overhaul of your property, it could be worthwhile to consider some “minor upgrades”. First, you need to think like a buyer/tenant and focus on the things which they will be bothered with, solve the problem/eyesore before the client comes.

Many property owners prefer to wait for an offer and requests (in the Letter of Intent) before making changes/upgrades.

Truth of the matter is – the offers (if they do come) will come slower and lower.

If you are already prepared to make the changes, why not do it first and enjoy the opportunity of a faster and higher offer (once the works are done)?

Property owners can change these few places, the kitchen (and appliances), bathrooms and wardrobes (this is one of the recommended sequence). The amount of work to undertake or area to renovate is up to you. Either do it all at once, or do a phase-by-phase renovation. Perhaps, start off with the kitchen first, especially if you own a large unit property (meaning it caters to families = there will be a husband and wife = wife makes the decision … getting the hint?). And if you don’t intend to do up all the bathrooms, at least change the master bath & wardrobe into a more modern design.

Renovating/upgrading = being able to rent out faster not only for this Tenancy but also for the next one or two Tenancy.

Some of the expenses involved in the renovation can also be used to offset the tax on your Rental Income (plus you can claim for Vacancy Period) – check with your property agent / IRAS on details.

What this means is that you get to pay less tax (save money), while enjoying a increased asset value (earn more money). With the improvement/upgrading works done, your rental will be higher than before, meaning higher asking price (if selling) as well.

Think about it this way – if you are now a buyer looking for a property, between 2 units (within the same project), would you show more interest and be willing to pay more for a renovated unit (with higher rental), or a non-renovated unit (with lower rental).

With investment buyers commonly looking to the “Rental Yields” as a basis of comparison, a $3,000 per month property on a 3% gross rental yield = $1.2 mil value. Let’s say you spent $50,000 on the renovation and manage to get $500 additional every month (about $16% increase). So, now renting for $3,500 per month on 3% gross rental yield = $1.4mil (a whopping $200,000 increase in Capital Value!) And remember – some of the money spent on renovation is actually tax-deductible, you actually saved money and then earned more.

If you require a professional property agent in Singapore to assist you in marketing and managing your property, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us via email contact@singaporerealestate.info or you can contact Mr Reiss directly at (65)91001090.

~ Serving you with more than 30 years experience in the Real Estate industry ~

We have spacious apartments for less than S$5mil – listed here

Here are some of the properties we are currently featuring for sale.

All with spacious interiors, located in prime districts such as District 09, 10 and 11 and they are going for less than S$5,000,000

To arrange for viewing, leave us a message below or simply call the agents in charge (phone numbers listed in the property detail page – click the link)

1. Cairnhill Plaza 2852sqft (minutes walk from Orchard Road)
2. Waterford Residence Penthouse 2100sqft (near Robertson Quay, off River Valley)
3. Soleil @ Sinaran 1722sqft (beside Novena MRT and shopping mall, amenities at your doorstep)
4. Yong An Park 1765sqft (River Valley Road, near Great World City)
5. Residences @ Evelyn 1528sqft (near Newton MRT & food centre)
6. * coming soon * Chelsea Gardens (more than 2500sqft, near Shangri-La hotel)

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