If you are selling your investment property in Perth, you may have noticed that the market is becoming more active. Due to the recovery of the WA economy, there are now plenty of qualified buyers, but that doesn’t mean they all want to pay full price for a property.

In today’s market, buyers still want to negotiate as low a price as possible. Consequently, you need a real estate agent who can ensure that you come out on top of the negotiating process. Failure to negotiate effectively could cost you thousands of dollars when you sell your home.

Here are four essential “rules” for our agents that ensure they get the best price for our clients.

Don’t scrimp on marketing.

Sure: there are a lot of buyers. But just because there are a lot of buyers doesn’t mean that the right one is going to show up and buy your house if nobody knows about it. The agent’s job is to get your house in front of as many qualified buyers as possible, and create competition for your house.

Don’t sell to one buyer before the first home open.

We touched on this elsewhere on the blog: It’s OK to open with a low price, but the idea is to get qualified buyers competing for your house. In a seller’s market, if you take the first bid from the first potential buyer, you could be leaving thousands of dollars on the table.

Instead, make sure that a lot of people see the home, and encourage multiple buyers to make offers. Your best scenario is that you get two bidders who are emotionally invested in buying the property into a bidding war. We never guarantee numbers, but in the right situation, pitting two or more motivated buyers against each other can put as much as $10,000 to $50,000 more in your pocket than your original asking price.

Negotiate, Negotiate, Negotiate

Location is extremely important for demand, and could be the ultimate determinant of a home’s market value. However, when you are selling a home, you are not trying to get “market value.” You are trying to get as much as you can get someone to pay for the house.

The best negotiators are master communicators and rapport builders. They use their people skills to create competition among buyers, and are never afraid to ask the price they think the house can command. Most of all, they are skilled enough to accomplish this in such a manner that it doesn’t make the potential buyer walk away.

Target the ideal buyer.

Sometimes an agent can sell a property with no text in the advert and a handful of substandard photos that he took on his phone. Afterwards, that agent might even brag about getting more than the asking price. But we can guarantee that this agent left a lot of money on the table.

You need effective ad copy, and it needs to be targeted to the kind of buyer who would best suit the home. For example, a home next to a golf course would command a lot more money from a golfer than it would a non-golfer.

The best way to get the highest dollar is to figure out who your ideal buyer is, and then target advert copy directly to that buyer as though you were speaking to them. The copy must pre-sell the property and appeal to the buyer’s emotions so that they make an offer the first time they see the house.

Bonus Rule: Get the Investor’s Edge

The best way to to ensure a high price is to hire an agent who has your best interests in mind. At Investors Edge, we do investment property in Perth. From property management, to buying or selling investment properties, we specialise in helping Perth investors maximise their profits.

Basically, investment property is all we do. Whatever side of the fence we are on, whether we are helping you through buying, selling, or managing your investment property, we know how to get you the best return on your investment.

Because we have years of experience buying and selling investment properties, we know all of the tricks and strategies to help you buy for the lowest price and sell for the highest. This can add thousands of dollars to your pocket on both ends of the transaction.

Call 1300 472 427 today to get the Investors Edge team working for you. The right decision can make you a lot of money, but the wrong decision can cost you a lot of money. Make the right decision.