No price, no problem
Sellers are being advised to leave asking prices off their house listings and let buyers duke it out in Nelson-Tasman’s competitive property market.
Real estate agents said the trend towards no-price marketing – auctions, tenders, deadline sales – began 12-18 months ago when the region’s housing market swung in favour of sellers.
‘‘I’m advocating to all my clients that they go no-price marketing and a set date of sale just gives them a bit more flexibility,’’ Ray White Nelson co-owner Grant Chaney said. ‘‘Or an auction is quite powerful in this market, too.’’
Chaney said listing an asking price risked over-selling or underselling a property in a market that was experiencing rapid change.
He said a ‘‘competitive process’’ didn’t scare buyers away and secured a good price for sellers.
Houses selling at auction or tender were going for ‘‘well above what you’d expect’’, he said.
‘‘You’re seeing properties sell for $130,000 above rateable value in some cases,’’ he said.
‘‘Initially buyers are greedy to buy something as cheap as they can, but when they’re competing they’re just greedy to own it and they’ll pay whatever they can afford to and that’s why we’re see-
A hot housing market sees auctions on the rise. Jonathan Carson reports.
ing such good pricing out there. People are just desperate to get something.’’
Summit Nelson auctioneer Ben Nalder said he had ‘‘definitely’’ seen more auctions over the past 18 months.
‘‘As a seller, you know that you’re putting your property out there for a good three-to-four week period and making sure you capture all the buyers out there,’’ he said.
‘‘From a buyer’s point of view, they’re really liking it for the fact that they’re not turning up at the first open home and seeing a sold sign or being told that there are several offers going in on Monday night so they haven’t really got time to do their homework and due diligence. ‘‘It’s win-win.’’ Bayleys agent Bruce Farquhar said auctions ‘‘get a bit of a bad rap at times’’ but it was a transparent process.
‘‘I have many buyers who say to me we would prefer to come to auction because we can see what everyone else is doing and we only have to be one bid ahead of the last person and we know we’ve got it at market value.’’
Other methods of sale required buyers to make ‘‘blind’’ offers, Farquhar said.
‘‘So you may miss out by $500 or the reverse would be that you pay $10,000 more than the last buyer.
‘‘An auction’s far fairer in that regard.’’