Benoni Home Owners News

Offers to purchase submitted from buyers supported with guarantees of 100% bonds and backed up with their own costs should be taken very seriously by sellers.

Gail Compton, broker owner of RE/MAX Tricolor, believes good opportunities to sell, when weighed against the current market conditions, are being lost because too many sellers remain overly fixated on unrealistic expectations of current market values.

And the value of an offer today, she emphasises, is not just about the price offered, but the surety of the buyer being able to meet the financial conditions of the contract. Other factors underpinning offers that should be weighed up favourably by the seller is the buyer’s work status and whether a first or second time entry into the market.

She illustrates her view by pointing out that offers to purchase supported by costs in her prime market of Westville in the R1,3m price range are currently hitting a good success rate while offers of around R300k to R400k without costs or with part costs in the Pinetown area have a very low success rate.

By comparison Compton’s sales staff in both Westville and Pinetown has lodged up an almost 90% rate success rate with offers supported by full deposits.

She also emphasises that most offers, while not all, in today’s market are usually of a very serious nature, usually crucially evaluated and the result of lots of homework by the purchaser.

“If you look at the current interest rate highs, the already and further predicted declines in property prices, its only the very committed buyer who is purchasing now and these are few and far between. So in my view all offers should be given very serious consideration. Sellers should also be aware that most buyers today have a plan B and even a plan C if their first two choices collapse.

Jeanne van Jaarsveldt, finance and marketing director of RE/MAX South Africa, also points out that sellers should view all buyers as “hot commodities” in the current market and make every effort to maintain any interest shown in a property.

“This should be done by keeping the mediating agent on his or her toes in terms of the buyer’s status on deliberation to purchase. If there is a point of concern on the buyer’s part stalling the sale then do your best to negotiate a solution, but quickly and amicably.”

“It’s normally up to the agent to maintain the buyer’s high degree of interest, but in this market the longer a seller dithers over an offer the quicker the buyer’s interest cools, especially with the volumes available on the market.

Source: Property24.com

Jaco Viljoen 082 712 4352 http://www.jkproperties.co.za/ Property for sale in Benoni

photo credit: Kevin Lawver

I understand you can’t leave your Benoni home for every viewing, but when you can’t please try and stay out of the way.

I don’t mean to offend anyone but a seller being present during a viewing does more harm than good. Sellers are always worried that the Estate Agents don’t mention something to the buyers, if its so important make sure the Estate Agent makes a note of it when he lists the property.

Let me explain why its best if you are not present when buyers are viewing your home.

Buyers will definitely not feel welcome and comfortable if you are present and even less so if you are following them around watching their every move pleasing and explaining about the dirty dishes. You might feel better after explaining why the dishes are dirty, an untidy house is not an ideal situation but its far worse when you make a big deal about it, this focuses all the attention on the mess and removes the attention from the house and its features like the granite tops you had installed last month, which could result in the buyers choosing your home above the one next door.

You will not only cause a huge distraction to the buyers but your efforts in pointing out all the strong points of your home will make you seem desperate to sell and this will cause concern with the buyers.

The buyers will also try and rush the viewing to get out of your way and not spend the necessary time in your benoni home to imagine what it would feel like to live there.

They won’t explore and look through cupboards to see the space they won’t criticise your home while viewing, worried they might offend you, and they probably would offend you if they said something about the ugly rug in the lounge.

Not being able to point out the problems they have with the property to their Real Estate Agent is possibly one of the biggest problems cause the agent could let them see a solution to the problem and maybe change their entire opinion from its not what I’m looking for to this can be my dream home.

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Jaco Viljoen 082 712 4352 http://www.jkproperties.co.za/ Property for sale in Benoni

Hi all.

I was out listing a beautiful property in Crystal Park today, I actually stopped the seller from listing her Crystal Park property with an estate agent for a sole mandate  heavily over priced.

You see I believe there are 2 reasons a property doesn’t sell.

1) Lazy Agent

2) Over priced.

Most of the time it is number 2.

If you want to sell.

My advice is interview a few  Benoni agents to determine the price.

and normally I would say take a sole mandate.

Today in current market conditions my advice is get a few agents working on the property.

Most importantly have it priced right.

If you have any questions please feel free to ask.

or contact me :

Jaco Viljoen

082 712 4352

>

Jaco Viljoen 082 712 4352 http://www.jkproperties.co.za/ Property for sale in Benoni

I am always looking for ways of promoting listings and ways of getting properties sold.

In our current market conditions only a fool would not look for a way to differentiate himself from the crowd, but I will leave that story for another day. The reason  for this post is not to tell you how different I am but rather to share an interesting post I found on a Great Blog I regularly read by Jay Thompson .

 Apparently some sellers in Phoenix are burying  St. Joseph statues in their gardens to assist them in selling their home quickly. I thought this was really interesting. You can read the post at The Phoenix real estate guy

Jaco Viljoen 082 712 4352 http://www.jkproperties.co.za/ Property for sale in Benoni

Real estate investments outperform any other investment vehicle over a long period of time.

Everyone says invest in real estate as soon as you can. The problem is no one bothers to tell you where to start.

In this Post I am going to tell you where to start and hopefully where you will end up.

1)The first thing to do is decide what type of place or property you are looking for.

Every one wants to buy the perfect home but lets be realistic everyone can’t afford to buy the perfect home. So my advice is look for something with potential to be your perfect home. Don’t know what you are looking for?

print and complete this Benoni Home Buyers Questionnaire. follow the instructions provided.

2) Know what is available and be aware of anything that might affect the local market. Join a community newsletter or read the newspaper to keep abreast of these issues.

3)Now that you know what you are looking for and where, lets see what you can afford to buy with the bond calculator or get a pre-approval this will assist you when making an offer by giving you the upper hand against any other buyers interested in the same property.

4)Choose your buyers agent. The majority of buyers tend to look for a house and phone the agent whose number is on the add or the “For Sale” board. While there is nothing wrong with this approach. You see the agent on the add or “For Sale” board is known as a “listing agent”. This agents main concerns are to keep the seller happy and selling the Benoni property for the highest possible price. I would like to suggest a different approach. Meet with a few estate agents and decide on a real estate agent that you would like to work with. Do not take this step lightly, a real estate agent has the potential to make buying a house a nightmare or a dream come true. This agent will be known as your buyer agent. He will look out for your best interests, negotiate the best price and assist you with arranging finance if needed.

5)Be honest with your real estate agent. Tel him what you are looking for and what you can afford. This will save you both a lot of time. I generally ask my clients for proof of income before setting any appointments to view properties.

6)Start looking for properties in the neighbourhood you are interested in buying. My suggestion is check the newspapers, Internet and drive through the neighbourhood and look for “For Sale” boards then contact your “Buyer Agent” and give him the details of the properties you would like to view. Let him contact the listing agents and arrange appointments. Not all estate agents are willing to share their properties with other agents but the majority will happily share.

Take your time when looking for a property in Benoni this will be one of your greatest investments, but when you find something that you like don’t hesitate. I believe you should act on what your gut tells you. I have many times shown a client a house and seen they love the place but they get scared when they find their dream house so quickly and automatically assume something must be wrong with the property or there is something better for sale. Then a week later they realise there isn’t and its to late, someone else has already acted and decided to buy the property as soon as they drove through the gate.

Once you have found a home that meets your requirements and goals. Discuss the price with your Benoni real estate agent. Unless this house is the bargain of a lifetime always offer less than asking price the worst thing that can happen is the seller can say no. Some agents suggest to their sellers that they ask more for the property than they are willing to accept so they have negotiating space. Be realistic when making an offer you don’t want to offend the property seller, this will not happen nine out of ten times but you don’t want the one time to be on the property of your dreams.

To be continued…

Jaco Viljoen 082 712 4352 http://www.jkproperties.co.za/ Property for sale in Benoni

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