Here we go again

13/08/20

So here we go again I hear you say, “What a shambles is what I’m thinking right now. “

Auckland in Level 3 of Covid 19 alert status and the rest of the country in Level 2. Where and when will this end? Could we go back to Level 4 - some are saying by Saturday?

Well, I thought it may be a good time to look at what we learned in the past lockdown and talk about why you would be foolish to not look at the Proppy.co.nz to manage your property sale.  

I’m going to cut to the chase.

In Level 4 Lockdown – Trademe rang us and the account manager said we were the only agency to list a property on that particular day in the whole of New Zealand. Why now? Our answer was – why not! Proppy.co.nz has the technology to sell properties during this type of pandemic. Listing is easy as you go through the online process all on our platform it makes for a very easy selling process. Smart they thought. We ended selling that property in Auckland well above the RV and the owners were more than happy with the interest and result.

If you have followed our company’s growth since 2015 you will know that we are the only real estate agency (that I am aware of) in New Zealand/Australia where you can list, buy and sell property on a purpose-built platform. And we are the only ones who can successfully run Online Auctions, Online Negotiation, Online Tenders and sign contracts digitally online using technology - a massive advantage for vendors, buyers and our agents.

Competing real estate agencies in NZ tried to perform online auctions with cobbled - together mobile apps designed largely from Australia or via google hangouts but they didn’t quite do the job. They don’t appear fit for purpose and were clearly not built for the NZ market and didn’t appear secure. For example, they don’t complete Anti Money Laundering particularly well. From what I could see they seemed to normally stream an auction from an empty auction room & it was a hard sell. Be careful of these cobbled -together solutions. You want someone who is experienced in online auctions like Proppy.co.nz.

Let’s think about it. The larger real estate agencies will still charge you their normal, high commission rates without any technology to get the job done in a physically distancing environment. Forget about fixed fee models. They don’t work as the agent doesn’t need to get a high price for you. They just care about any price, and they certainly won’t work that hard in this environment as the agent will feel unsafe going out and going the extra mile. Our Local Proppy Experts use our technology to work for you, speed up the transaction and our platform helps bring you the very best sale price the market will offer.

Online real estate is the way forward and our website statistics back this up.

We have held successful online auctions in Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga, Gisborne and Wanaka. We are not a fly- by- night company and have been trading for nearly 5 years. We have listed in excess of 200+ million dollars of property and have an exceptional track record of achieving sale prices well in excess of reserves and on average we are running online auctions at 15% above Capital Valuations (Government Valuation).

If online auctions are not your thing, smart sellers can still use our platform and sell using either  online negotiation, online tenders along with having a licensed property expert to run your sale and ensure the process goes smoothly. Selling by Proppy.co.nz can be contactless and is the perfect solution when we are in lockdown due to COVID-19. No need to go into stuffy offices to sign paperwork as it’s all done online - this must be the way in the future?

Other things we have learnt is getting vendors to conduct building reports, valuations, and importantly getting photography done immediately especially with 3D walk-throughs are gold within an environment like this.

The key thing that we need to remember is proppy.co.nz has a database of national and overseas buyers. Our website is our huge shop window where people can find your property to buy and our database has been growing over the last 5 years. A point of difference is we do conjunctionals (work-ins) with other agencies. So, what does that mean? If another agency has a so called buyer they can still show them through a proppy.co.nz listing. You (the owner) won’t need to pay the other agency for bringing their buyer through so you also get access to buyers throughout the industry.

We are a big advocate of doing this for our vendors, as a great sale price is our ultimate aim and that can come from any buyer in the market! The best bit is our fair fee of only 1.5%+GST commission - less than half of what most agencies charge.

So, what are you waiting for? Have you learnt from the past lockdown?  List with a proven & safe online platform that is NZ owned and has been operating since 2015.

Cheers,

Tyson