Why Home Sellers Need A Vendor Advocate More Than Ever
It can be a stressful process when selling your home, especially in this market and making sure you get the best possible out of your sales agent and marketing is key.
To help ensure that everything goes smoothly for your house sale, you may consider engaging an independent vendors’ advocate.
Peter and Karen Hutton are 30+ year industry veterans who give you important third-party, independent advice when you go to sell regardless of whether you list with them or any other agent anywhere in Australia.
From understanding market value to aggressively negotiating deals on behalf of sellers, working with an experienced vendor advocate like Peter and Karen can make all the difference when it comes to selling your home quickly and profitably.
Read on to learn why every seller should consider working with us as your vendor advocate.
What is a vendor advocate?
A vendor advocate is NOT your listing agent.
A vendor advocate is an experienced professional who provides independent third-party support to those selling their homes (with another agent/agency).
They will be by your side you through the entire process, from getting your home ready for sale and marketing it properly, to negotiating a fair commission with your agent, to riding shotgun during negotiations so that your agent doesn’t under sell your valued asset.
Vendor advocates are knowledgeable about current market conditions, understand the importance of pricing correctly, and are adept at marketing property in such a way that your property receives the kind of exposure necessary to find the best fitting, highest paying buyers for your home.
Peter and Karen Hutton have a combined 50+ years selling and marketing residential property across Brisbane’s more prestigious suburbs.
They provide you with support and advice with every step of the way, giving you a better chance to get the most out of your home sale.
5 reasons why you should hire Peter and Karen as your vendors’ advocate
There are many reasons why working with us as your vendor advocate can be beneficial. Here are some of the key reasons why you should consider hiring us:
No.1 — Save time, hassle and money – Our vendor advocate service will help you select the right selling agent to list with and they will critique and provide you with advice to all aspects of those first critical steps leading up to placing your home on the market. They’ll also negotiate a better commission rate for you. This alone could save you tens of thousands of dollars. Reason alone to engage Peter and Karen as your vendor advocate.
No.2 — Get an expert opinion – As your vendor advocate peter and Karen can provide you with an expert opinion about how your property is being marketed and how it’s being priced, helping you to get the most out of your sale.
No.3 — Get your property back on track – The property market in Australia has gone through some major changes over the past few years. Often agents haven’t had prior exposure to these changes and their lack of preparedness can cause a property to sit on the market unsold. Peter and Karen have been through 30+ years of changing markets. They’ve seen it all. With that depth of knowledge, they can analyse and diagnose the problem you may be experiencing and provide some new direction to get your property sold.
No.4 — Get a better deal – Vendor advocates like Peter and Karen are experienced negotiators who can help ensure that you get the best possible sale price for your home. They can be your sounding board for all offers and support you on the day of the auction.
No.5 — Stress relief + have someone in your corner – As your vendor advocate, Peter and Karen can take away much of the stress that comes with selling a home, providing professional support and guidance to help make the process easier. They’re job is to protect your interests. They’re in your corner!
What does our vendor advocate service cost?
The cost of working with a vendor advocate will vary depending on the complexity of your situation and the extent of services that you require.
A true vendor advocate doesn’t charge commission. The reason being is, commission which is performance based, erodes unbiassed advice.
Instead, you can expect a modest flat fee (a fraction of the cost of commission) typically paid upfront for their expert advice. Starting from as little as a few hundred dollars but can run into a couple of thousands depending on the brief.
These advocacy briefs usually cover basic support such as answering questions, providing advice, critiquing marketing and helping to negotiate the best deal possible for you.
Can a vendor advocate be the real estate agent selling your property?
Mostly, no.
A vendor advocate needs to be truly independent of the sales process so as not to have a vested interest in the sale. That way their advice to you can’t be influenced by the prospect of earning commission.
To be fair, your listing agent selling your property can also act as your vendor advocate if they are doing their job right. But as explained above, you just need to remember because the selling agent gets paid commission for selling your property, they have a vested interest in getting a deal done and that can sometimes compromise their advice to you.
A vendor advocate is there to look out for your best interests, so make sure you find one who is independent and impartial to ensure that their advice is truly unbiased.
How a vendor advocate works best in a tough real estate selling market?
Having Peter and Karen as your vendor advocate is a great asset when it comes to selling your home in a tough market. They can provide valuable insight into current market conditions and give you advice on pricing, marketing and negotiation techniques.
Peter and Karen will be able to identify the target market and help create effective sales strategies that work within the current market. Additionally, they can help to negotiate a good deal that works in your favour, even if the market is not favourable.
“We are finding more and more vendors are seeking our advocacy services. With over 30 years in real estate and being involved in 1000 + property negotiations, home sellers are recognising this experience to be crucial is getting the best possible outcome with their home sale” commented Peter Hutton, Principal Advocate, Hutton and Hutton.
A vendor advocate example
A seller had placed their immaculate, colonial home set on pristine grounds of 1,045 sq meters onto the market. Research had shown this property should sell in the low $2,000,000’s.
But 4 months after the property was passed in at auction, the best offer was for $1,900,000.
The sellers were confused and disappointed. They didn’t know what to do. Should they take this low offer, take the property off the market or change agency?
Such thoughts are very confronting. They cause enormous amounts of stress.
Inexperience for sellers can be costly
One reason for this is that most sellers only ever sell a home once or twice in their lifetime.
Secondly, they are not ‘in the market’. They can read all the articles about market conditions, watch the nightly news for comments on where the housing market is at or even subscribe to ‘expert’ newsletters.
But they are not experienced in hundreds or thousands of sale transactions nor do they have a feel of the current market. Markets can switch on a whim and there is often a market within a market.
By this, we mean activity within a particular suburb can be strong yet five suburbs away it can be flat.
Time to call in an expert vendor advocate
The seller decided to ask Peter and Karen Hutton to review the marketing on the property to see if it could be tweaked.
They discovered the hidden from the public ‘match price’ set on the real estate portal REA by their selling agent was at $1,900,000, below the $2 million + expected price.
Peter and Karen recommended the seller goes back to their agent and have a match price set within the backend of the portal to be at $2,250,000.
They knew there would be resistance from their agent but they advised the seller to stick to their guns.
An unknown tweak delivers a 32% windfall
Within days of the price change, a flood of new, fresh enquiries hit the agent’s inbox.
One enquirer loved the property so much that they offered $2.5 million cash unconditionally to secure the property.
The sellers snapped up the offer and settled 30 days later.
A vendor advocate is your trusted advisor
Having Peter and Karen Hutton as your vendor advocate is invaluable when selling your home regardless of where it is in Australia, especially when the entire sales process is usually left up to your sales agent who has a vested interest in the outcome by way of the commission they are paid.
As we’ve discussed, a vendor advocate provides transparency and objectivity to the seller in all dealings, resulting in even more successful outcomes for the vendor.
As a result of having Peter and Karen’s experience and knowledge assisting you throughout the process, you can feel confident that your best interests are being kept in mind while you navigate the intricacies of selling your home.
All in all, there’s no doubt that hiring Peter and Karen as your vendor advocate is an excellent decision to make sure every angle is covered before agreements are made.
So don’t wait – start looking into working with Peter and Karen so you can have peace of mind knowing your property sale is being handled professionally.
With their help, you can move forward confidently and reach the best possible outcome for your sale!
Hutton and Hutton offer a vendor advocate service backed by integrity and decades of real estate negotiation experience.
Vendor Advocacy Professional fees start from $497.