We are determined to help you achieve the best possible price and keep the sale process a pleasant one.

Sell for More Manual

FAQ and helpful hints while your property is on the market.

Two-way communication

We hope to sell your house for an exceptionally good price – achieving and exceeding your expectations.

In our experience the best outcome is always achieved when the vendors and the agents work as a team.

Many people will be involved in the sale of your property including admin people, photographers, floor plan drafters, auction department, signboard company and others. Mistakes do happen, and we are looking to correct them as early as possible.

Throughout the marketing campaign, especially in the first week, we will email you several times making recommendations, asking question, asking to check and confirm certain documents and statements. Please carefully read our emails and promptly reply to them. This is very important for avoiding future complications.

If at any point you have any comments or improvement suggestions, please contact us immediately. We are keen to hear from you.

Please start your selling journey by carefully reading this manual, which we hope you will find helpful. Thank you very much.

The secret of selling for more

The ‘secret’ of selling for more is in – making good well-informed choices, doing things the right way to maximize your chances to selling for more and to be happy with the outcome, and through the selling process.

You maximize your chances for success by:

Signing up to sell with Barfoot & Thompson – because of the non-franchised company structure and a large network of agents keen to sell you property.
Listing your property for sale with me, Andre Volkov and my team – we are your local experts with proven record of success and achieving top prices.
Preparing your property for sale – declutter, clean-up and other ways.
Utilising the auction process – a great tool for achieving premium prices through buyer competition.
Helping buyers feel confident about buying your property – making it easy for them to buy.
Engaging a world leading property marketing solution – Diakrit can handle your photography and other interactive marketing materials.
Carefully reading and following recommendations in this manual.

Marketing text and materials

We will write the wording for your internet advertising and prepare your flyers, then we will email everything for you check, improve and edit.

This is important because we both can be held liable for misleading advertising, so we need to be careful with the claims we make.

Please note there are limits to the length of headlines and the text with both internet and traditional marketing. We try to keep the text within 200-250 words to keep the reader’s attention and fit it comfortably within the marketing medium.

General points:

You are special to us – if you are not sure or confused then call, text or email me any time.
Once your house is on the market, the Barfoot & Thompson network will start to engage. Other Barfoot and Thompson agents might bring buyers – you do not need to tell us. They will follow your viewing instructions. We can change the viewing instructions at your request, just let us know.
The First week is the busiest one, buyer activity decreases after that. We will try to direct buyers through the open homes, but you will most likely have people wanting to come and visit at other times too.
Usually in the first week on the market we have an agent-only viewing (caravan) from 10am to 12pm on Tuesday. This happens only once, and we will communicate with you when it will be happening. You can be home if you’d like to be during the caravan, but you don’t have to. The idea of the caravan is for the agents to see your house and contact the buyers they think might be interested. ** Please note, we are currently not running caravan due to the COVID-19 Pandemic **
If another agent from B&T calls you to say they have an offer, please confirm that they have called me before presenting their offer to you. Someone else could also have an offer for you and we want to avoid you selling your house twice and to help create a competitive multi offer situation.
In the unlikely event of random people wandering onto your property – please do not let them in, direct them to the signboard and ask to call me and come to open homes.

Open homes

We run open homes on both Saturdays and Sundays during the same times, unless agreed with you otherwise.
The open homes are for 30 minutes, however, best to allow for 15 minutes before and after for early/late comers or those that might spend a bit longer looking around.
If your property has a conditional offer, the best practice is for us to keep running open homes looking for backup offers until it is unconditionally sold, just in case the first offer does not go though.
Please remove valuables from display before open homes. We have never had anything stolen; however, it is best to be on the safe side.
Remove keys from hooks or the front door. This is another security measure.
Before open homes and agent viewings – please turn the lights on if you can.
Please ensure that the dishwasher, washing machine and/or dryer are not operating during the open homes.
After open homes on Sunday night, we will email you visitor numbers. We will then follow up with the open home visitors during the following week and give you a comprehensive report on Thursday or Friday. Please be patient, some people are hard to reach on the phone.
I love doing my open homes myself, however, sometimes I might need to engage one of my associates instead. They are experienced reliable agents who know how to run open homes well.
Sometimes we might need to change the open home times. If we need to do that, we will consult you first and make the change early in the week.

Buyer feedback from open homes and Weekly Progress Reports

We don’t usually ask for buyer feedback at the open homes just in case they say something negative which we do not want other buyers to hear.

We only point to and highlight the good features about the property.

We follow open home visitors with a ‘thank you for visiting (your address)’ email providing all the documents and then we follow up with a phone call:

Asking for feedback.
Discussing the benefits of owning the property.
Checking how far on their purchasing journey the buyers are (if they just started looking or ready to buy).
Offering help in buying (finance, building inspection, preparing for the auction, general questions).

We will communicate all that feedback to you usually on Thursday or Friday the next week. Simply because some people are really hard to get hold of.

It is usually hard to determine the number of actual bidders for an upcoming auction until the very last day, often until the auction starts. This is a competitive process and buyers like to play their cards close to their chest and try to keep their options open.

Sample Progress Report

Name	Comments
Buyer 1	Comments and feedback
Buyer 2	Comments and feedback
Buyer 3	Comments and feedback

Talking to potential buyers

How and if you should interact with potential buyers? Generally, it’s best to be absent during viewings, however, if you ever are in the situation of talking to a potential buyer, then ideally say as little as possible and avoid talking about features and aspects of your property.

There are always two sides to every story and there is always a risk the buyer would see some features you love as disadvantages. Of course, it’s your call, however maybe it’s better to leave the selling part to the agents.

We do give you an exciting opportunity to sell your property to every potential buyer by providing us with a ‘Letter to the buyer’ where you can share with all the buyers every positive moment about your property you can think of. Thank you for your help!

Your letter to the buyers

No one knows the features and the benefits of living in your house and your neighbourhood better than you. The buyers would love to hear that from you. If it isn’t too hard you could write a letter to prospective buyers telling them about the exciting features of your house and the location. We’ve found this to be very effective.

The letter could be an emotional story, or just a few informative bullet points, or both. Whatever style you are comfortable with.

Just imagine you have in front of you an interested person who is looking for assurance they will enjoy living in your house and in your neighbourhood.

Also, imagine that when you are buying a property you would probably appreciate a similar letter from the vendors.

Photoshoot preparations

We will book a photoshoot time and confirm it with you.

For best results with the photoshoot, we recommend the following:

Please leave either a key or a remote so that we can access the garage. We do not take pictures inside garages normally, but we will need access to take measurements for the floor plans.
Please make sure there are no cars in the driveway in front of the house.
No skip bins on the property.
You can remove fridge magnets for the time of the photo shoot and for the entire marketing campaign if you choose so.
To visually increase the space of your house we routinely open all curtains and sometimes remove net curtains where possible to improve light flow in the room.
It would be great if all light bulbs are working. We will need as much light as possible.
Having a bouquet of flowers in a vase, and a bowl of colourful fruit, if possible, could make a difference to the overall presentation.

Please note, if you need to reschedule the photoshoot it’s best done at least 12 hours before the photoshoot time. Otherwise, there is a $99 rescheduling fee from the photographers.

Insulation

The insulation has become an important consideration for the buyers. We will ask you to confirm the insulation availability at your house and if you could provide the certificates. This would be very helpful for giving the buyers assurance. Please do not overstate the quality and the degree of the insulation so that there are no problems and negotiations about the price on the settlement day. It’s fine if you don’t know if there is insulation or to what standard – just let us know this so that we can tell the buyers and encourage them to do their own research through a building inspection or similar.

Solicitor

The way to achieving premium price for you lies through acquiring as many interested buyers as possible, answering their questions, addressing, and resolving their worries, and giving them confidence in buying your property.

Also, the last thing we want is for you get in trouble at the settlement or after the sale with your buyers chasing you for redress.

It might be sometimes necessary to consult your solicitor in case we have legal questions related to the sale of your property. We will relay all queries to you or to your solicitor directly depending on your instructions. We will ask you first.

We will also forward the auction documents (if you are selling by auction) the LIM and the title to your solicitor for them to check.

Share the listing on social media

Please share your listing on your Facebook page for your friends and relatives to see and share. This can be very helpful to attract a good buyer. The more people see our advertising, the more chance we have to sell at a premium price for you. You can also share your listing on local community pages if you are a member. For example, Glenfield, Birkdale, Beach Haven Community Facebook pages and similar.

Referrals are welcome

If you have family, friends or neighbours who are thinking of selling, your referrals will be much appreciated.

Auction listings

Pre-auction offers – if we have one for you then you will hear from either me or the auctioneer.
You may like to visit our auctions if you’ve never been to a real estate auction before. The B&T North Shore Auctions are held every Thursday at 10am and 1pm. Location is either Bruce Mason Centre or QBE Stadium, Albany.
Check with us the venue of the auction for the week you’d like to go or visit https://www.barfoot.co.nz/auction-search. You can also watch auctions online https://www.barfoot.co.nz/auctions-live/sessions

Please always remember if your property does not sell before or at the auction, no panic. The Auction is only the first step toward the sale, and we will carry on marketing your property and doing open homes and everything else until the price you are after is achieved and the sale is confirmed unconditional.

Pre-auction offers

A pre-auction offer is an offer that is made for the property before the auction date. If the offer is at an acceptable level, the auction will be brought forward and held on the second working day after the day the offer was first communicated to you. Early auctions are usually held around 4pm in our Glenfield office.

The acceptable offer becomes the reserve price and the opening bid at the early auction, and the Auctioneer will ask for offers over and above that from any other buyers in attendance.

Accepting a pre-auction offer usually signals to the market that the house is a good option, popular with buyers and that the vendors are realistic with their price expectations because they indeed have accepted an offer. Both are positive news – this “social proof” often increases interest from other buyers who we want to come to the auction and drive up the price further.

All pre-auction offers are unconditional and we must have the deposit when we call you with the pre-auction offer.

On the day you accept a pre-auction offer the auctioneer will notify every agent in our company of the new time and location of the auction giving them time to prepare their buyers. The price accepted will be keep confidential from other agents and their buyers.

If you accept a pre-auction offer; expect a busy couple of days with viewings and building inspections leading up to the auction. But then it is all over after the auction.

If the house does not sell at the auction

Only 50% of houses sell at auction and we will continue to work hard to achieve the price you will be happy to accept.

Marketing of your home, including regular open homes will continue. Once we have a conditional agreement on your property, we will continue further looking for backup offers until an agreement become unconditional.

Immediately after the auction, we change advertising to for sale “By Negotiation” for one day (to avoid limiting possible offers on the price) and contact all open home visitors trying to generate offers for you on the same day.

The next day, we recommend changing to an Asking Price, which based on buyers’ feedback and our previous experience is a superior way of selling to achieve a better for your outcome compared to “By Negotiation”.

We will consult with you every step of the way and act according to your instructions.

Offers from other Barfoot & Thompson agents

When a property is for sale with an asking price or by negotiation all Barfoot & Thompson agents are encouraged to make offers from their buyers to you directly. However, I will still manage the offer process to avoid a situation where the house is sold twice with multiple buyers and agents.

Just be sure, when you are dealing with an offer from another agent, please always confirm that they have advised me of their offer already.

Variations to the Terms of Sale by Auction

Expect that some buyers will ask for a different settlement date, or a different deposit amount. Any variation like that his must be agreed and signed off by you before the auction to be valid.

Phone and online bidding

Phone bidding is very common. When buyers cannot make it to the auction in person an agent can be in the auction room on their behalf with the buyers on the phone. All phone bidding applications must be signed off by you before the auction.

We allow online bidding as well. The buyers must be pre-approved by their agents. They must submit a photo of their passport or driver’s license as well as proof of address for verification purposes.

Reserve price authority form sign off

The reserve price is the lowest price you will be willing to accept at the auction. In the week of the auction, we will get in touch with you to discuss the auction strategy and to sign the reserve price form.

Non-auction listings (negotiation or asking price)

It is likely that all offers will be conditional offers. Once the price and conditions are agreed upon and the Sale & Purchase Agreement is signed by both you the vendor and the purchasers, we will keep on marketing your property and running open homes as usual looking for back-up offers until the agreement is confirmed unconditional.

Multi-offer

A multi-offer situation happens when there is more than one written offer. All interested buyers are given a form to sign to acknowledge the fact they know they are in competition with at least one other purchaser and they are encouraged to put forward their best offer on paper.

The multi-offer process is handled with the help of a branch manager.

Deposit

On the sale of your property, we collect the deposit on your behalf and by law we keep it in our trust account for 10 working days, then deduct our commission and the balance of deposit is transferred to your solicitors’ trust account.

If you need the deposit earlier, you can ask your solicitor by email to ask the purchasers solicitor for an early release of the deposit. If the purchaser and their solicitor agree we will release the deposit to your solicitor earlier than 10 working days.

Pre-settlement inspection

The purchasers are allowed a final inspection which usually takes place a few days before settlement.
The purpose of the inspection to confirm the house is in the same condition as it was at the time the agreement was signed. Also, importantly, that all the items on the chattels list are present and in reasonable working order.

Please keep electricity connected untill at least the final inspection is done so that the purchasers can check the stove and other electrical items.

The pre-settlement inspection and settlement are organized by the selling agent. This could be me or another Barfoot & Thompson salesperson who’s buyer bought the house.

Settlement

This is when you get the balance of your money (less the deposit).

If you have agreed to give vacant possession in your agreement for sale and purchase, then the house must be vacant and empty of belongings on or before the settlement day.

Both the house and the property must be tidy, and there should be no rubbish left anywhere unless agreed with the purchaser otherwise.

We give the purchasers the keys to your house only after both solicitors formally confirm with us the property has settled.

Small defects

To avoid problems at settlement it is better to disclose property defects to the purchaser upfront and tell them you are “selling as-is” in that respect. We do not want the purchaser demanding discounts and repairs at the last moment.

Please let us know if you need to disclose anything.

Examples include:

Some keys are missing (by law the purchaser has to be given keys to all doors having locks if not agreed otherwise prior).
Cracks in windows.
Holes in walls and doors.
Some doors or windows do not close.
Sliding doors not sliding.
Water enters the garage in really heavy rain.
Ventilation system needs a new motor.
Something will be left inside, under the house or in the shed….

Insurance

Please keep your house fully insured until it settles.

Rented property

If your property is tenanted, with your permission we will communicate with the tenants to organize access for the photoshoot, caravan (agent only viewing) and the open homes.

If tenants move out before the settlement, they usually get the power disconnected. Please get it reconnected because it will be required for the final inspection for buyers to check that appliances work.

Signboard removal

The signboard belongs to ABC Photosigns NZ Ltd and we are effectively renting it. Once the property is sold we will organize for the signboard removal. This usually happens after 10 working days. If you wanted a faster removal please let us know.

Selling for more -understanding the buyer wave

Be ready for your first offer. Have you heard that the first buyer is usually the best buyer?

The best buyers usually come in the first few weeks. They are:

Well-researched on current market prices.
Ready to buy.
Have time pressure to buy right now.

After that we have found that both the number and the quality of buyers often goes down dramatically. They will likely be:

Mostly new to the market, not ready to buy yet, visitors researching the market.
Bargain hunters looking for a good deal.
Note: Those best buyers from the first few weeks are unlikely to come back because they have already bought something else.

Waiting for longer may not mean a better price. Quite the opposite is often true.

Final words

Thanks for reading this manual. We hope you found it helpful. If anything is unclear, please let us know.

We look forward to working with you and hoping to achieve an outstanding result for you.

*5 samples images

Sample Forms