by Gold Coast Bulletin columnist and host of Lifestyle Channel's Selling Houses Australia Andrew Winter
WHY is the idea of giving potential buyers a reasonable idea of price so controversial?
I write this piece after a week of frustrated phone calls from friends in the city trying to buy a home in an area where virtually everything is without prices or price guides.
These guys are ready to buy, have sold up and are living with parents and about to endure a tiresome breakdown with said in-laws because there are only so many "good mornings" one can share over breakfast with your wife's dad when you've been married many, many years.
At this rate my friends are likely to buy a small rag doll, dress it up in a sharp suit, take a picture of it at a strange angle, maybe in black and white, and then print it, hang it on the door and throw darts at it.
They don't love this system of playing guessing games with prices at all -- it is driving them mad.
Buyers do not care if agents think it is a way to get top dollar for their clients.
All they know is everything else they shop for has a price tag, so it is not too much to ask to buy a home in the same way is it really?
Now I'm not going to get into the pros and cons of price guides here or why such variations exist about pricing between states, especially when it comes to properties listed for auction.
But, unusually for me, I am also not going to get all angry about this.
Instead, I have a suggestion for buyers in areas that specialise in pricefree listings.
My suggestion is not a fool-proof way of discovering the real price, but at least it is a start.
No matter what type of sale method is involved, when an agent lists a home on a mainstream property website, the agent must assign a figure to the property -- it is part of the online listing database requirements.
So whether you see the listing in the paper or online, you can try to ascertain a ball park figure.
If you are looking for a home between $450,000 and $500,000 and you see a home listed online, then try resetting your search to between $400,000 and $450,000. If the home still appears, things are looking good. So now reduce the search to under $400,000. Is it still there?
It really doesn't take long, and at least by doing it this way you have a price parameter.
It means that when you call the agent, you can turn the tables.
When you ask the agent the price question and he or she inevitably instead asks about your budget, you can turn it around and say you listed the home online between $400,000 and $450,000.
True, the vendors may want more than $500,000, but this way you have a heads-up and can create a shortlist based around the price you want to pay.
So work the online database, and you may never need to call an agent again.
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