74% of buyers pass over properties with no prices

Recently we undertook a survey on a dedicated Australian property website forum at www.somersoft.com.au  This website is home to Australia’s most popular and most frequented property investment forum and boasts almost 10,000 members; most of whom have bought or are intending to buy Australian real estate in the very near future. Our survey was intended to find out the consumers views about residential property listed without a price guide.

The question we asked: When a property has any of the following tags instead of a listed price (or guide/bracket) do you contact the agent or simply pass it by in preference for those that do have a listed price?

By Negotiation

Just Listed

Express Sale

EOI (Expressions of Interest)

POA (Price Upon Application)

By tender

Auction (with no price guide provided)

The respondents were provided with three options as answers and the results were as follows:

1. Yes    8.6%

2. No     74.2%

3. Only if listings are limited in this area   17.2%

We weren’t really surprised with the responses given that buyers have been expressing their frustrations to us for years about advertised property with no price or guide/range.  In our experience, the large majority of purchasers haven’t got the time or inclination to follow up with agents to enquire about price guides. From the results of our survey and subsequent comments buyers expressed the following reasons as to why they passed “no price tag” properties over.  These included:

They don’t wish to leave their details with dozens of selling agents and receive follow up calls, get added to email databases that clog up their inboxes or have extended conversations with agents seeking new listings.

They don’t want to play second guessing games with agents who ask them “What’s your budget?” rather than provide them with a price guide quickly.

Agents who couldn’t provide them with price guides didn’t know their market well enough- the general consensus being that the estimated price provided on the listing agreement with the vendor should be provided to potential purchasers.

They believe some properties without a listed price advertise this way because the vendor is unrealistic and the agent doesn’t wish to scare potential purchasers away.

Auctions came under particular attack, as underquoting is still a concern with Australian buyers in the marketplace.  With over 74% of our respondents not even bothering to enquire on such properties without price guides, it begs the question: Are vendors doing themselves a disservice by listing without a price tag?

As buyers’ agents, it’s our job to enquire on every property, regardless of whether or not it’s private treaty, auction, price or no price.  We also find that we’ve been able to secure some terrific property for clients who wouldn’t have otherwise bothered, due to the missing price tags.  It takes time, lots of legwork and persistence at times, however saturating the entire marketplace for our clients is part of the job.  If you’re one of those buyers who pass over properties without price guides, then you could be one of the 74% of buyers missing out here on a potential great deal on a new home or investment property.