Imraz Ramani of the Real Estate Ramani Team for RE/MAX West Realty takes us inside a recent sale where his full-service approach (everything from staging the home for sale to providing the moving boxes so his clients have an easier time packing) helped address both goals of the sellers simultaneously.
Read on to find out what strategies worked for this sale and whether his clients got everything they were asking for with the sale of their home.
Property: 18 Spring Garden Ave., Unit 705
What the Sellers Wanted
18 Spring Garden Avenue
The sellers wanted the highest price in the least amount of time because they still lived in the condo and showings are a pain. What sellers never say, and I had to learn this quickly, is that they also want the process to happen with the least amount of stress. From the moment I walk through the door, they want the whole process to be stress free... while also having the property sell as quickly as possible and for the highest price. That’s where my full-service approach comes in -- it tackles both issues in one.
What the Buyers Were Looking For
18 Spring Garden Avenue
I learned that these buyers were seniors and lived in the area. This helped me when verbally selling their agent on the property. It also helped me because they knew the neighbourhood and they wanted to buy in the area, so I didn’t need to sell that feature to their agent. As a result, I could focus on what’s important to these specific buyers and seniors in general. What were these senior buyers concerned with? Safety and security (especially an exit plan in case of fire), who their neighbours would be, building demographics, and amenities in the building, especially when it came to the level of cleanliness. They also wanted to know as much as they could about the sellers.
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Knowing this, I tried to make an emotional connection -- talking to the buyers about the sellers, and telling them what the sellers loved about the building, the upgrades the sellers did to the unit, and the care and thought the sellers put into the unit. This helped show the buyers the type of people they would be buying the home from. I also worked hard to make them see it as a home by discussing how the sellers had their grandkids sleep over in the second bedroom and how the sellers still live in the area and, finally, why the seventh floor was more beneficial to the buyers versus higher floors. These were all things these buyers were looking for.
Risks and Challenges
18 Spring Garden Avenue
With any listing, overpricing, and having the property sit on the market for a long time because of it, is the fear. But you must balance that fear with pricing it in a way where you’re not leaving a penny on the table for the seller. Another risk is that there’s always a chance we don’t find that buyer we’ve been catering to and targeting.
Realtor Strategy
18 Spring Garden Avenue
Each listing is different. One thing I like to do is call each agent before they take their client to my listing, find out about the buyer, and then verbally sell the product to the buying agent. Of course, this may seem simple from the outside looking in, but there’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes when you’re working with a full-service realtor like I am. My discussion with the potential buyer’s agent changes depending on the angles I need to research ahead of time for that initial call. If I call the buyer agent ahead of time, my hope is that as the agent walks though the condo unit they remember to tell their clients what I want them to focus on. Of course, if they don’t touch on anything I brought up, there are still things I can do afterwards to tip the scales in my client’s favour.
Outcome
18 Spring Garden Avenue
The unit sold for higher than the last previous comparable unit and in less time. For a condo in a COVID-19 market, that was amazing! The sellers were super happy, and the buyers got a good, well cared for and properly renovated unit in a good building. However, it wasn’t all just my strategy that made it happen. I believe things have a way of lining up when they’re meant to be. For me, that’s this situation. All I did was help the two parties align.
