We appreciate that. Except for yacht-owning billionaires, property is the most valuable thing most folks will ever own. Selling your home’s a significant undertaking; not just financially, but emotionally as well. That’s why it’s essential you find an agent with the energy, experience, and resources needed to get you the maximum price (with minimum stress).
The teams knowledge of the local area was invaluable in providing assistance with trades and ensuring that we marketed our home for the best possible audience. Kathleen and the entire team at LOYLE were outstanding in achieving the best possible outcome for our sale.
Tricia, The Gap
Please feel free to yell out directions! Afterall, it’s your property. We’re just the ones steering a course for your desired destination. We’ll first gauge your preferred level of involvement, setting out the nice-to-haves, non-negotiables, and anything else you need us to know.
Don’t be fooled by our casual vibe, we approach the marketing and sale of your property with the energy of a Jack Russell terrier! No stone’s left unturned, no paver out of place, no stray leaf un-blown in our quest to get you the best result.
Agents working for conventional agencies can get caught up in competing for work and forget who they really serve. Everyone in Team LOYLE is fully committed to their colleagues’ and clients’ success, offering you transparency and around-the-clock support.
Whether you prefer a phone call or texting on WhatsApp (emojis anyone? 😀), we’ll keep you in the loop. That means reports on open homes, updates on offers received, and occasional check-ins to keep things hunky-dory. Too much information? Tell us – we won’t be offended!
Every property sale is a little different, but there are some standards and non-negotiables. Let’s step through a breakdown of selling a property in Brisbane, from picking an agent to pocketing the profits.
Great to meet you! Thanks for hearing our pitch for marketing your property. During the proposal stage, you’ll give us the story of the place, the features you’d like to highlight, and dish your details of what a dream sales result looks like to you. Armed with past sales data and our expert insights, we’ll give you an appraisal of the price you can expect.
You’ve chosen to go with us – thanks so much! Let’s start with some housekeeping like getting the paperwork (title deeds and compliance docs), and sorting out a lockbox for the keys for easy access during the marketing stage.
Time to get your property looking its best so we can show it off. This means:
We’ll get going on the online listings, plan the social media ads, and produce signboards. Got tenants in the house? No worries, we’ll organise the sales process with them.
Once you’ve approved the advertising content and scheduling, we’ll press the go button. Time to break ground with the signboard stakes, push your property into thousands of Facebook feeds, and upload your listings to key websites like realestate.com.au.
Team LOYLE will be a fixture at your property, running open homes, working the phone, and turning expressions of interest into solid offers. In keeping with REIQ best practice, you’ll only receive formal offers from us. Signed by the buyer, these contracts are the result of our negotiating on your behalf for the maximum price with minimum conditions.
If you choose to auction your property, we’ll generally entertain offers in the lead up. If you sell under the hammer, the rules of sale are different than when negotiating contracts with buyers individually (known as selling by private treaty). The main difference is that at auction, if the bidding goes past the reserve price (the minimum you’ll accept), the property must be sold to the highest bidder, who’s legally required to sign an unconditional contract of sale. Nice!
Unless you sold under the hammer, you’ll now consider the offers on the table. Even if your auction bidding doesn’t meet the reserve, often we’ll negotiate with the highest bidder/s after the auctioneer’s concluded, trying for a better price in a contracted offer.
Many assume the offer with the highest $ figure is automatically the best, but things aren’t always that simple. That’s because property contracts vary in the conditions and other terms they contain. We’ll consider things like deposit amount, the finance clause, building and pest inspection clause, and even if the offer’s conditional on the buyers selling their current home. We’ll help you navigate the nuances and pick the strongest option to countersign, making the contract ‘live’.
The buyer’s transferred the deposit, gotten the tick of approval from their bank, signed off on the building and pest inspector’s report, and checked any other boxes outlined in their contracted offer. The contract’s gone unconditional – hooray!
Now both parties (buyer and seller) – along with their solicitors and financial institutions – need to ensure everything’s in place for settlement to go ahead on the contracted date. We’ll arrange a pre-settlement inspection with the buyers roughly for the morning of settlement – pretty much a formality to assure them the property’s in a similar condition to when they last saw it.
Around 3–4 days before settlement, your conveyancing solicitors will give you a Disbursement Schedule document, breaking down where the money will go, and giving you a clear idea of how much you’ll pocket from the deal.
Unless you own the property outright, you’ll need to notify your financial institution of your intent to sell, requiring payment of any outstanding mortgage. To do this, you’ll need to send them a document called a Discharge Authority.
Today, practically all settlements are conducted via PEXA – a national online system that facilitates the transfer of funds to all the parties involved in property transactions. Depending on the banks, you can usually expect the funds hit your account within 2-3 days of the settlement date. We’ll arrange the transfer of house keys, and will send you reminders of any inclusions that should remain with the property, so don’t worry about it.
All you’ll have on your mind is planning what to do with all that money!
Whether you’ve outgrown your first house, want to downsize after many happy years in the family home, or need to offload an investment, our door’s always open.
The 64-million-dollar question (just an expression by the way)! Obviously, the answer varies for each property, depending also on market conditions.
When you approach us for help selling your property, we’ll go through our appraisal process to give you a realistic picture of the price point you can expect. In addition to recent sales data for similar properties, we have a wealth of inside knowledge we use to give you deeper insights. This includes withheld sales price information accessed via our industry-only data services, and knowledge of what prospective buyers offered for other properties we’ve sold previously.
Sometimes, there are straightforward improvements you can make to your property that will increase its value. If they’re likely to yield a good return on investment in a timely manner, then we’ll advise you to go ahead with them.
In-app or desktop valuations only go so far. We’ll give you a credible and well-informed estimate that’s as close to bankable as possible.
Every home’s different, but here are a few essential checklist items to tick off.
Paperwork:
Utilities and appliances:
Cleaning and minor fixes:
Declutter and style:
Depending on the market, availability of tradesmen, and your personal circumstances, it may be worth doing some more major enhancements like kitchen and bathroom renovations, or maybe landscaping. You’ll get honest advice from us on whether it’s worth the time and money, and how to strategically draw attention away from your property’s shortcomings.
Our fee structure is something we explain to prospective clients when we present our proposal for the marketing of their property. Our commissions aren’t the lowest, nor are they the highest.
Hunting a bargain makes sense for your energy provider, but when it comes to the biggest transaction you’ll ever make, you’ll want to consider what you get for your money.
How a ‘cheaper’ agent costs you money
Let’s run some numbers. Imagine you’ve found two different agents you’re considering using to sell your home. One is just finding their feet in the business and has adopted a relatively low 2% commission structure to entice business. The other has many years of experience and a proven track record of attracting high prices for properties sold. The more experienced agent’s commission is 3%.
If you went with the cheaper, less qualified agent (let’s call him John), we’ll assume you’d net $920,000 for your 3-bedroom home. Alternatively, we’ll assume the more expensive veteran realtor (let’s call her Kim) would be able to negotiate a price creeping into the 7-figures, say $1,020,000.
The cheaper agent’s final fee is $18,400. The dearer one’s is $30,600. But the cheaper agent got you $100,000 less for your property.
The formula for True Sale Price (factoring in agent’s fee) = Sales Price – Agent’s Commission.
So John’s True Sale Price = $920,000 – $18,400 = $901,600
But Kim’s True Sale Price = $1,20,000 – $30,600 = $989,400
“Hang on…” we hear you chime in, “You can’t just assume the veteran will get $100K more for the place, can you?!”
Well, maybe not every time, but…
In this example, Kim would only need to outsell John by $10,000 for you to be better off going with her. Every dollar over $930,000 would mean extra cash in your pocket.
Some very smart people assure us as a rule of thumb, for each 1% higher the commission, the ‘more expensive’ agent needs to achieve a price a smidge over 1% higher to justify their higher commission.
So now you see how going with the ‘cheaper’ agent can actually be more expensive.
Quality marketing materials and strategic advertising placements are critical to getting a good result. When we first meet you to present our plan for the marketing of your property, we’ll present you with a ‘menu’ of marketing options to choose from. You’ll be presented with recommendations (a bit like at a flash restaurant), but ultimately the dishes you pick are up to you.
There are a few staples of a successful property marketing campaign you’d go hungry without: photography, floorplans, social media exposure, signboards, and listing on realestate.com.au. That kind of 5-course meal will cost you between $4,500 – $6,000 depending on what you choose.
Beyond the fast talking and wooden hammers (not really a thing these days), auctions can be a great component of a property marketing strategy. Selling at auction is one of two main modes of property transaction, the other being via private treaty.
Adding an auction can:
At Team LOYLE, we think a collaborative approach works best (the hint’s in the name 😉). You’ve no doubt noticed many agents all about the personal branding. Those individuals working under the big brands are essentially competing with their colleagues for sales.
What you might not know is that a huge portion (up to 50%) of the agent’s commission gets eaten up by franchise fees. That’s why many agents get caught up playing the numbers game, racking up listings and knocking them off as quickly as they can. With a big chunk of their commission getting siphoned off by head office, a lot of agents choose to go solo, not wanting to take advantage of the benefits of a support team, simply because it would mean more mouths to feed.
We do things differently. As an independent agency, we reinvest our profits directly into our team. You can be confident that every Team LOYLE member is aligned towards a common goal, getting the best result for our clients collaboratively.
You’ll only get the unvarnished truth form us – it’s part of our no BS policy. We’ll always let you know from the outset any challenges or complications posed by current market conditions. We don’t do this just because it’s the right thing to do. Even if you don’t sell straight away, once we’ve established trust there’s every chance you’ll knock on our door again when it is the right time to sell.
When agents are pitching for your business, keep your eyes out for ‘too good to be true’ offers and promises. Overpricing your property is a key area to watch out for. Some realtors will indulge the seller and inflate their expectations in order to secure the deal, with the ultimate plan of conditioning them down to a more realistic pricepoint over time.
Another carrot they’ll dangle is free marketing. The cliche ‘you only get what you pay for’ applies here. Gimmicks like this are often not worth the paper or pixels they’re published on. It’s something inexperienced or unskilled agents fall back on to win work.
If a prospective agent slashes their commission in an attempt to close a deal, you have to assume they’ll do the exact same thing when it comes to negotiating a deal for your place. As discussed in our How much are your fees? FAQ, ‘cheaper’ agents often cost you money, because they settle for lower end prices, either due to inexperience or lack of full effort.
Agents who focus on churning through a volume of sales to hit their KPIs can afford to lower their commission a few clicks on each one. But can you afford a realtor who’s just going through the motions and pushing you to take the first offer, without dedicating the time and effort required to get the maximum price?
It’s a key difference between us and the big franchise competition. The big brand agencies have big overheads and lots of people taking their cut. They pressure agents to hit volume KPIs and push the pace of sales (trust us, we used to work for one of them). This ‘tick and flick’ model is essential to the success of their business model, but it’s a recipe for poor results for you – the seller.
As a boutique agency like Team LOYLE has lower overheads and a smaller tight-knit team dedicated to mutual success. Our focus is on educating sellers and offering a long-term approach. This can mean giving advice that would never be heard at a franchise, like “Maybe you should wait a few months before putting your property on the market.”
We believe in a sustainable approach that fosters lifelong relationships with our clients. It’s not just the right thing to do, it’s the smart business decision.
It is a grey area in real estate and something that is not regulated yet. We decided a long time ago to only advocate for sellers. Our primary focus is to find the owner as many buyers as possible, to achieve the best possible price. We will never represent or take money from a buyer, so you can be sure in the transparency and ethical foundations of our dealings with you.
Yes, we have a vetted directory of qualified tradies who can help with with repairs and maintenance needed to get a property up to speed for smoother sales. We see this as an important inclusion in the selling process (something not all agencies offer).
We have comprehensive checklists from pre launch, on market, and post contract. This includes:
It’s important to consider the unique circumstances of each individual property and its owners when planning the marketing approach. Factors we take into consideration include:
With decades of experience, we’ve learned a lot about how to strategically craft marketing collateral and time campaigns to get the best result for the seller. Whatever your circumstances, whatever type of property you own, and whenever you plan to sell, we’ve got the tactics and hacks to max your final price.
First comes understanding the client and their needs, then the house profile, then market conditions on when they are planning their launch. The timing of launch day in the week is critical. And then the week in the month and other external factors that play to when buyers are active / dormant.
That’s where the team-first culture comes in! No matter what an agent says, no one can be 100% available to you 24/7. We don’t pretend to be superhuman, but we are part of a dream team that’s greater than the sum of its parts.
Our joint comms group is invaluable for clients, ensuring they have what they need quickly. If you have a contract or compliance question for example, we’ve got multiple informed staff who can field it for you at any time. Need an update on offers received? Our systems ensure our team all have visibility of that info, and can pass it on directly.
We have a saying in our office that while real estate is imporant, we aren’t saving lives. We rarely deal with emergencies (although some things are urgent). Those crucial decisions should be made thoughtfully and with tact. Our advice to you will always be timely, considered, and in line with the end goal for the sale of your property.
We helped a couple looking forward to a more relaxing retirement reach a street record price within a suitable timeframe.
The brief
Facing some health challenges in their later years, our clients wanted to sell their large house and move somewhere low maintenance. Time of year and market conditions posed separate challenges. Because of long weekends and public holidays, we couldn’t count on the usual footfall, and the broader context of softening demand and prices made it hard to predict final figures.
The approach
We rolled up our sleeves and coordinated the trade work needed to get the property to a standard that would enable the right financial outcome. We advised the owners to schedule an auction following an intensive schedule of open homes, backed by a targeted online campaign.
By the numbers
We delicately negotiated the sale of a beloved family home, whose owner required advanced care.
The brief
The owner’s declining health meant she had vested power of attorney in her children. Selling their Mum’s home of 42 years, and all the memories it raised, was an emotional process that required us to balance emotional sensitivity with a pragmatic approach. The ultimate goal was securing a low-risk offer (minimal conditions) that would help the owner settle into a care facility with the next 6 months.
The approach
To reassure the family we truly appreciated the character of their Mum’s 1950s home, we delved into its history and unique features, communicating those in marketing material. We also took a hands-on role to project managing the required trades work, relieving undue stress on the family during a difficult time.
Opting to hold an auction to minimise risk of contract conditions drawing out the process, we made sure the neighbourhood knew the owner was moving on to the next phase of her life.
When contacted by a couple unhappy with their existing agents, we showed them a better way (and ‘showed them the money’ as well).
The brief
The owners weren’t selling to a timeframe; they wanted to achieve a certain price point in a market showing signs of decline. We agreed we needed to refresh the marketing while making the most of the assets they’d acquired from the previous realtor’s work.
The approach
Using data from previous sales reports and other market research, we tailored a marketing strategy that put the property’s unique features front and centre. On our advice, the client commissioned and freely distributed a building and pest report to prospective buyers. Emphasising benefits of the local area, we upsold the lifestyle angle in marketing material promoted through online listings and social media ads.
By the numbers
We assisted a separated couple to sell their unique property as part of their division of assets agreement.
The brief
The owner who made contact knew us from our social media. With us, she felt she’d get the sensitive but pragmatic treatment she needed at that time. She was still working from home during the sales process so minimising interruptions to her daily routine was a priority. On top of the challenge of working with two separate parties, we had the peculiar nature of the home to consider – a Strata title property, with exclusive use of an additional 812 square metres of land. We also needed to navigate that some of the renovated rooms didn’t meet building code requirements for ceiling height.
The approach
We quickly realised this property was a real gem; we just needed to find someone who appreciated its unique features. This meant connecting with prospects who saw the potential offered by exclusive use of the added land, who’d be keen to get the necessary certifications for the renovations, which were generally high quality.
With one owner needing peace and quiet to work from the property, combined with the lack of free access to the property, we emphasised virtual tours and carefully scheduled in-person inspections. Online advertising was strategically crafted to differentiate the property – which was essentially a house, just surrounded by units – from the other townhouses it was grouped with.
By the numbers
When a landlord wanted to offload an investment, we managed the process of sale with minimal stress for the tenants.
The brief
The owner approached us for help in selling their rental property, at that time occupied by a single mum and her four kids. The two main likely scenarios were to sell to another investor who’d continue the lease, or find a first home buyer looking to make their move into the market. Either way, we resolved to make things as easy as we could for the family in place.
The approach
The first step was to meet with the tenants and explain the situation. By establishing a positive relationship early on, we secured their necessary cooperation throughout the marketing campaign.
They were accommodating with open homes and providing access as needed, while presenting the home as best they could.
By the numbers
We stepped up to enable the quick and effective sale of an investment property, avoiding excessive interest costs biting our clients.
The brief
Time was of the essence, so we needed to arrange essential repairs and maintenance for after the tenant moved out, followed by styling and photography. The property was an unusual product – a townhouse-sized dwelling on a small block, but with Torrens title (not Strata). Its location – near to an industrial area and some housing commission residences – presented some challenges.
The approach
We decided to pitch specifically at dual income couples without kids. Time-poor professionals can be more willing to pay a premium for a modern, well finished and elevated property, which requires no additional work.
We catered for potential buyers’ busy schedules in arranging inspections around their work, while also strategically managing the timing in relation to issues with the location.
By the numbers
