Data-matching services for buyers and sellers

Homeowners making transactions in Melbourne’s buoyant real estate market are being offered high quality leads on new property listings and prospective buyers by Nelson Alexander.

The Melbourne real estate agency group operates an industry-beating database that contains extensive real-time information on prospective buyers and forthcoming listings. This information is shared equally between Nelson Alexander’s 13 offices.

Nelson Alexander Sales Director Arch Staver says the database contains useful sales and buyer leads that can greatly assist in firming up property transactions.

He says by accessing the database clients are able to speed-up the property transaction process and avoid lengthy and costly settlements.

Most people opt to sell their existing home first and then use the available equity to purchase a new property. But as owner-occupiers in Melbourne become increasingly familiar with the real estate market, many are opting to buy a new home and then sell their current home.

Mr Staver says the database provides quality leads and referrals to assist all homeowners, regardless of whether they choose to sell first or buy a new home first.

The database is particularly useful to people who buy a new home and then want to sell their current property in quick time.

Nelson Alexander is seeing a growing trend to buying first and selling later among owner-occupiers.

“When someone chooses to buy a new property through Nelson Alexander, they are offered immediate access to our database,” Mr Staver says.

“This can assist tremendously in helping a client to quickly sell their current home”.

“One of the advantages of our company is that we don’t have territories and are a non-franchise group”.

“All of the crucial details of prospective upgraders and buyers, and of vendors looking to trade, are kept in our database and this information is shared equally between our staff and offices.”

Mr Staver says the extensive database is very helpful in matching clients to properties.

He says that if a client buys a house in Kew or Northcote and needs to quickly sell their existing smaller house in Fitzroy, they can be helped almost immediately.

“We have transacted a lot of properties that have not hit the market at all,” he says.

“Nelson Alexander is still able to maximise the result for a vendor without holding an auction”.

“Recently, we have had a number of willing buyers – willing to pay a healthy price, if not a slight premium on the asking price – transacting private sales of properties, and we expect to see more of these transactions.”

The independent and wholly-owned agency group offers a range of assistance services and information kits to help people through the property transaction process. These include, help in preparing a property for sale and checklists and toolkits designed to accelerate a sales campaign.

Some people find it stressful to sell their current home and buy a new one. Both processes require a commitment of time, money and emotion.

Those who opt to buy first often want a long settlement on the property they have purchased and a short settlement on the sale of their present home. Through its database and customer support systems Nelson Alexander can readily identify prospective buyers who are prepared to transact on short settlements and introduce them to vendors.

It’s important to note that buying before you sell can be financially challenging.

Without the equity from the sale of an existing home you could require bridging finance to cover the purchase of a new home. Bridging finance typically costs a lot more than a standard home loan. In addition, buying first can bring extra pressure to sell your existing property and you may end up with less control over the sale process.

But there are ways around these challenges.

For example, negotiating a long settlement on the purchase of the new property allows more time to sell your present home.

It’s also possible to make the sale of an existing home a contingency on the purchase of the new home. However, this may put sellers off.

One of the reasons why buying first is now more popular is that real estate prices in many of Melbourne’s inner and middle-ring suburbs have been on a strong growth trajectory since early 2012.

Price data compiled by the real estate data companies CoreLogic RP Data and Australian Property Monitors indicate that house prices in many areas have increased by 25 per cent in the past three years. These price-gain trends can give the advantage to owner-occupiers who are prepared to plunge into the market and buy first.

In a rising market, real estate values may rise after selling, pricing you out of a desired market.

CoreLogic RP Data figures show that Australians who sold property during the first three months of 2015 made an average profit of $230,633 and more than a third of sellers doubled their money.