The No-Price Advantage

No-price marketing has a great potential to obtain the highest possible purchase price for a property. So, if price is very important to you, DON'T NAME ONE!

A Marketed Asking-Price Has Disadvantages

How can it be negative to let buyers know what the asking-price is?

When using an asking-price, it is incredibly important to get the price right, right from the start.

A house that is fresh in the market draws the maximum amount of buyers and interest right at the start. It is imperative for any seller to make the most of this initial high exposure to potential buyers.

Buyers are trained by the conventional asking-price markting to elminate certain properties immediately, without ever viewing them. A buyer looking for a R1 million home will almost never view a home marketed at R500 000, not to mention a R1.5 million home! Properties outside the buyer's price range are automatically eliminated.

A persistant real estate agent might still be able to get buyers to consider a home that falls slightly outside the buyer's price range by dropping the word "negotiable". But buyers have certain expectations for a property in a certain price range. A property is negatively evaluated against these price range expectations.

A home that does not live up to these price-related expectations creates an over-whelming negative feeling towards the house in the minds of potential buyers. Any of these un-fulfilled expectations can cause a house to be eliminated from further consideration. If a house is eliminated for any reason, this disqualification is usually permanent. A disqualified property is seldom re-evaluated, even if the price gets lowered considerably at a later stage!

Sellers have to ensure that their property satisfies as many of these price-range criteria as possible to be seriously considered by the mayority of the potential buyers.

Most of the physical aspects of a house is not in the owner's control, but the seller does control one of the most influential characteristics - The Price

No-Price Marketing

The marketing of a property without the limiting effect of a publicly known asking-price is called No-Price marketing. Tender sales and auction sales are examples of marketing plans that make the most of the no-price advantage.

The owner decides on a purchase price in consultation with the real estate agent or auctioneer. BUT this purchase price is kept secret between the real estate agent, or auctioneer, and the home owner. No price guidelines are provided to potential buyers. Buyers are free to decide what they might be willing to pay for the property. And what some buyers might be willing to pay for the property way astound even the property owner!

No-Price Is To The Seller's Advantage

No-price marketing allows the property to draw potential buyers from a much wider price range. Buyers get the chance to fall in love with the home without the undermining effect of a marketing price.

Potential buyers suddenly have to change the way they think to allow for the abscense of an asking-price! It is like the whole world of house hunting turns upside-down. When buyers view a no-price property, they have no price-range expectation check-list against which to disqualify the propery. In stead, they have to evaluate what the property offers, and decide how much they would be willing to pay for it.

When no asking-price is available, many potential buyers imagine how the home will suit their needs; how the kids would run and play in the lovely garden and how their furniture would look just right in the spacious lounge. In their minds they already buy the house. They now almost try to "keep" the house. This is the reason property didders often say, "We lost the house", when an auction does not go their way.

Instead of looking for reasons why the house is not worth the asking-price, without a price, buyers have to search for reasons to offer more for a house. After all, they don't want to "lose" it just because they offer a few rand less than the Jonses!