Rainbow Realty Deal September 2012

“There are two great moments in a man's life. One, when he buys his first yacht. Second, when he sells the thing!”

Kerry Packer

This month we would like to present “The cold, hard facts of Rainbow Beach residential property sales”. Over the past two years (since 1 July 2010); there have been 31 residential property sales recorded for Rainbow Beach.

* This excludes private sales as these are often the result of a ‘related parties’ exchange in order to change the name on the Title from an individual to a Company or a husband to a wife etc.

78% of these (24 sales) were achieved by Cooloola Coast Realty (average sale price of $435,000)

16% (5 sales) were achieved by other Rainbow Beach based Realties, (average sale price of $386,500) and

6% (2 sales) were achieved by out of area agents (average sale price of $482,500).

These statistics show that even in a tough market, there has still been an average of 1.3 sales per month and that if you are actually looking to sell your property (as opposed to just list it for sale); the best option is Cooloola Coast Realty. These statistics also indicate that it is extremely unlikely for an out of area agent to achieve a sale in Rainbow Beach. This is partly due to the geographical distance separating the town from the nearest metropolitan centre. Ie. An agent in Gympie, Noosa or Maryborough is unlikely to be able to meet the needs of a prospective buyer who is only in town for a limited time and wants to arrange an inspection ‘on the spot’ or coordinate multiple inspections.

Please feel free to contact us anytime to discuss the market and the current value of your property. We will provide you with a frank and honest assessment of the current market; backed up with facts relating to recent comparable sales which will allow you to make an informed decision regarding the current value of your home, whether or not to list it for sale and at what price you can expect to sell.

So you have decided to list your property for sale with Cooloola Coast Realty but what if you want your property managed as a holiday let or permanent rental? Well, we sometimes find it frustrating that certain people view larger businesses as impersonal or perhaps not offering as high of a standard of service as smaller competitors. It seems somewhat illogical to us that someone would perceive a larger agency as not being capable of providing a superior service given that their ratio of staff to properties’ is lower than its competitor. ie. there are more resources allocated per property under management.

For example, at Cooloola Coat Realty; we have five full-time staff managing properties (sales, holiday, and permanent) whilst the alternative agency in town has only one full-time staff member who is responsible for all aspects of property management within the business. This situation offers a high risk solution with no contingency for attrition, annual leave, illness or absence of key staff whilst an agency with five full time staff provides continuity and assurance that your property is being managed professionally and competently throughout the year.

With specific regard to holiday rentals, another important aspect to consider when choosing a managing agency is how much exposure your property will receive to prospective guests. Cooloola Coast Realty has a massive e-database of over 7000 clients; many of which have holidayed in Rainbow Beach multiple times. We distribute an E-Newsletter to this database once a month, often with specials targeted at increasing holiday bookings – particularly during the traditionally quieter months of autumn and winter. We also upload our holiday properties to eight separate websites to ensure the property receives maximum exposure.

When choosing holiday accommodation, many of our guests indicate that they look for the largest range of options in order to make a decision on where they would like to stay. They often consult well-known holiday accommodation websites such as “stayz.com.au” as multiple properties are listed on the one site. Our flagship holiday accommodation website: www.accommodationrainbowbeach.com ranks extremely well on a ‘google’ search of “rainbow beach accommodation” and averages approximately 25 holidaymakers on it at any one time.

The best analogy we can think of is the concept of going to Bunnings Warehouse to buy a wheelbarrow as opposed to going down to the guy on the corner who sells everything from hay to hammers and only stocks one type of wheelbarrow. Most people are going to look in Bunnings because there is so much more choice and it’s all in one location.

At this point, it is safe to say that social media has revolutionised online marketing in every industry. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google+ and other social media channels have become a large part of the marketing campaigns for many companies. The Real Estate industry is no different.

Cooloola Coast Realty is involved in the selling and leasing of property and in today’s difficult market – we need to embrace any form of exposure and marketing that can put buyers and sellers together.

We have our own Facebook page now that we regularly update with property market information, recent sales, great bargains and holiday accommodation specials. In addition, you can keep up to date with local information including weather/road/beach conditions, new businesses and shops in town as well as any new infrastructure developments. Just ‘google’ “facebook cooloola coast realty” and make sure you click: ‘Like’ to keep up to date with all the Rainbow Beach property market information.