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Simon Parker
Top Snap, a property marketing company, has posted a 30 per cent on-year jump in turnover during November, a result the company attributed to agents wanting sharper property presentations to help combat slower markets.
“It might be a slower than normal market, with houses and units taking on average an extra 10 days to sell compared to this time last year, but as a result the need to properly market a home has never been greater,” said Top Snap’s manager director, Rob Watkin.
The surge in revenue growth was even more significant when compared to the same time in 2009, with sales up 130 per cent.
He said Top Snap assisted agents to “professionally present homes...using various types of property photography complemented by marketing tools such as virtual tours, copywriting, floor plans and virtual furniture.”
Recent conjecture suggesting the use of ‘virtual furnture’ had the potential to mislead potential buyers was something that could be addressed upfront, Top Snap said.
“When using virtual furniture, if agents are concerned that vendors might get a surprise when they arrive at the inspection to find an empty home, we can easily supply a small, unobtrusive watermark over an image stating ‘virtual furniture’ or ‘indicative furnishings only’,” said Helen Clarke, general manager at Top Snap.
“People understand that the home is not being sold with its furniture, but being upfront just helps avoid any misunderstandings from the get-go.”
Chris Bowmaker, principal of Queensland’s Bowmaker Realty agency, located in Brisbane’s northern suburb of North Lakes, said it’s critical to professionally present homes in the current business environment.
“In a slower market it’s hard to attract and please buyers. They do all their research online before inspecting a property, so we need to be attracting their attention while they are at their computer.
“This means that as an industry we’ve had to adapt to new technologies and become ‘marketing agents’ rather than solely ‘selling agents’, using professional photography, floor plans and virtual tours…to successfully market all our listings.”
The company pointed to Graham Taylor, residential & development sales, Ray White, who said the use of ‘virtual’ furniture helped him sell one particular property that he may have otherwise struggled to move.
“As well as using professional photography and floor plans for all our listings, we recently successfully marketed a new apartment by virtually furnishing the internal rooms and balcony, “ he said. “This totally transformed the unit’s presentation, leading to massive amounts of enquiries and resulting in a sale within days.”
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