VENDORS in West Bathurst have the best chance of selling their home quickly according to new data.
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This month, realestate.com made available an interactive graph detailing market demand and days on market for locations all around the country.
It claimed that the average days on market in Bathurst was 55, compared to the NSW average of 52.
There was only one local suburb that fell below this number, being West Bathurst, which had an average of 46 days.
On the other side of the spectrum, Eglinton has the longest average of days on market at 92.
Agent Chapman Real Estate owner David Chapman said that the reason West Bathurst homes performed better in the market was due to their price point.
"West Bathurst doesn't consist of any of the newer estates. If you looked at the average prices out there, they could be $300,000 homes instead of $500,000 homes," he said. "They are just more affordable."
He said that West Bathurst vendors generally had a bigger pool of buyers available to them as a result of the affordability.
One Agency Bestwick Real Estate agent Jim Connors had a similar perspective.
"For first-home buyers, you can find a neat and tidy three-bedroom home for around $350,000. Something they can use as a stepping stone into their future family home or hold onto as an investment," he said.
"For investors, they love West Bathurst because the numbers work. For first-time investors, they often pursue a particular property which will show positive gains through their rental income. For properties in West Bathurst, this is often the case."
Regarding Eglinton, Mr Connors said there was "a restricted buyer-pool" and, with the amount of new homes offering more choice, there was less urgency to buy in the suburb, resulting in days on market to exceed 90.
In his comments on Eglinton, Mr Chapman said demand for the area would increase once more infrastructure, like shops, was built.
He added that homes traditionally stay on the market for three months in Bathurst, so vendors shouldn't be overly concerned if their homes were still on the market at that point.
What can a vendor do to help their home spend less time on the market?
Mr Connors said it was important that vendors think like buyers. What is it that they'd be looking for in a new home?
"Discuss with your chosen agent who your target audience might be," he said.
"This will allow you to put a strategy in place which will best suit your home and who you're trying to portray the lifestyle to."
When it comes to selling in winter, these are Mr Connors' top tips:
- Clean those windows! Because they bring in the natural light and sense of space.
- Pay close attention to the front facade of your home - this is possibly the heaviest influencer on a purchasers first impression.
- Remove personal or family photos where possible - we want to provide our purchasers with a sense that it could be their home, not someone else's.
- Remove furniture from high traffic areas, this can give off a sense of the space being contained and small. This is more important in winter as our buyers will spend more time inside than out.
- Eliminate smells and odours where you can - as unrealistic as it sounds, sometimes people don't love our pets as much as we do.
If a home stays on the market longer than a vendor intends, Mr Chapman said it was important they speak to their real estate agent.
"Price and its presentation are key to getting a property sold, so if it is hanging around longer than the town average, then they need to be having discussions with their agent," he said.
"There are plenty of things a proactive agent can do to improve a listing."
