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Andrew Steens has written four successful gardening books, but called in a ghost writer to help with his latest book.
Newcomers to the real estate market have a new text to guide them through the process of buying or selling a house.
Two Mahurangi real estate agents have published a book in a bid to help homeowners get the very best price for their property when selling.
Andrew Steens and Angela Wain’s How to Sell Your Home for Top Dollar features tips and practical advice gleaned from their experience in establishing and running several successful Mike Pero branches in the area.
Andrew says the book is aimed primarily at first time sellers, or those who might have sold a property in the past, but were not happy with the process and result.
“It’s just the basics,” he says. “It’s not highly technical, but it is going to get you in the right headspace before you put your home on the market.”
The book aims to answer many of the questions that come up when homeowners first approach a real estate agent with a view to selling, and Andrew says, in his and Angela’s experience, it is the same issues that come up every time.
“We’ll be in an appraisal for an hour-and-a-half, and we’ll spend five minutes talking about price and the rest of the time talking about how to present the property and what needs doing, so I just thought, ‘Why not put all that in a book?’”
The couple only moved into real estate six years ago – before that, Angela was a hairdressing trainer and Andrew was a horticulturist and gardening author – but their businesses are now responsible for selling more properties in northern Rodney than anyone else.
“About a year or so after we started, we jumped in and started Mike Pero,” Andrew says. “Everyone said we were mad because the market was dead at the time. It was a huge risk, but we had confidence that we could do it and said, ‘Bugger it, let’s have a go’ and it worked. We just concentrated on getting the details right and ripped into it.”
He says their success is down to flexibility as much as knowing the market.
“It’s just using your noggin, constantly re-evaluating and adapting to different circumstances and people. Some of the things that happen in real estate are done just because that’s the way it’s always been done, like always pushing houses to auction or not going on Trade Me. But you’ve got to know your target market and where they are looking. And it’s treating people like you’d want to be treated yourself.”
Andrew will be selling How to Sell Your Home for Top Dollar via Facebook and online, though he says the majority will probably end up being given away.
“It cost a bit to produce, but at the end of the day, it’s a minimal cost compared to the value it gives,” he says. “We’ll just keep pushing it out there. It’s a good way to pay it forward.”
Mahurangi Matters has copies of How to Sell Your House for Top Dollar to give away. To get a copy, call into our office at 17 Neville Street, Warkworth, between 9am and 5pm, Monday to Friday.
