A specialist lender has created an offering to help property sellers maximise their sale price, providing funding towards renovations and vendor marketing costs so sellers don’t need to outlay their own money upfront while preparing for a sale.
SaleFunder enables those planning to sell their home or investment property access to up to $60,000 for renovations, repairs, landscaping, property advertising and marketing, styling, solicitors’ fees, or various inspection reports.
SaleFunder founder and CEO Lucas McEntee explained the group was started out of a desire to help property owners get the best return from the sale of “likely their biggest asset”.
“We realised that while sellers could already finance advertising and marketing costs, many also wanted the option to directly access finance to cover the cost of other small projects which many real estate agents believe can unlock significantly higher sales prices,” McEntee added.
To this end, SaleFunder provides between $3,000 and $60,000 to property sellers with the funds released within 48 hours; the borrowed amount is to be repaid at settlement.
The product has been welcomed across the field, with chairman and owner of Century 21 Real Estate and Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate, Charles Tarbey, among those applauding the initiative.
“In nearly fifty years of real estate I have lost count of the times I saw vendors achieve a higher price for their home by improving the way it was perceived by buyers,” Tarbey said.
“On the flipside, I also recall countless cases when vendors didn’t follow an agent’s recommendations to undertake some small improvements or run a more aggressive marketing campaign and this likely cost them money in the end.
“Simple things – such as a small renovation, a fresh coat of paint or even a backyard makeover – can make all the difference in attracting strong competition for a property which can often mean a better sales price.”
SaleFunder charges customers 6.0% for the first 90 days, and then 1.5% every month thereafter.
“There are a lot of things you can do to make a property more attractive with a $60,000 budget. With the right agent, strategy and advice, we would argue that the finance costs could be greatly outweighed by the sales price achieved for many properties,” said McEntee.
“We already have a number of customers telling us that SaleFunder helped them achieve what they believe to be a price hundreds of thousands of dollars more than they or their agent suggested they would get for their property.
“We really hope…SaleFunder provides new options to sellers that they didn’t have before,” the CEO finished.
