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Creating An Apartment Sales Package

When we are marketing your apartment property, we have a two-fold job facing us. First, we must persuade the prospective buyer to go out to see the property, then, second, get him to see it though your eyes, with its full potential fully realized. Creating the well-conceived descriptive sales “package” or report on the property can help to accomplish both of these aims.

Assembling all of the data that prospects need and presenting it in a handy and attractive form can expedite the entire process of negotiation as well as the ultimate sale. Besides speeding up the communications process, the “package” also provides the seller with a means of getting his information to a wider range of buyers in a more effective manner.

The Benefits of the Package

A well-prepared sales package serves essentially five marketing purposes:

• It helps the seller’s agent identify and reach prospective buyers or lessees.
• It provides an agent and his/her associates with an attractive and effective way of presenting the property.
• It gives the buyer, in one neat package, all the information needed to decide whether or not to buy.
• It provides dollars and cents demonstrations that will support the seller’s price.
• It spells out the property’s potential for development.

What It Includes

The following information should be of interest to a prospective buyer and should be preassembled in a handy, attractive form.

Physical Features:

• Legal description of property.
• Plot plan showing survey boundaries and dimensions, access streets, sidewalks, buildings, structures, parking areas, easements, etc.
• Description of topography and surroundings.
• Topographic map, if available.
• Photographs of the property, including an aerial photo.
• Soil Analysis report, if applicable.
• For an existing building, a statement of its physical condition, copies of floor plans, gross and net square footage.

Other Attributes:

• Statement of present ownership.
• List of any encumbrances.
• Statement of present zoning status.
• Proximity to highways, public transportation, residential areas, schools, houses of worship, shopping, sources of employment, etc.
• For an established enterprise, financial statements for the past three years, a three-year financial performance projection, and a computation of the venture’s capitalized value.

Knowing The Possibilities    

Whether we are marketing developed or undeveloped property, packaging is an effective way of increasing the property’s value. In either case, the key ingredient is project formulation. Formulating and demonstrating the feasibility of a project plan that enhances an existing property’s income-producing potential can increase its value. Similarly, a higher price can be obtained for raw land if the property is conceived as being an integral part of a specific development project, rather than just a piece of land.

Following is some information that should be included in a sales package for a property requiring development, redevelopment, or remodeling:

• Schematic drawings and architectural designs.
• Estimates of the project’s capital costs (including any off-site improvements).
• Projections of financial performance.
• Estimates of the project’s capitalized value, as per its potential net income.
• Market studies for the present as well as projections for the future.
• A history of the property’s market value.

In Conclusion

A careful preparation of a descriptive sales package like this will give us the opportunity to demonstrate the full economic worth of the property–its potential as well as present benefits and uses–to the prospective buyer. This will help justify the asking price and strengthen your negotiating position.  o