Articles of Interest

With Lee Woodward and Sam Paynter

Properties have to be in sell-mode to generate great results.

To do this, everything needs to be packed away and stylists need to work their magic to ‘spruce’ up a home. Advertising, marketing, and styling are intended to ‘make a home’, but it’s for the buyer, not the seller.

As an Agent, you get one chance to really generate profit for the owner, otherwise the value is passed onto the purchaser.

To transition the home, an investment needs to be made in order to get the return on the larger investment.

As we all know, however, it’s hard to extract funds from vendors for marketing and styling purposes than we’d hope for. Many clients just don’t have the extra six grand to style or paint, or even increase their advertising. Or, in other cases, vendors may have the funds for better advertising, but may be reluctant to pay for styling or property preparations.

Realising the model for funding marketing is problematic for both the agency and the vendor. But Sam Paynter and the team from Convini have decided to solve the problem.

Solving the Problem

Sam Paynter and the team at Convini have created a facility that provides innovative cash flow solutions to the Real Estate industry.

Clients don’t have to use or find their own money to get the job done. Instead, they can use their ‘Convini digital dollars’ to pay for services, and pay it back digitally on the settlement of the property.

Sam has been in the industry for more than twenty years, and he believes Convini is a tool for getting the owner more money on settlement due to the ability to transform a property from ‘live mode’ to ‘sell mode’.

Convini is a convenient way of moving into the conversation about investing into the services that generate profit, and it can be introduced to a vendor in the proposal process.

Plus, Convini is backed by some big players in the Real Estate industry, including Barry Plant, O’Brien, Woodards, RT Edgar, Ray White, Jas Stephens and One Agency. These brands trust Convini to deliver a range of cash flow products to vendors, landlords and tenants.

How it Works

It’s a simple, easy and affordable facility, exclusive to the Real Estate industry.

Funds come from the sale of the asset, which then comes off the proceeds of the sale from the profit generated.

By using Convini, vendors have the opportunity to present their properties well, sell their property faster and generate higher profits. And, the longer a property is on the market, the less people expect to pay.

Convini works digitally, manually, or straight to the portal. It’s as simple as pressing a button to populate the form.

There are no credit checks, and it’s a simple ID check to comply with the Know Your Customer legislation. Once the information flows into the portal – it’s approved.

“The money will flow within 48 hours to the Agency. This then allows them to pay all the services to a property on the market as quickly as possible, as well as looking its best,” Sam says.

“For the owner, Convini gives them six months to pay, and it’s repaid through the release of the deposit or at settlement. Or, the vendor has the option to repay within six months on their own.”

Convini is affordable, with the cost of the service at 5.5% of the total for the first 90 days. Then, it’s 1.5% of the total each month after that until six months.

For example — for an advertising schedule of $10,000, clients pay $550 for the first 90 days (5.5%), then $150 per month for the next three months (1.5%).

You don’t need Tax Invoices!

“The Agent advertising schedule is itemised, and that will give Convini a total of X amount of dollars, let’s call it $10,000,” Sam says.

“We’ll give a quote for the styling cost, and the Agent or client will organise trades to come in to give quotes on painting, gardening and so on. That’s all we need and it’s very simple. No tax invoices are required, and we’ll fund straight from that. If there’s less of an amount of money spent, we’ll give it back.”

The Convini rule of thumb is every vendor is approved for the 2% of the value property, but if they need or want more and it makes sense, they will lend it.

For properties worth a million dollars, the lend would equate to around $20,000 per property. The value is equated from the Agent’s listing evaluation.

“When you have the facility to borrow, in the case of the investors for example, borrowing is tax free and tax deductible — it just makes sense,” Sam says.

“There’s an old rule in Real Estate that unless you get the ‘love thing’ happening, nothing will happen. You need the buyer to drive to the property, get out of the car, come into the house, and essentially, fall in love. If they don’t get out of the car, you’ve got a problem. When a house looks beautiful, you’ve got every chance of making the ‘love’ happen.”

A win-win situation

At Convini, the team believes that value performance advertising doesn’t mean you have to empty a house and put hired furniture in, or even get the lawns mowed. They understand that some vendors need assistance with the basic presentation of their home. So Convini helps them to engage a stylist, engage a gardener to do some basics, and help them present the home as best it can on whatever budget works for them.

If a property sells before any marketing is released or required, Convini will not charge.

“Even though the agreement has been signed, but no money is needed, we won’t charge for that. If the money has even left the account and has gone into an Agent’s hands and they don’t need it to pay a bill — they’ll simply just pay it back and there’s no fee,” Sam says.

Furthermore, in the last week of an auction campaign, if an Agent wants to boost something or do an upgrade and needs more funds to do so, all an Agent needs to do is email Convini with a CC confirmation from the vendor, and the money will flow.

Plus, Convini can even organise pre-approval.

“Any Agent can consider their vendors pre-approved of the 2% of the value of the property. So, if the marketing estimate is $5,000, the styling is $5,000 and the garden is $5,000 — an Agent can confirm with confidence that all the proposed elements are pre-approved,” Sam says.

“The opportunity to add value to every listing presentation is there when you use Convini.”
Digital dollars have just become part of our new world. For more information on Convini, visit their website.