Why are some property listed as POA?
When searching through property listings you are for sure going to come past some with POA stated instead of a price. So, what does POA actually mean? It is simply an abbreviation for Price on Application.
Why is the price not stated and instead it says POA? This can be for a host of different reasons though normally it is because the vendor wishes to keep the asking price private, maybe because they wish not that neighbours know of the price or even family or friends. For celebrities / people of government and similar then again they may prefer to not make public asking prices to avoid the media getting hold of this news and writing stories.
“Do note that POA is not exclusively an abbreviation for Price on Application, in business POA refers to Power of Attorney.”
Another common reason for POA to be used is when the vendor is not entirely sure of the price to list the property at as it may be quite unique / one of a kind and listing with no price might get them interesting offers. We see POA more commonly on higher priced property and sometimes larger parcels of land.
The estate agent might also recommend that the property is listed as POA for they are not entirely sure what the property needs to be listed at price wise, they might want to get a feel of the market – This will be a very unique situation, but nonetheless they will advise the vendor to not declare the price, especially if the property is highly desirable and somewhat a one of a kind.
Is it better to list your property as POA? This might intrigue potential buyers to find out more, but it can also work against you in that it can seem rather greedy or even arrogant and can turn people off. Though, if the property is desirable, price listed or not, then buyers will enquire for sure! Just remember that people are busy and if you are asking them to do something extra in order to just get some basic information, ie the listing price, then they may simply just move on to the next property listing.
For the estate agent using POA could mean they are having to put more time and effort in to selling the property, by this I mean that as the price is not stated and if the property is a touch over valued then taking calls / emails from buyers only for them to immediately say ‘no thanks‘ means wasted time / effort.