Author Archives: Sam

Whether you have a solitary budgie or a whole menagerie, any pet you have will doubtless be a very important member of your family. However, even though it’s sometimes difficult for pet lovers to imagine, there is in fact a large proportion of the population that just doesn’t like animals in the house. So what to do when you have a viewing arranged?

To make sure you don’t alienate your viewers and put them off your home from the moment they step through the door, it’s best to eliminate all traces of your pets if at all possible. If your agent accompanies viewers, then take the dog out for a walk; if you conduct the viewings yourself, and the weather allows it, let your dog have a sleep in the car, or leave it with a neighbour.

Move out of sight all pet paraphernalia: litter trays, pet food, dog beds, cat toys, etc. Close the cat flap, and ask a friend to look after the budgie.

Whilst you may prefer to sell your home to a pet lover just like you, in reality it doesn’t make sense to limit your market and you need to look at selling your property in a dispassionate and logical way. Give your buyers the chance to fall in love with your house and your beloved pets will soon have a new home to move to.

If you’d like my help to sell your home more effectively, please answer a few short questions here and if I think I can help you, I’ll be in touch.

When a house is being described in print or online, the words used can either have the effect of making a reader switch off, or else making the house lift off the page, and come alive. The difference between telling the reader all about a property, in terms of bricks and mortar, and the way a good writer can draw you into the detail of a home, full of welcome and memories, is a profound one. Look at these examples:

‘A beautiful detached family home, set in pretty gardens extending to about an acre, with a wonderfully secluded swimming pool, far reaching views and well planned accommodation. No onward chain.’

‘On a warm, summer’s morning Mark and Anne Clarke like nothing better than to take a dip in their heated, outdoor swimming pool, before enjoying their breakfast al fresco on the terrace, overlooking the back garden.’

The pool is actually at the side of the house and not overlooked by anyone. “That side of the house gets the sun all day, so we often like to take an early morning swim,” Helen explained. “The minute we first saw it we knew we were going to buy it,” she added. “There are wonderful views from every single window in the house.”

Would you believe these two passages are actually describing the same house?

How about these two; which house sounds more appealing?

This one…. ‘A wonderful country house situated in an enviable position within this hamlet. The property, which has been well maintained and improved by the current owners for over 30 years and is presented for sale in excellent decorative order throughout.’

Or this? ‘Wandering past the glorious roses in full bloom, and on through the Japanese and Italian gardens, Ian and his wife Sophie soak up the wonderful tranquillity of their exquisite English country home.’

They have lived at the expansive four-bedroom house in this picturesque hamlet for more than 30 years now. There they have created an attractive and comfortable family home, which sits beautifully in its magnificent grounds of almost 6 acres. The property is overflowing with delightful features that include intricate plasterwork and open fireplaces, while the fabulous grounds incorporate a tennis court and a number of outbuildings, including converted stables, as well as a semi-walled garden with pond, and an arboretum.’

Beautiful prose and evocative words written in a stylish and nostalgic tone, can really capture a reader’s imagination. Dull, flat copy full of clichés and ‘estate agent-speak’ can have the opposite effect. Here’s my 5 point checklist to make sure your home sings on the page:

1. Create a snappy headline.

‘Executive five bed home with luxury fittings and well-maintained gardens’ isn’t enough to get anyone excited. ‘Are these the best views in Sussex?’ will get your property noticed for all the right reasons.

2. Supercharge your adjectives.

Is your copy sprinkled with adjectives that evoke homely warmth and comfort? Words like cosy and welcoming are very appealing to buyers, and will pull at their emotional buying strings.

3. Ban all agent-speak.

Scour your descriptions for words that are clichéd and typical of the worst kind of property description. Make sure you take out offending phrases like ‘double aspect’ or ‘benefitting from’ and eliminate any mention at all of power points, telephone points and radiators.

4. Room-by-room descriptions are old hat.

Much better is a well-written opening paragraph, followed by a written ‘tour’ of the house, including the garden, and peppered with pretty quotes from the owners.

5. Dimensions belong in floorplans; not in the written description.

They interrupt the flow of the writing, and are very difficult to understand when taken out of context. As part of the floorplan they are useful because they make sense.

Of course, it’s not always a straightforward process, persuading your estate agent to add such imaginative and attractive style to your written description, but even if you can get him to use some of your words, it will make such a difference to the way your buyer understands what your home has to offer them.

If you’d like my help to sell your home more effectively, please answer a few short questions here and if I think I can help you, I’ll be in touch.

If your house has been on the market for more than three months, there are some questions you need to ask your estate agent to find out why it hasn’t sold so far, and what to do about it. A good agent will be able to answer all seven – let’s see how many your agent can answer…..

1. Who have you sent our brochure out to? – to what kind of buyers? How many had asked specifically for your property details, and how many had been sent out to their mailing list? How many did they print, and how many do they have left? Sometimes, agents won’t reprint when they run out, preferring instead to keep costs down by printing off the office printer – tacky!

2. Can you show me our Rightmove Performance Report and your analysis? – (see blog post Your Rightmove Property Performance Report). Most agents these days can provide you with one, but can they analyse it? If they can’t – send it to me! [email protected] – I’ll tell you what you need to know.

3. Can you change our main image and test the results? – if your online activity is low, I’d suggest you change your main house shot. However, this is only useful to you if you can then measure the results. If it doesn’t improve your statistics, try another, and keep trying until you get the click-through rate you need (see post as above). Sometimes, a fresh new image improves your rate temporarily, so try changing it regularly to keep your results as high as possible.

4. What did our viewers buy? – this is a great one! Your agent should be keeping in touch with your viewers to discover what they eventually went on to buy. By doing this, you can build up a picture of the types of buyers looking at your house. For example, if they went on to buy a completely different style of property, it could be that your marketing is appealing to the wrong target market. If they bought somewhere very similar, you need to compete better. Even the best agents need nudging to find out this information, so nudge!

5. What’s happening on any comparable properties? – who is achieving viewings, and who isn’t? Which houses have been reduced in price, and has this made any difference? Which are under offer, after how long, and at what kind of value? If you aren’t getting viewings and everyone else is, ask why!

6. How do you think our marketing can be improved? – ask your agent for a marketing review, and analyse as dispassionately as you can, your brochure, photography and online advert. Identify areas that can be improved, and make sure they are acted upon.

7. Why hasn’t our house sold – other than the price? – I have often asked agents this question, and listened to them trying to come up with an answer. The truth is, there are often several reasons, and it’s highly likely that none of those reasons will be the asking price! Ask your agent for constructive ways you can help him to attract viewers, and make sure he knows he can be honest. Looking forward to hearing from you.

If you’d like my help to sell your home more effectively, please answer a few short questions here and if I think I can help you, I’ll be in touch.

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I don’t know about you, but still I get excited about the post arriving. The satisfying thud it makes when it hits the doormat is a very welcome sound, and I often stop whatever it is that I’m doing and go to investigate. As I shuffle through the envelopes, I sort by recipient, then by importance, and if I’m lucky enough to have received a hand-written envelope, I seize upon it and eager open it first without delay. Handwritten in this digital mail-merged age, is a rare treat, and it often means good things: a letter from a friend, a cheque perhaps, or a quote from a old-fashioned tradesman. How much nicer it is too to get something through the post, rather than by email. It feels more personal somehow, more substantive, less able to be dismissed with a click of the mouse.

Its exactly the same with property details. On the screen, the houses can appear unloved, surreal, unattainable, cold: in short – unhomely. Yet, a lovingly created brochure in my hand, with its hand-crafted copy and warm, inspiring photography, can really bring a house to life. There is something very satisfying about actually holding a physical brochure, instead of just gazing at the information on a screen. Whilst to my knowledge, no research exists to back up my theory, I am nevertheless certain that a printed brochure as oppose to a virtual one, results in more and better quality viewings.

Last week, I had cause to call an estate agent in Essex to ask him to send me a client’s property brochure. “Sorry madam we don’t send out hard copies,” he responded. “This is the 21^st Century after all,” he pointed out.

“But I don’t have a printer,” I pleaded (a little white lie, I admit).

“Okay,” he relinquished “just this once”. True to his word as a massive favour to what he thought was a prospective buyer, he printed a copy of the internet and actually posted it to me.

Since when was it considered to be a “favour” to send a brochure to a interested buyer? When did the property details become a open “hard copy” and as such, an outdated form of marketing?

If you are trying to sell your house, and viewers are not exactly beating a path to your door try this little exercise: call your agent, posing as a buyer, and ask for your own property brochure to be sent to you. See what happens, but I warn you, you may find the response disappointing.

I’d be interested to hear our Essex agent explain to Mercedes, Argos or Next, that physical paper marketing does not work.

Maybe I’m just a little bit old-fashioned. But, then, there are a lot of us around, and some of us buy houses.

If you’d like my help to sell your home more effectively, please answer a few short questions here and if I think I can help you, I’ll be in touch.

Selling a house is often difficult and fraught with emotion. Add a divorce to the mix and it’s downright traumatic.

By its very definition, divorce is rarely amicable, and in most cases, one party is much more eager to separate than the other. When finances are tight, it can result in the couple continuing to share the house for much longer that they would like to, and this in itself can severely hamper a sale. Some of the consequences of a home sale caused by divorce are:

Two master bedrooms
A lack of harmony, evident in there being two opposing tastes
A polarization between two personalities, eg football suddenly becomes more important, and evident
Evidence of children being spoilt, eg too many toys in their bedrooms
Teenagers can become rebellious and uncooperative, leaving messy rooms, perhaps smoking or playing loud music, even during viewings
One party sabotaging the viewings, sometimes subconsciously
A feeling of sadness and desperation can pervade the house.

Often, the initiating partner in the divorce wants a quick sale, whilst the more reluctant of the couple usually prefers to hold out for the best offer. This can really hold up a sale, and leave the poor estate agent having to negotiate between both sellers and the buyer, and play counsellor too – not an easy task!

At HomeTruths, we understand the issues, and promise to help you achieve your goal with sensitivity and discretion. Often acting as a go-between or even a mediator, our role is to help both parties sell the home, and to move on with their lives, in every way possible.

If you’d like my help to sell your home more effectively, please answer a few short questions here and if I think I can help you, I’ll be in touch.

This month we’re looking at attracting the female buyer to your property. Women are three times as likely to pay the asking price for a property as men – does this mean that all sellers should be targeting the women in the hope of getting the best price?

Men and women view properties in different ways; in the main, the average British male when looking at property focuses on the structure and location. How many bedrooms, how much space, how big the garden is, and where the property is in relation to shops, transport etc. In other words, the bare facts of the property.

As a consequence, he will often keep looking until he finds exactly what it is he’s looking for on his checklist, viewing as many properties as is necessary until he finds the right one. In contrast, the average British female does her homework first, and relies far more on her gut instinct. She’s generally more interested in the ‘feel’ of a place, and trusts that she’ll know the right house when she steps inside, regardless of how many ticks it gets on the checklist. In addition, the way in which men and women offer on property differs strongly; men often see the art of negotiation as a fight, and they’re up for it.

Wielding their offer like a sword, they’re brutal and determined not to give an inch. Statistics show that only 5.5% of men pay the full asking price, and 22% offer less than 90% of the asking price. Women buyers, on the other hand, are much softer and 17% of them just offer the full asking price of the property they want. 90% of female buyers offer 10% or less below the asking price, seemingly anxious not to lose their chosen property.

With this in mind then, how can you make your property more appealing to that lucrative female market? Well, start off by making sure it looks and smells clean and fresh. Women are much more sensitive than men to nasty smells, so make sure your house doesn’t pong! Clean clean and clean some more, until every nook and cranny of your house is gleaming: she’ll notice. Appeal to her feminine side with flowers and bowls of fresh fruit.

A man wouldn’t be seduced by such blatant ploys but a woman will. In the bedroom, keep bedding absolutely fresh, and if possible, new. In the bathroom, appeal to her sense of luxury with lovely fluffy towels, scented candles and special toiletries. If she loves your house when she walks through the door, you’ve hooked her. And if she offers too low for you, hold out for the best price, chances are you’ll get it.

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If you’d like my help to sell your home more effectively, please answer a few short questions here and if I think I can help you, I’ll be in touch.

So what do women want? It’s a question Mel Gibson attempted to answer back in the day in his 2000 hit, as he inadvertently delved into the female psyche. Whilst sadly he didn’t manage to cover female property desires, we can tell you that women want plenty. The whole women are from Venus and Man are from Mars comes into play here; a woman’s want list is pretty different than men’s.

Research has shown that women are more centered on their emotions while property hunting, whereas men have a mental checklist that they’re aiming to tick off. And whereas plenty of couples are house hunting, there are a lot of single women wanting to jump on to the property market too. It is illogical to not consider the female buyer when you put your property on the market. You want to appeal to everyone, and females are a large segment. If you’ve got a pretty swanky bachelor pad on your hands and are looking to move on, it is going to prove pretty difficult for a woman to picture her life amongst the masculine styling.

With this in mind, this month we’re going to be focusing on The Female Buyer, looking at marketing for women buyers, and the differences you can make to your home. Over the next few weeks we’ll be looking at various different marketing tactics, so stay tuned!

If you’d like my help to sell your home more effectively, please answer a few short questions here and if I think I can help you, I’ll be in touch.

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It never ceases to amaze me that around 70% of my clients don’t know the commission fee they have agreed with their agent. Given that agents seem to be prepared to negotiate and reduce their fees in order to achieve the instruction, perhaps it’s not the fee that sways the seller, but the overall impression of the agent? As with anything we buy, we don’t usually want the cheapest, but nor do we want to be ripped off. We just want value for money, don’t we? So if all agents were the same, then we’d be obliged to choose based on their selling fee.

However, all agents are not the same! In talking to sellers about their motivation for choosing a particular agent, none of them cited fee as their reason. Instead, they talked about passion, enthusiasm and a genuine desire to help to sell the property. So, if any agents are reading this, please please don’t go in with the lowest commission fee – just listen to the seller about their hopes and needs from your agency, and make sure you portray – and act on – a real motivation to sell their house.

From the moment you engage an agent to market your house, forget location, location, location – it’s communication, communication, communication! Your agent should be talking to you often, even if there isn’t much to tell you. Communication forges the bond of trust you need when the negotiations start with a buyer, and things start getting tough.

So if you’re a seller, and you don’t know what you agreed with your agent, go back and check your agreement. If it states a commission fee of less than 1.5%, and you don’t feel like you’re receiving a good service from your agent, perhaps the two facts are linked! Go find an agent that will give you the service you deserve, and in return pay them the commission that they deserve.

If you’d like my help to sell your home more effectively, please answer a few short questions here and if I think I can help you, I’ll be in touch.

Your house is finally on the market: it’s looking wonderful, your photography looks great, your brochure enticing; time to sit back and wait for an offer, right?

Wrong!

When it comes to selling your home, patience is not the virtue it’s cracked up to be, and the most successful sales are always the early ones. It’s vital to spend some time each week to ensure you’re doing all you can to keep interest in your property as high as possible. Here’s my 20 minute weekly workout for home sellers:

Call your agent – make sure you speak to them every week, without fail. It’s so important to keep your house in their minds, and keep the relationship as warm as possible. You should know all the staff on first name terms, and even if you just call to ask how the market is doing, your house will be the first one they mention to their next enquirer. 5 minutes

Check your sale board – is it straight? Is it clean? A grubby, damaged board sends all the wrong signals so make sure it looks as if it was only just put up. 2 minutes

Monitor your Rightmove Property Performance Report – make sure your agent knows to send it to you every week, and watch the trends. If interest starts to dip, ask your agent to swap the leading image, and try a new headline. Test and assess the results on a regular basis to make sure your property is getting the attention it deserves. (Find our more about your Performance Report here) 5 minutes

Check out your competition – spend some time on Rightmove and the other property portals each week, so you can see what’s just come to the market, what properties have gone under offer, and how they compare with yours. 4 minutes

Clean your front door – and make sure any plants at the front of your house are looking their best. Take away dead leaves, wipe down pots and check your doorbell works. 2 minutes

Check for any light bulbs that might have gone around your home; extractor fan lights and underlighting in kitchens are the usual culprits. 2 minutes

Spend just 20 minutes on your house sale each week and it’ll most likely be 20 minutes more than your competitors are spending. It’s all about standing out, in all the positive ways you can stand out. Snag your buyer’s attention long enough to pique their interest, create a desire and with a little bit of luck, they will take the right action – to buy your house!

If you’d like my help to sell your home more effectively, please answer a few short questions here and if I think I can help you, I’ll be in touch.

“The flaws in the intelligence are plain enough in hindsight.”

~ Edward Kennedy

Have you been trying to sell your home for months, or even years, without success? You’re certainly not alone; did you know that only half the properties on the market last year actually sold?

Did you decline an offer in the first month or so that, in hindsight, you now would take? It’s a familiar story. In fact, around 75% of sellers who contact us would now accept that offer – gladly – and now regret having rejected it.

A property is never more desirable than when it first goes onto the market. The initial flurry of interest can even occasionally generate an offer in excess of the asking price, such is the draw of a newly-marketed home. The interest curve for those all-important first few weeks looks something like this.

However, once all the buyers who have been searching for a while for their next home have seen it, then it’s only the new buyers coming to the market who are around to show any interest, and this may be only a handful a week, at best. This just isn’t sufficient to instill any sense of urgency in a buyer, who may view 15 – 20 or more properties before making an offer on one.

Once your property has been on the market for more than a couple of months therefore, the interest curve looks more like this:

If you drop your asking price, and keep dropping it in an attempt to counteract this downwards trend of interest, all you’re doing is ‘chasing the market down’, in effect.

So what’s the answer? Here’s my expert guide to keeping your property marketing fresh, and avoid it becoming stale and forgotten:

1. Don’t dismiss out of hand any offer you receive in those crucial early weeks of marketing. It will probably be the best offer you will ever receive on your home;

2. If you’re several months (or years) down the line, you need to break the vicious cycle that is no one wants a house that no one wants. Take it off the market completely for at least two months, and preferably up to six months.

3. Re-launch at the right time of year for your property, ie at the time of year when your buyer is most likely to be searching.

4. Don’t scrimp on your re-launch: engage a professional home stager, commission a professional photographer, and choose a proactive agent who believes in quality marketing.

5. If you get an early offer when you go back to market, take it! Within reason of course…. As a general rule of thumb, anything in excess of 85% of your asking price is definitely worthy of consideration in this market, and over 90% is a terrific offer.

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If you’d like my help to sell your home more effectively, please answer a few short questions here and if I think I can help you, I’ll be in touch.