Author Archives: Sam

Once upon a time, when estate agents didn’t have the internet, they had to actually talk to potential buyers on the phone – or in person – to discover their house-buying requirements and budget. All this information would be carefully kept and meticulously matched against new properties as they were listed. This record was called a mailing list.

If you were a buyer, you would need to register on the mailing list of every agent in your chosen location, or else miss out on any new and potentially desirable properties coming onto the market.

In those good old days, an agent was only as good as his mailing list. So, the Knight Franks and the Savills had long lists of big spenders wanting county piles, and the little independent valuer+admin offices would mop up all the first-time buyers, as well as the pensioners looking for sheltered accommodation.

Then along came the magical World Wide Web. Now, buyers no longer had to phone each agent’s office and laboriously give all their details over and over; instead, they could enter their requirements in the simplest form – no contract details needed – and see instantly what was available for them. Fantastic! But what about the agent with his precious database of buyers? Is he redundant?

Well yes, and no.

Yes – because buyers don’t need him anymore, because the information they need that was previous held captive by the agents, is now publicly and freely available.

But no – because the agent still needs the buyers. A really good agent will understand that the internet is just a filtering device for buyers, who will often screen out properties that may actually be suitable, judged purely on an unflattering photograph, or an optimistic asking price. The agent’s skill is in matching houses to buyers, and that takes experience, enthusiasm and a genuine liking for his clients.

Buyers need to trust their agent to guide them through the complicated maze that is house hunting, and accept coaching from him to make good decisions. These skills and this experience cannot be replaced by an internet search.

No matter how detailed and comprehensive property portals become, the vast majority of us will still look to a real person when it comes to making one of the largest purchase decisions in our lives.

The mailing list may be dead, but the estate agent is still very much alive and kicking.

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 buyer looks at the photographs of your house, particularly online, where the images are often largely devoid of context, they will make certain assumptions about your house that you need to be aware of. By ensuring that every image tells the right story, you will avoid giving a buyer a reason not to view your home.

No front image of house – this could indicate that the house is not very attractive from the front, or that there is a ‘disamenity’ (a disadvantageous feature in the local environment) close by: this could be a pylon, a bus stop or perhaps an industrial building next door. Whatever it is, not showing a front photograph will make a buyer expect the worst.

Only the back of the house shown – it’s true, of course, that many houses have a more appealing back view than front. However, it is really important to show the front of the house nevertheless, even if it isn’t used as the leading (main) image. Buyers often do ‘drive-bys’, in other words, they will drive past the house, without booking a viewing, in order to check out the position and location of the house. Some research indicates that there are up to 15 drive-bys for each viewing booked, so if you have 4 viewings in a month, chances are you could have had up to 60 drive-bys! In order to identify the house, a buyer needs to be able to recognise it from its front photo, which they won’t be able to do from a rear view image.

No kitchen shot – the kitchen is probably second only in importance to the outside and garden of a house, and when buyers – particularly lady buyers – are searching for a property online, they will look for a photo of the kitchen. If they don’t find one, they will assume – usually correctly – that the kitchen is not worth photographing. Immediately, this could raise a concern that there is a lot of work to do in the house. Don’t raise an unnecessary ‘red flag’ for a buyer; better that you make sure a kitchen photograph is included, no matter how dated your kitchen may be, as it won’t be as bad as that of the buyer’s imagination.

Artist’s impression – this is often used by developers to show what a new home will look like once it is built, and could mean that the house in question is little more than a building site at the moment. Most buyers, unless in a particularly buoyant market, would prefer to see a tangible building, so it’s important to get a photograph of some description onto the online advert as soon as possible.

Pets in the photographs – I was looking at properties with my husband yesterday, when I clicked on an image of a living room, showing a huge golden retriever lying on the carpet. Now I’m a dog lover, but my husband most definitely is not. Immediately I could see him thinking that at the very least, all the carpets would need replacing, and who knows what state the lawn would be in? Safer to keep pets out of your photographs – you can’t offend a pet lover if you do, but you can alienate the non pet lovers if you don’t.

All photographs tell a story to some degree; make sure that the only story a buyer can infer from your images is one which they want to be part of.

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 you’ve been trying to sell your house for a while, it’s difficult to look at the way you’re presenting it with any objectivity; you’re just too close to it. You can try asking family and friends, but chances are you’ll get several different opinions that may well just confuse you more!

I’ve compiled here a list of sources to inspire you when you’re considering how you can improve your home’s presentation to better appeal to a buyer:

Pinterest – If you haven’t yet come across this wonderful site, you’re in for a treat! A collection of ‘virtual pinboards’, it’s a public platform that allows users to ‘tag’ and ‘repin’ pictures they like. This means that if for example you type ‘modern family home’ in the search box, you’ll find everyone’s pinboards that match your search, and you can simply browse hundreds and even thousands of photographs, repinning any on your own board that you like the look of. A great site for ideas and lovely images of homes; just don’t get so distracted you forget what you’re supposed to be doing! http://pinterest.com/

House to Home – this site is the home of the top seven homes and interiors magazines in the UK, including _25 Beautiful Homes and Homes and Gardens._ There are thousands of images of home interiors, searchable by room, colour and style of décor. A great place to go for inspiration. http://www.housetohome.co.uk/

Doornob – this site’s strapline is ‘Design Ideas Daily’ and offers a wealth of contemporary home ideas. Click on the ‘interiors’ tab for the best in modern presentation from the best homes all over the world. You’ll probably have to scale back these stunning ideas, but it’s a good place to go to check on the latest trends, particularly if you have a modern property. http://dornob.com/

Coastal Retreats – even if you don’t have a coastal home, this site is full of absolutely gorgeous properties, all presented beautifully. You’ll discover all the little accessories and finishing touches that turn a house into a home, not to mention discovering how good interiors photography should look. http://www.coastalretreats.co.uk/

Unique Home Stays – as with the above, this site is for holidaymakers looking for an extra special place to stay, and their properties are simply beautiful. Their high standards can teach you how best to present your home, not only from a design point of view, but also in the inspiring lifestyle photography they use. Ideal Home instead.

Enjoy these sites, and try not to get too distracted and forget about the task in hand!

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.

What’s in a name? Do you live in ‘Rose Cottage’, or just ‘number 37?’ Do you know that the name of your house can make your buyers turn off, or reach for their cheque book? That it can even affect your chances of achieving your asking price? Here are some surprising facts about house names:

• Land Registry figures show that around 5.4% of homes in the UK currently have a name instead of a number.

• If you have your eye on a place called Courtenay House, named after the Earl of Devon, you’ll need deep pockets. Homes with that name tend to be more expensive than those with any other. To buy one, you would typically need about £4.8m.

• Since 2000, more than one house called The Cottage has sold every day. According to Mouseprice, the typical value of a property with this name is 50% more than the average.

Here’s what one national estate agency chain has to say on the subject: “House names are generally always included on property particulars.They are felt to add interest for many would-be buyers, and often seem to generate more enquiries”.

What should you name your home in order to attract a buyer willing to pay a premium for a desirable name? Forget ‘Dunroamin’, ‘Cheznous’ or any name that is made up of your own names! Instead, improve your sale chances by taking your pick from this list:

The Cottage
Rose Cottage
The Bungalow
The Coach House
The Barn
The Lodge
Ivy Cottage
Sunnyside
Orchard House
Woodlands

Feeling inspired? Or do you have a better alternative? Let us know!

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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Sometimes I look at a client’s property brochure in despair. It can be a beautiful, rambling country house full of character, and for reasons only known to the estate agent in question, he is attempting to market it with a flimsy A3 folded sheet, printed from the office printer. The text is lacking in any kind of warmth; the photographs are dull and dark, having been printed straight onto copier paper, and the overall result is cheap and amateurish. This lack of care and attention to the marketing of a house can permeate a buyer’s view of the property; after all, if the estate agent and seller don’t care enough about it to take the time it needs in creating a beautiful showpiece for the house, how can we expect the buyer to see it as a house of value?

Of course, if you are selling a studio flat in a less than salubrious area, you might expect the property details to consist of only a single sheet of A4 with perhaps 150 words and three or four photographs, but if your house is a good sized family home, it will usually warrant considerably more effort. As a rough guide, I would expect that a flat or house with four rooms or less rooms to be marketed with two sides of A4, and a family house brochure to be at least four sides; anything bigger than this really needs a brochure of at least six pages, with country homes warranting easily twelve pages or more. There are exceptions to this of course; development projects, very dated properties or houses that are extremely cluttered and therefore difficult to photograph; the details for these types of house will always be compromised by what the estate agent needs to show, and can photograph. However, if you have a house packed with interesting and unusual features, a pretty garden, or both, then your brochure really needs to reflect this and make sure a buyer’s attention is captured long enough for them to book a viewing on your house.

There are arguments I hear often from estate agents about “overselling”. In other words, if you set a buyer’s expectations low, they are more likely to be bowled over when they actually visit the house. This is a pretty risky strategy: if your brochure undersells your home, there’s a strong likelihood that no one will book a viewing anyway. With almost fifteen properties to each buyer at the time of writing, they will just move onto the next house to look at; one that is being marketed effectively. Make sure your brochure size, type and style all reflect your home and that you are proud to call it your showcase: after all, your brochure really is the gateway between you and your future buyer, so make sure you keep that gate firmly open.

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 you’ve been trying for some time to sell your house, without success, it may be time to take a fresh look at your presentation to see if it really appeals to your target market. It’s not easy to do, as you are so familiar with your surroundings, so I’ve put together a list of places to go to get inspiration, and perhaps motivate you to take your house up a notch, and really wow your viewers:

1. Pinterest – if you haven’t yet heard of this nifty site, you soon will do. It’s essentially an image portal, organised into personal ‘pin boards’. A search for ‘cosy’ for example, will lead you to a huge gallery of home and interiors images, all tagged ‘cosy’ by the contributors. You can simply browse this gorgeous site for hours, and if you like, create your own pin boards, grouping the images you come across by room type, style, colour and so on.

2. House to Home – another beautiful site, owned and maintained by the publishers of the top interiors magazines such as 25 Beautiful Homes and Ideal Home. Here you’ll find thousands of images of rooms and gardens, organised by category, style or colour. Once you’ve found a room style you like, you can even ‘Pin’ the image to Pinterest to save for later.

3. John Lewis – a stroll around any store will leave you breathless with excitement and full of ideas! If you find that the prices are too rich for your budget, have a look in Matalan, TK Max Home or Argos for cheaper alternatives.

4. Local showhomes – these will give you loads of ideas for your own home. If they are appealing to the same market as you are with your home, copy as many of their ideas as you can. They have been carefully designed for maximum appeal to that particular buyer, so you need to compete strongly to make your house really stand out.

5. Home Stagers – hiring a professional home stager to give you ideas for refreshing the look of your home can cost as little as £150, and you can even ask them to draw you up a shopping list, to your budget. An invaluable resource when you’re struggling to sell your home. Try Home Stager Network to find a local stager.

So there you go – now you have no excuse to sit back and do nothing! It’s a tough old market out there and to beat the competition you really have you up your game. Happy browsing :o)

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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.

It’s very frustrating when you aren’t getting viewings. I spoke to a lady this week who has only had one viewing in three years! Much more common is for sellers to contact us when they haven’t had a viewing for a month or two. It’s normal for you to get an initial flurry of viewings in the first few weeks on the market, and for that interest to wane a little as the weeks and months progress. But what can you do when viewings peter out altogether? You know what your agent will advise – if he hasn’t already. “Drop the price” he’ll tell you. So what else can you do to revive interest, other than dropping your asking price?

1. Ask for your Rightmove Property Performance Report – this shows how many searches online your property is appearing in, and crucially, what percentage of those buyers are clicking on your property to find out more. The national average percentage – called your CTR – is currently around 5%. To achieve higher than that, you need to have great photographs which are rotated frequently, and a short but snappy headline. Have your agent make some changes, then check your CTR again to see if there’s an improvement. Check your photographs to see if they’re becoming dated. They shouldn’t be more than a season behind. So if yours are still showing daffodils, it’s time for a refresh. Ask your agent to arrange for new foliage shots – that is, new outside photographs showing the current state of the garden and any greenery – and make sure that these are displayed at least online.

2. Revisit your property brochure description. Firstly, draw up a profile of the kind of person you think is most likely to buy your home. Age, status, motivation for moving, and so on. Then write down a list of adjectives about your house that you think would most appeal to these target buyers. Look at your property description – does it need rewriting to incorporate these key words?

3. Commission a home stager. Often for less than £200 a professional home stager will look at your home with a critical and unbiased eye, and advise you on what you can do to make the most of your house: usually there is very little expenditure necessary, but small changes can make big improvements in attracting the right buyer.

When you talk to your estate agent about reviving interest in your home and encouraging viewings, make sure you are firm about the price. Tell him it’s not currently up for discussion, but you are happy to consider any other activities he can suggest. You’re just not going to drop your price!

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.

For our clients, we focus fully on achieving the highest sale price possible. Here are three reasons not to drop your asking price:

If you don’t believe in your asking price, why should your buyer? Be confident your home is worth what you’re asking. Your confidence will be infectious, and be transmitted to your viewers via your agents.

It’s a downward spiral – where will it all end? You don’t want to give it away. Make sure you sell on value, not on price.

It doesn’t work! Sellers who contact us have almost always already dropped their price, sometimes several times, but they still haven’t sold their homes. Who wants to buy something at a falling price?

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 your home has been on the market for a while, it’s easy to become disheartened and disillusioned. “What’s wrong with our house?” you may ask yourself. At first, I’m sure that every viewer got the star treatment – you would changed the bedding, banish the dog and buy fresh flowers for each and every viewing, now it all seems like too much effort for what you’re sure will be another timewaster.

However, it’s not all about doing what you can to make your house look as appealing as possible, though obviously this is important; you also need the right mindset.

Think of something difficult you have tried to do: perhaps you’ve given up smoking, lost weight or passed an exam. Maybe you tried several times before you actually achieved your goal. If you look back on your previous attempts, why did they fail when achievement was clearly in your grasp?

It’s all to do with mindset; any dietician will tell you that you have to be in the right mindset to lose weight, otherwise you’ll keep failing. Those friends I know who have successfully given up smoking after many years of ‘trying’ tell me that eventually they just set their mind on their goal, and that made all the difference.

But when you’re selling your home, it’s not in your control whether your viewers actually offer or not, right? Wrong! Of course, you can’t force them to make an offer, but you can make sure that you are totally focused on your goal of selling.

When you are focused, you will call your agent more often, research the competition, keep your home looking beautiful, make suggestions to improve your marketing campaign; and all this because your mindset is that of a seller. When you give up, you lose the fight.

To help you get into the seller’s mindset, make a list of all the reasons you want to move. Write them in two columns: one list for your motivations to move out, and the other for all the reasons you want to move to the place or home you have chosen. Keep this list taped to the inside of a kitchen cupboard you use every day. Read it often, and use it to motivate you to get out the vacuum cleaner one more time for a viewing; or polish the bathroom taps, or clean the front door.

Stay focused, stay motivated, and the buyer will come. All because of your mindset.

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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.

When your buyer is searching for their new home, there are several steps they will take. By knowing a little more about what’s going on in their mind, you may be able to influence their behaviour, and persuade them to at least view your house:

Step 1: they choose their portal

There are around 30 major property portals in the UK, but only four of them are truly worth being listed on. The majority of home searchers will sooner or later, find themselves searching on one of these four:

Rightmove: the biggest and in my opinion, the best. Great for properties in rural England.

FindaProperty: a bit clunky, but it’s where most of the good rental properties are listed.

Primelocation: some London agents and buyers prefer this over Rightmove.

Zoopla: the new kids on the block; just merged with the two above, so the jury is still out as to whether they will continue in their current state.

If your property is listed on these four portals, you can be sure that it will be found online. (Read my post on portals for more information and comment.)

Step 2: they filter

All four of the portals allow searchers to filter their results by:

Area: can be searched by postcode, town or region. Rightmove also has a ‘Draw a Search’ feature where a searcher can specify a chosen area by drawing it on a map.

Price: all but FindaProperty have price search parameters, which are worth getting to grips with before deciding on your asking price (see my post on Clever Pricing). Most buyers will set their upper price limit around £50,000 above their actual limit, to see what is available above their budget, and to allow for negotiation, so if they can only afford £700,000, they will search up to £750,000.

Bedrooms: in essence, an indicator of size; buyers will usually only select the minimum number. Make sure your property is listed correctly in this section, as it will make a significant difference to the number of searches you show up in.

Property Type: generally this is limited to houses, flats or bungalows, and as only one can be selected, the majority of buyers leave this section blank to include all. Worth noting too that Primelocation and Zoopla also allow a keyword search, so check which ones your agent has allocated for your property.

Step 3: they browse

Once a buyer has a list of properties, they will simply scroll through the results.

FindaProperty default number of properties on a page is 20, though this can be altered. Rightmove, Primelocation and Zoopla are all set at 10 properties per page. These results can be ordered by newest and price, though the standard default is highest price first.

During their browsing, they are looking at four main elements: image, price, area and keywords, usually in that order.

Image: is it striking and attractive? Only the most flattering of photos will get a second look. Research shows that each of these thumbnails receives no more than a second of attention, so your picture really needs to ‘snag’ a buyer’s glance before they move on to the next one.

Price: a quick glance at the price will allow a buyer to ascertain whether the image matches the price. It’s a split second judgment in which they will decide “is it worth that?” Another reason for making sure your main photograph is as appealing as possible.

Area: again, a quick glance ensures the property isn’t in an undesirable location. Obviously, any search area will include highlights and lowlights, so a buyer is keeping an eye on location during their search.

Keywords: they may be looking for specific words such as ‘contemporary’, ‘land’ or ‘annexe’ so if a feature is an integral part of the value of your home, this is where you need to convey that information.

Step 4: they click

If the four elements above all receive a mental ‘tick’, a buyer will click on the property. What they do next depends on the portal and its design, but generally it will involve scrolling through all the images first. It’s important therefore, to have the right number of photographs showcasing your house, and that they are all attractive and flattering. As a general rule of thumb, less than 10 images is too few (unless it is a flat or very small house) and more than 20 will leave a buyer feeling they have seen the whole house. (See my post ‘How many photos is too many?)

Next, they will read the first part of the introduction, and click on a floorplan if there is one. A well-drawn floorplan can be a real asset to your property advert, as it will attract only the buyers who feel your house is appropriate to their needs, so reducing timewasting viewings.

Agents who include reams of written description on this page are really doing themselves a disservice, as the brochure link, if there is one, can often get lost in all the wording. Rightmove, for some reason, post the link to a pdf brochure below the written description, so some buyers won’t find this at all.

Not all agents use pdf brochure links, but I think they are vital in the quest to present a property in the most attractive format possible, without being limited by the portals’ page style. It’s the place to get creative, and make sure your home really jumps off the page to a buyer. If they have downloaded your details, it’s a really good indication of their increased interest.

Step 5: they take action

Frustratingly for a seller, most searches on property portals end at this point. It may be that the browser was just, well, browsing, (think of it as window shopping), or they might not be ready to take the next step, which is booking a viewing. Perhaps they have not yet sold their own property, secured a mortgage or persuaded a partner. Whatever it is, we know statistically your property has to show up in around 300 searches a day to be in with a chance of getting viewings. This figure varies by region, time of year and market buoyancy, but as a general rule of thumb it is a good indication there are enough buyers around at your price level.

If they are ready to take the next step, a buyer will contact the agent, by phone or email, to ask questions and book a viewing. It’s worth checking out these two forms of contact to ensure that your agent is actively responding to these requests, and in a timely and efficient manner. Try clicking on the ‘request details’ button on all four portals using different email addresses, and keep a note of what happens next. Ask a friend to call the agent whilst you listen, to see how they respond to a buyer enquiry. If necessary, give constructive feedback to your agent, and if they don’t respond positively, consider a change of agent. After all, a buyer who has followed all of the steps above and who is still keen enough to want to view your home, deserves to be treated like the very valued buyer they may well become. Don’t lose them at this point!

Remember the post AIDA? Attention – interest – desire – action. It’s no good having the first three if you can’t convert a browser into a viewer, and then in to a buyer. Try it for yourself: get familiar with the property portals; make them your friend. Only by understanding how they work will you get into your buyer’s mind, and see what they are searching for.

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.