Tag Archives: marketing

My family and I were lucky enough to be invited to the wonderful Henley Regatta recently, and I had some great takeaways from it I wanted to share with you. I always see marketing lessons wherever I go, and feel that something as uniquely English as the Henley Regatta has a lot to teach us about super-successful marketing and branding.

I’ve blogged on this each day this week, and here’s your first: The Brands.

Look around at the companies who have associated themselves with the Henley Regatta and it really is a “Who’s Who” of branding, as well as a “Who’s Going to be Who” selection. Think about sophisticated ‘river fashion’ mixed with quintessential English style and food, and you’ll come up with brands such as Joules, Boden and Crew. The cars were all Range Rovers, BMWs and Mercedes. The drinks on offer were Champagne and Pimms, and the food would not have been out of place in the tearooms of the Ritz.

But what’s the lesson when we’re trying to sell our house? Firstly, look at the kind of buyers you expect to find your home the most appealing. Are they Henley Regatta goers? If so, give them clues that your home is for them. Take a leaf out of the Henley Regatta Marketing Book for Beginners and sprinkle some appropriate lifestyle clues liberally around your house. A jug of Pimms and a fruit cake on the side in the kitchen, Cath Kidston wellies by the back door and a Mercedes in the driveway – even if you have to borrow one! These are all signs to a buyer that your home is right for them.

If your buyers are not Regatta types, then you need to identify what type they are. Are they doggy people? Then leave out a copy of Your Dog magazine, and a map of local dog walks, and perhaps borrow a muddy Volvo! Maybe they are the sophisticated urban type; then leave around West End tickets, an ultra modern laptop or iPad and a bottle of Champagne in the kitchen. You get the idea.

Get to know your buyers; read what they read and go where they go. The more you can convince them that they can lead the life they seek in your home, the more likely you are to persuade them to buy it. It takes a little research work and some staging effort, but it’s oh so worth it.

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.

A home is another member of your household. It’s the scene for dramas and joys, of discoveries and growth and change of people – of families. Your story is ready to be played on elsewhere, but this home needs another family to appreciate all it has to offer.

But who should buy your house? If you start to understand who will recognise the potential and appeal of your house, what you show them, (or what you get the estate agent to show them) takes on a different tack; it’s now about why this could be a home, rather than a house. Suddenly it’s about what makes the house magic and special, and having a role to play in people’s lives.

Is it great for socialising, or bonding the members of your family over meals? Is the kitchen a place for experimentation and baking, or convenience and ease? Where would you sit and have morning coffee? Could you snooze in a chair here in the last of the autumn sun? Is this a great baby room, or a gem of a spare room? How long has the house lived? What kinds of character does it offer hidden away – or proudly on view, and how will this matter to who lives there? Why should they buy this house and have it for 20 years?

When a buyer’s imagination is captured – the curve of the staircase, the real wood floor, working fire place in the snug living room…family meals and discussions or dinner party occasions…the rooms tucked away perfect for teenage loud music or study…the outstanding school a short walk away, or the unbelievable little Italian place around the corner – magic can happen.

There is nothing quite like the hunt for a new home. The exhilaration (the bathroom was gorgeous!), the frustration (will this ever be over?), and often complete disappointment (how can they call that a kitchen?), offer quite a journey. What about your home can create that oasis – the one that gets the heart fluttering – the inner voice that says – this the one?

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.

We’re often asked in an initial consultation, “which agent would you recommend?” There are two answers to this question, and neither is what the homeowner is hoping for! Firstly, we don’t yet know without conducting a considerable amount of investigation and research, and secondly, that information is privileged: only once a client engages our services do we share with them information on which agent is the right one for them.

There are 15,000 agents in the UK, and selecting the right one can be like finding the proverbial needle! So how do we choose our ‘preferred agents’? We only allow around a dozen agents to work with us, so you might describe us as ‘picky’! At the very least we expect an agent to fulfill the following basic criteria:

Track record – whenever possible, we prefer to work with agents we know and trust, and that we have had past success with.

High level accountability – if something goes wrong in your local branch, I need to know that I can take the issue up the chain, to a senior executive. With most of our preferred agents, this contact is a managing director or partner; in this way, I am confident we will achieve the very best service for our clients.

21^st Century marketing techniques – the brochure, photography and online marketing conducted by an agent is scrutinized by us to make sure it is of the highest quality, and that it successfully targets the right type of buyer.

The right attitude – our preferred agents all understand the value of what HomeTruths do, and that we’re all trying to achieve the same result – to sell the house for the price our clients want. These agents encourage and welcome our involvement, listen to feedback, and continually monitor their marketing activity to ensure it remains fresh and relevant.

This collaboration really works! In the past twelve months, over 80% of HomeTruths’ clients sold within 6 months – including one poor seller who had been trying to sell his beautiful Georgian home for 6 years! Was it too expensive? His agent thought so, but I didn’t – we helped him sell for £40,000 over his asking price in 6 weeks.

A word to the wise: choose your agent as carefully as you choose your friends, and you will have a better chance of keeping him onside, and selling your home for the price you want.

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 many times our clients tell us they don’t have a For Sale board outside their home; why? we ask incredulously. In this difficult market, if you are serious about selling your home, why would you not utilise a free marketing tool? In short, why would you keep the fact you are selling your home a secret from potential buyers?

There’s a current trend in my sleepy, commuter belt, Surrey village at the moment; estate agents have started sponsoring local school events and its become apparent that this is quite a clever marketing move. The way it works is this; schools approach the agent to sponsor say, their school ball, the agent gives them a sum of money (giving them the opportunity to “contribute to the local community”) and in return the parents of the children at said school place an agent’s board in their garden with a very small sign declaring their sponsorship of the event. The point being that Mr and Mrs White then see a board outside a house they’ve had their eye on for a while, they call the agent and are disappointed to find out that in fact that particular property is not on the market. However, the agent then seizes the opportunity, while he’s got a potential buyer on the phone, to offer them something similar and…bingo! They’ve got viewings booked in with a couple of new potential buyers. Having spoken to one local agent, who tells me that they’ve sold 2 properties this month as a result of such sponsorship, surely this is further proof that boards really do work.

So don’t be like R. Whites, don’t be a secret lemonade drinker, put up a sale board. If you’re still not convinced, give us a call here at HomeTruths where we drink our lemonade with pride.

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.

From the beginning of November each year, many sellers start asking us the question “should I take my house off the market for Christmas?” The simple answer is yes. Here are my reasons:

1. Stale properties lose value. No one wants to buy a house they think no one else wants to buy, so resting it from the market for a while will make it seem like a fresh property to market when you relaunch;

2. With your Christmas tree up, presents and food everywhere, and Aunty Doris asleep in the armchair, chances are your house is not looking its best over the festive period. Give yourself chance to enjoy your Christmas without having to worry about how your house looks, and put it back on the market when you and your house are both recovered and refreshed;

3. Buyers often disappear over the Christmas period, distracted by their own festive commitments. Moving house usually loses its urgency for a few weeks, until the new year begins, when viewings pick up pace once again;

4. Your estate agent is probably also distracted, and too busy thinking about what presents he’s going to get to concentrate fully on selling your house;

5. Any advertising is often overshadowed by larger, sparklier adverts for gifts from the big advertisers, like John Lewis and Marks & Spencer; your house just won’t get a look-in with that kind of marketing noise.

So don’t panic that you’re off the market and no one will find you – very few buyers, if any, will be even looking. Also, have a chat with your agent before you do take your house off the websites; make sure he knows that you do still want to sell, you’re just resting the marketing. That way, if he does get a super-keen buyer, he’ll call you. In the meantime, enjoy a viewings-free Christmas!

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.