Tag Archives: Estate agent

In these days where most anything we want to buy is but a click of the mouse away, do we really need an agent to sell our home? There are plenty of virtual estate agents out there ready to take our money and promise a sale at a fraction of the cost of an estate agent, but what are the potential pitfalls we need to be aware of?

You can’t get your property advertised on Rightmove and the other property portals without an agent of some kind. An agent is defined as someone who crucially will visit the property to take measurements and a written description that they will stand by legally, and can be held to account for if necessary. The property portals will not take responsibility for this, so an agent is needed. Private seller sites are not the same, and these will not put you on the property portals, so beware.

They are much better at selling lower priced properties. These tend to be the more usual terraced homes, city centre flats, suburban three bed semis and so on. If you have a 18^th century oast house, or converted watermill, you may well have less success. These highly individual properties need carefully crafted marketing campaigns to attract the right kind of discerning buyer, and this is usually best done face to face, which virtual agencies don’t offer.

You will have to do the viewings yourself. For many sellers, this is actually preferable, but do be aware that it’s not an easy thing to do, either for you or for your buyers. They can’t be as honest with you as they would be with your estate agent for a start, so you may well never hear any of their objections to the house, and if you don’t know what they are, well, you can’t overcome them. An agent can listen to a buyers protestations that your kitchen is too big or your hallway too dark, and make suggestions as to solutions. If you don’t know what their worries are, you can’t help them to see the options.

Their call centre staff are only really there to book viewings and take offers. They have not visited your home, so they can’t tell a viewer anything about it. There are some companies that have taken steps to overcome this factor, and often the person who originally visited your house to take the description can be available, but with up to 2000 properties on their books, this is often impossible.

Their photography and property brochure are of a minimum standard. This is often not enough to sell a premium or valuable property, which need the quality of the features and fittings represented by a suitable brochure, so sellers of individual properties may find it necessary to commission their own photography and brochure, at their own expense.

None of these factors is insurmountable and actually, in a buoyant market where you are confident of your home selling quickly, you can save a lot of money by using a virtual agent. However, if the market is slow and you are a busy person with no time to spare to take on some of these tasks, it’s often better to leave it to an experienced professional estate agent, and entrust the process to him. In the long term, this may well prove the best investment return.

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.

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.

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.

Estate agents have it bad these days, (you ask them). Not enough houses coming to the market; not enough buyers registering; over-optimistic sellers; over-cautious buyers. They’re competing for the best properties, and slashing fees to secure the instruction. Where 2% was once achieveable in most areas, even the better agents are reluctantly shaking vendor’s hands at 1.25% to list a £500,000 property. But then what happens? They can’t afford to produce one of their lovely, ‘Country Life’ style brochures – the client gets four fuzzy sheets from the office printer. That fabulous professional photographer is ditched in favour of ‘Sean our junior negotiator who got a nice little camera for Christmas’. And print advertising? Forgot it – way too expensive.

Before you start feeling sorry for our hard-up estate agent in his two-year-old BMW 7 Series. He’s doing ok – it’s the admin lady, and the viewing reps that’ll really feel the knife. And not to mention the vendor, unable to attract even investors with his sorry excuse for a marketing campaign, if you can even call it that.

Stop! It doesn’t have to be like that! Our first rule at HomeTruths, is pay the agent what he’s worth. If we’ve selected the agency, I can tell you that he’ll be worth every penny of the 1.75% or more, he’ll be charging you. And for that, you’ll get stunning professional photography, a gorgeous glossy brochure with detailed (and accurate) floorplan, his best attention including, where possible, accompanied viewings by one of the partners or senior managers. After all, you’ll be paying for it in commission, and we’re going to make sure that you get the best service possible.

So, before you jump in to hard-nosed negotations with your potential agent, stop and think. Then call Sam. Because our agents don’t cut corners, at least, not on my watch.

Kitchen image courtesy of www.homesandgardens.com

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.

On 13 July 2007, there was an article in The Times, written by my old co-presenter Lucy Alexander, called “How to sell your home in a hurry”. She consulted with three property experts to discover, that magic strategy, sellers need to sell their houses quickly – Phil Spencer, presenter of Location, Location, Location; Ed Mead, estate agent, and Sarah Beeny, presenter of Property Ladder. Here’s an excerpt of their advice, and my responses:

Phil Spencer: “Ask your agents why they haven’t sold it and how you can help them do their job.”

I like Phil, he doesn’t mess about with his advice. There is a problem with this particular piece of advice though – the agent doesn’t know what else to do! Many times at HomeTruths, we have come up with a whole raft of ideas to help increase interest in a house, when the agent had completely run out of inspiration and indeed, motivation. In my experience, they only have one suggestion when a house won’t sell – dropping the price.

Which brings me neatly to Ed’s advice…

Ed Mead: “Drop the price to appeal to a whole new level of buyers – there’s no point tinkering at the margins.”

Let me ask you this: if your house is for sale at £600,000, and you aren’t getting interest, how would it help to drop the price to £550,000? Is Ed saying that the buyers at £550,000 are completely different from the buyers at £600,000? Time and time again, clients come to us already having dropped their asking price, sometimes several times, but to no avail: no new buyers magically appeared at the lower price. It’s rarely the asking price that is stopping the house from selling.

Sarah Beeny: “If it isn’t selling it’s too expensive. Drop the price, take the house off the market for two weeks before launching it with a new agent at a price at least 10 per cent lower.”

Sarah’s great at shooting from the hip, but on this subject, I think she’s way off target. Consider this: if a new model of Mercedes isn’t selling as well as Mercedes hope, do they drop the price? Or do they instead re-train and incentivise their staff and roll out a ramped-up marketing campaign? They know that discounting is a mug’s game. They prefer to leave any discounting to the salesperson sitting in front of a hot buyer – just as you should save any room for negotiation for a buyer ready to offer on your house.

For real expert advice that gets your house sold whilst protecting your asking price, it’s time for some HomeTruths.

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 first engage an estate agent, you may find that you get a flurry of viewings, that your agent calls often, you get full feedback of each and every viewings, and your house is profiled in the office window. You feel that you’ve chosen the right agent, and are busy between viewings patting yourself on the back.

Six months later, it may be a different story. You didn’t receive any feedback from the last viewer, and in fact you haven’t had a viewing in weeks. You can’t remember the last time you heard from your agent, and he seems to have stopped returning your calls. When he does eventually call you back, it’s only to suggest a price drop.

It’s all going wrong – what can you do about it?

One strategy is to reinvigorate your agent by incentivising him. This will only work if he’s going to actually benefit personally from this, but my advice is to get the branch manager involved and offer an extra commission if they sell your house within a certain time period.

Have a strategy meeting with your agent. Thoroughly examine all the marketing and advertising – online advert, photography, brochure, print advertising – and look at ways it can be refreshed and made more efficient.

If none of the above works, take your house off the market for a short break, then put it back on with a new estate agent. That way, you can recreate that initial burst of enthusiasm and activity, and this time, it might just work.

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.