Tag Archives: Selling

I had a call today from a client of ours who is considering all his options, and wanted to ask my advice. He is currently building a home in Greece, and having invested heavily, needs to start recouping his investment from his current home. His original plan was to use the funds from the sale of his family home to finish his and his wife’s dream home in Greece. However, 18 months later, and his house is still for sale. So he wanted to know, “Should I rent it out instead?”

There are merits and demerits of renting your home out, and speaking as a landlord myself, here are some points to consider before taking the plunge:

Becoming a landlord is not a short-term fix. You need to commit to it for at least 3 – 5 years in order to fully realise the benefits and avoid losing financially;

If yours is a unique home, perhaps period and/or rural, you may find your target market to be very limited: tenants are often looking for convenience and practicality, which your home may not offer. Therefore the rent you set needs to account for this;

As well as convenience, tenants nowadays want all the mod cons: not only will they be looking for a property with contemporary kitchens and bathrooms, you’ll be expected to provide good quality white goods too; dishwasher, washing machine and often a tumble drier are all considered necessities by today’s tenants;

Allow at least 10 – 15% for maintenance costs, and also repair and renewal costs for the end of the tenancy. I write this on the day that I’ve just had to write out a £2000 cheque for a new boiler in one of my properties – ouch! Most importantly, do not expect to receive your home back at the end of the tenancy in a fit state to try to sell it; you’ll need to invest several thousands of pounds in replacing the carpets, repainting the walls, renewing any worn out fixtures and fittings, and getting the garden looking its best again.

As you can see, there are quite a few factors to take into account before signing that tenancy agreement, so think carefully before you do. If you don’t want to become a professional landlord with all that it entails, focus on getting your home sold instead. Ultimately, you’ll be glad you did.

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.

Dale Carnegie’s acclaimed self-help book How to Win Friends and Influence People published in 1936 still holds true today. I particular like his Six ways to make people like you. These are:

Become genuinely interested in other people.
Smile.
Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.
Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.
Talk in terms of the other person’s interests.
Make the other person feel important – and do it sincerely.

They’re just common-sense really, and if you think about it, every estate agent in the land should learn and practice these six techniques when they’re showing viewers your home. Let’s look at their relevance for making the most of every viewing, and if you don’t have any confidence in your agent showing a high degree of skill in this regard, then you need to make sure you do these instead:

Become genuinely interested in other people – talk to your viewers, and find out all about them. Where have they come from, what are they looking for, what other properties they’ve seen. The more you discover about them, the more successful you will be at matching their needs to your home’s offering.
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Smile – be friendly! Viewers will usually be nervous or apprehensive about the viewing; they are, after all, a guest in your home, and whilst they want to like the house, they are worried that they won’t. A big, friendly smile when you greet them will immediately help them to relax and feel welcome.
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Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language – if you don’t know their names in advance, make sure you shake hands and introduce yourself by your first name straight away. Hopefully they will reciprocate, but if not, don’t be afraid to ask. First names are best, and will encourage your visitors to adopt a more friendly and less formal approach that may help you to foster a good relationship with them from the start.
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Be a good listener – make sure you ask lots of questions and really listen to their answers. It’s no good extolling the virtues of your vegetable patch if they tell you they work long hours, or telling them all about your paddock if they show no interest in using it; if you actively listen, you will be in a much better position to tell them about the features of your home that really matter to them.
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Talk in terms of the other person’s interests – use the word “you” as much as possible. They don’t want to hear all about you and your time as the occupier: encourage them to think in terms of their future in the house. Saying things like “You could park at least four cars in this driveway” or “you’d love this house at Christmas” will help them to engage with your home and see it as their next chapter.
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Make the other person feel important – if you don’t connect with your buyers, chances are they won’t connect with you. Make the effort to understand them, their hopes and dreams, and find something to like about them. Finding some commonality really helps; perhaps you’re both dog lovers, or share an interest in a hobby or travel; whatever it is, once you find it and can have an engaging chat as you show them round, you’ll find they will become more open and friendly themselves.

Although Dale Carnegie I’m sure didn’t intend his Six ways to make people like you to be applied to selling homes, by following these guidelines you’ll make sure you give yourself the best chance to make a great first impression, and very importantly, to forge a good solid relationship with your viewer that might just tip them over the edge to becoming a buyer.

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.

People watching – what a terrific pastime it is! I’m a very visual person, with a background as a professional photographer, so I really enjoyed all the outfits, hairstyles, personalities and characters that Henley Regatta had to offer. Boaters, blazers and wedding-type hats were the order of the day, and some attendees were more creative than others!

What’s today’s lesson then? I suppose it is to be observant! When your viewers arrive, notice what they are wearing, how they carry themselves, and their gestures and try to deduce from their appearance what kind of buyer they are. Are they down-to-earth, jeans and trainers types? Focus on the garden, the garage and the practical elements of your home. If the lady turns up wearing high heels and perfectly groomed, then she will appreciate any touches of luxury and sophistication your home has to offer. Make sure you give her the best chair, and offer her a cup of tea made in a teapot and served in a cup and saucer. These are all little touches, but little touches all add up to become a buying motivation. Make the effort and see what happens!

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.

“Didn’t we have a loverly time at the Henley Regatta……”

It was fantastic! I went along with my husband Michael and my baby sister Kathy (the very talented photographer Katherine Ashdown), courtesy of a client of my husband’s. We dressed appropriately, as I hope you’ll agree, and Kathy and I were particularly pleased with our nautical styling! It was amazing to see everyone so beautifully dressed up, and as a lady, much of the enjoyment of my day was in watching all the other ladies, and admiring their gorgeous outfits. My husband was very content to cheer on the rowers as Kathy and I engaged in some serious people-watching. More of that in tomorrow’s blog.

The highlights of our day were:

The delicious catering, absolutely in line with the quality and creativity you would expect from such a prestigious event.
The outfits: some outlandish, some beautifully elegant, but almost all worth looking at!
The shopping: all the best of British shops selling lovely pretty things.
The atmosphere: and the rowing, of course! Seeing all those young university men competing against each other was a real treat. Just think, they could be competing against each other in the House of Commons in a decade!
The company: I thoroughly enjoyed spending the day with two of my loved ones, but also the other people we met really made the day fun and it was over before we knew it!

So what’s today’s lesson from Henley Regatta? Well, I suggest you look at your home and ask yourself “What are my highlights?” Looking at my five highlights above, can you arrange some visual and sensory treats to wow your potential buyers? How about homemade cookies, served by you wearing a special outfit, having staged your home with some pretty things, and to create atmosphere, some well-chosen music playing? Then all you have to make sure you do, is to be the best host or hostess, and make your viewers feel like the very special guests they are.

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.

My second blog post on the Henley Regatta is on the subject of ‘vignettes’. What exactly are these and how do they relate to selling houses? Well the dictionary describes a vignette as “A short story that presents a scene or paints a picture.” The key word here is ‘story’. What’s your home’s story? Where has it come from, and where is it now? What is your home’s personality? Kindly, warm and cosy, or else sophisticated, elegant and poised?

Let’s look at the Regatta. The vignettes below all tell a story. The man with the chirpy boater and the characterful beard; I bet he’s a really interesting person, full of wisdom and twinkly eyes. If he were a house, he’d be a thatched cottage with big chunky beams and a flagstone floor. Or the couple with the ice-creams. If they were a home, it would be a good solid village house, extended several times over the years and full of family laughter and memories.

What’s your story? What is your home’s personality? I once helped sell a house in the Cotswolds that had been on the market for over two years. Its owners had come from London, and the house ‘felt London’ with dark coloured hallway, large bold abstract prints, and ethnic ornaments and rugs. This kind of styling was completely alien for the Cotswold buyer, who was looking for a life that would include village fetes, long dog walks and longer pub lunches, and a large glass of Merlot in front of a roaring log fire. Not exactly a London life. I helped them understand their buyers, and give them the clues that they were looking for. Out went the prints, rugs and ornaments, and in came the muddy Hunters, vases of hand-picked flowers and big soft throws. The comfortable Cotswold life was snapped up immediately at the asking price for the first buyers that walked through the door.

And where had these buyers come from? London of course!

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.

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.

I recently attended a month-long fitness ‘boot camp’; you know the kind of thing: lots of exercise, clean eating plan and a very scary instructor (thanks Jo!) to keep you on your plan. Halfway through the month, I had a social occasion to attend, and asked Jo if I could have her permission to take an evening off my plan, so I could enjoy the delicious food and a glass or two of wine. “Of course”, she said. “Just don’t be surprised if you don’t reach your goal”. A bit harsh, I thought. Could one evening of enjoying myself really make that much difference? My goal was a weight I really wanted to achieve, and if that one evening was going to put me in danger of not making it, I just wasn’t prepared to risk it. That evening, I stuck to fizzy water, and stayed away from the pastries and crisps. It wasn’t so bad, actually. Two weeks later, I stood on the scales, elated that I had, in fact, reached my goal, to the pound. I was so glad that I’d stuck to Jo’s advice; after all, she was as keen for me to succeed as I was.

What has my boot camp got to do with selling houses? It’s all about following the plan – the plan of proven success. Note that these are prices ex. VAT. You can use the VAT calculator to calculate including VAT prices.. When we deliver a Home Sale Strategy to a client, in the form of an action plan, it is designed to get the house sold for the best price possible. If that client then decides that instead of the estate agent we’ve recommended he uses, he wants to use someone he knows from the golf club, or that the front path is fine as it is, despite the fact we have advised it be weeded and tidied, can he then really expect to get the result he wants? Do what we tell you to do – no more, no less – and you’ll massively increase your chance of selling your house for the price you want.

Our advice is, after all, the right advice to sell 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.

Remember Kate and Will’s Royal Wedding? If you’re anything like me, you were eagerly awaiting that first magical glimpse of Kate’s dress. For months, it was the subject of conjecture and rumours, and still managed to end up a complete surprise. No one knew who the designer was, the colour or the style. And don’t we just love it? The surprise for me, and millions around the world, added to the excitement and enchantment of that wonderful day.

Kate’s determination to keep the secret is something that every seller could learn from! When we sell our home, there is a tendency for the estate agent to try to show everything, warts and all, in the brochure and photography. The property of a client of ours, has been listed on Rightmove with 52 photographs! The problem with this, is that a buyer will make a decision about whether or not to view a home based on the photographs, and if there are images of every nook and cranny, they don’t need to come to see it! In this sense, less is definitely more. Or in marketing speak, you need to sell the sizzle, and not the sausage. Here are my top 5 tips for keeping your viewers interested and excited about your house:

1. Make sure there are no more than 6-10 photographs in your online advert. Any more than this, and you risk losing their interest before they have even seen the best features of your home;

2. Look at your description, both in your online advert and also in your brochure. Is the copy wordy and overly descriptive, complete with full measurements and every power point listed? It should be punchy, full of emotive language and enthusiasm. Create atmosphere with the wording, and make sure every word entices a buyer to view.

3. Your brochure should include up to 20 photographs, but at least half of these are better as ‘lifestyle’ shots. These could be a glimpse of the garden through the gate, a window seat with an open book and a cup and saucer, or a posy of flowers on a bedside table. If you have a country property, try a shot of muddy wellies by the back door, or a stack of logs in the sunshine. Urbanites could try a bowl of limes on a shiny kitchen surface, or a bottle of bubbly and two glasses on the coffee table, with just low lamps lit.

4. When your viewer arrives, make sure all your internal doors are closed. Invite them to go first into each room, opening the doors like opening a present. In this way, they ‘take ownership’ of the house.

5. Try to make some little secret corners, in your house and also in the garden. This might be a little reading corner, or a garden bench hidden by shrubs, and secret paths are loved by adults and children alike.

You only get one shot to make a great impression on a viewer. If they are under 40, they are most likely very used to browsing online, and with a click, you’ve lost them. Unless you can pique their interest and hold their attention long enough to create a desire to know more. Do it right, and they’ll reach for the phone, and book that viewing.

As for Kate’s dress, well it was certainly worth the wait.

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 is probably safe to assume that if you have ever sold a property you will have considered dropping your asking price.

Some of you may have been asked by your agent to think about a price cut, others may have been advised it is the only way you are going to secure a sale. And did it work? If the answer is yes, chances are your house would have sold anyway.

At HomeTruths we believe you should never lower your asking price. And here’s why:

8 reasons why you should stick to your asking price:

1. In most cases the drop in price you make probably won’t make any difference to your buyers… whatever their budget. Unless you can afford to slash the price by at least 25% (and why would you?), it really won’t make an impact.

2. Your property was originally valued based on some sound research and by an expert in the industry. What’s changed?

3. A price drop can cause suspicion among buyers, what’s wrong with it? Why have you lowered the asking price? Not a good impression to make on your potential buyers!

4. Unless there is good reason, your house shouldn’t be the cheapest on the street/estate/area. Buyers want to feel they are getting something special. Lets face it ‘cheapest’ and ‘special’ don’t often go together in the same sentence.

5. If you are feeling pressure from your agents to drop your price, ask them what else could be done to secure that sale… put the onus back onto them. That’s what you are paying them for.

6. In today’s market most buyers will most certainly make an offer, not many people will go straight in with the full asking price. If you have already lowered your price, and then go on to accept an even lower offer, how much money have you lost? You do the math.

7. Dropping your price may lead to other properties in the area doing the same. Not only will you have driven down the overall value of homes in your area, but you will still be in the same ballpark as everyone else in terms of price. The net effect? You will be in a similar position as you were before you, except slightly worse off!

8. And finally, have confidence in your price, if you don’t, no one else will!

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.