Tag Archives: Selling

Does your home look better in the sunshine? Of course it does! In the rain, everyone’s house looks gloomy and sad. A bit of sunshine makes the garden sing, and your home warm and welcoming.

We can’t control the weather for viewings, but we can control our viewings for the weather.

Check the forecast – if you know that all week will be wet and horrible, but Wednesday is forecast to be sunny, then tell your agent to book the viewing on the Wednesday! Part of making sure your home looks its best each and every time someone views, is keeping an eye on the weather too. Sunshine puts a smile on everyone’s face, and it might just have your viewers reaching for their cheque book.

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 know setting prospective buyers loose on your home to play Simon Cowell can be daunting; suppose the dog has an ‘accident’ or the neighbours decide their bonfire just can’t wait until November 5^th?

Yes, buyers can indeed be difficult to please, but here’s the good news – we know exactly how to please them. Putting the effort in, pays dividends when it comes to getting that all important ‘quick sale’!

Follow our 9 tips to get your house big fat ‘yes’s’ across the board:

Improve your kerb appeal

We know you should never judge a book by it’s cover, but sadly, people often do – a lot of people will drive around first before deciding on which properties to visit.

The exterior of your home is just as important as the interior, if not more so for that all-important first impression. Peter Illingworth Estate Agent says ‘you must make sure every part of this visual picture looks at its best. If the interior is beautiful they may never see it if the exterior is shabby. The pavement in front of your home should be swept clean if necessary, any weeds that are growing should be removed, unsightly bins hidden and any litter picked up.’

Invest in some doggy day-care

As much as you love Rover, not everyone’s a fan. Potential buyers don’t want to walk in and smell cat litter, or walk out with dog hair stuck to their clothes; it gives the impression that your house isn’t clean. Hire a dog sitter or at least exile your furry friends to the garden whilst showing buyers around.

Come up smelling of roses

Or lilies, daisies, tulips – you get the idea. A bunch of flowers goes a long way!

Or there’s always the oldest trick in the real-estate book: pop some cookies or freshly made bread in the oven and intoxicate your buyers with that warm fuzzy feeling, instantly bonding them to your home – or so they say.

Whilst whipping up freshly baked goods each time you have a prospective buyer in your house may be impractical, you can always ‘brew some fresh coffee’ or buy flower-scented candles for an alluring welcome buyers are sure to appreciate. At the very least, ensure all ashtrays are out of the way and Fabreeze is always on hand.

Keep your hardship to yourself

If you think buyers will hear your life story, feel sorry for you and consequently sign on the dotted line, you’re sadly mistaken. Whatever the reason is for selling your house – be it debt, death or your husband running off with the next-door neighbour – keep schtum! Nearly a quarter of the cases of off-putting behaviour in the My Online Estate Agent survey involved sellers unburdening themselves about the reasons for their marriage break-up. Save it for your shrink, please.

Clutter is killer

Get rid of it – and sharpish! Buyers want to be able to imagine themselves living in your home, and family photos, swimming certificates and your grandma’s ornaments make it that bit harder. If it’s too painful to get rid of them permanently, why not put them in temporary storage?

Keep it PG

According to research by My Online Estate Agent, one in five buyers have encountered ‘something unusual’ when being shown around a property. A total of 22 per cent of house-hunters have been confronted with weird collections of sex-dolls and teddy bears, while 11 per cent have had to avert their eyes from naked pictures of the owners. Awkward.

Less ’50 shades’ more ‘vintage lampshades’, please.

Lighten up

Light, bright and airy – three words to take as house-selling gospel. Especially when it comes to kitchens and bathrooms, open plan is in fashion and buyers want as much space as possible. Colour scheme-wise, think whites and creams, or pastel hues.

Bathrooms and kitchens are two of the most important rooms in a property and should be immaculately clean and tidy when showing a property to viewers – again accessorised to emphasise light and space.

“Wildly coloured bathroom suites were regarded as the ultimate in taste in the 1980s, but can look pretty hideous to modern eyes,” says David Newnes, director of LSL Property Services. He claims such a fitting could knock up to £8,000 off the value of your property. Wowzers. Oh, and keep it clean people! Research by Rightmove among 4,000 buyers found that dirty kitchens and bathrooms were the biggest turn-offs – so get out that Mr Muscle before every viewing.

Putting the effort in, either on your own or with the assistance of a specialist property company can clearly pay dividends when it comes to answering the question – ‘how to get a quick sale’

Stay Switzerland

Fancy yourself as the next Kelly Hoppen? This is not the time to test out your skills. The thing to remember is your taste is not the same as everyone else’s. Keep colours neutral and decoration to a minimum to make your house appealing to as many buyers as possible.

Be warned: additions can be made but unsightly adornments cannot be unseen! Offer an empty shell for buyers to build their dream home around from scratch – your estate agent will thank you for it.

Enlist the experts

Don’t fancy dealing with estate agents, viewings, and the general stress that comes with finding a buyer? You’re not alone.

www.sellhousefast.uk buys over 300 houses a year, direct, from all over the UK! Simply apply online, agree a price and set a date for a rapid and hassle free sale – often completed within four weeks. Oh, and they buy houses regardless of condition, meaning everyone’s invited.

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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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.

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.

Property pricing is of paramount important these days. I don’t mean the question of ‘value’ – but instead the art of setting the right price so that the portal searches are optimised. For example: you have a house to sell worth approximately £1 million. The agent suggests an asking price of £999,999. “It’s a psychological price point” they tell you. I don’t agree. At all. I say – market at £1,000,000, and here’s why:

£999,999 is a cheap ploy – an ‘Asda’ price. Your buyers aren’t daft, so don’t treat them as if they are! Give them some respect and a ‘Harrods’ price. Make it £1 million straight.

£1 million is actually an aspirational price point – your buyers WANT to spend one million pounds on a house, and tell their friends and family that they have done;

£1 million is a very confident price – it says “my house is worth a million pounds” £999,999 is apologetic, humble: it says “make me an offer”;

£1 million gets your property shown in more searches. At £999,999 on Rightmove, your property will only appear in searches up to £1 million. At £1,000,000 straight, it appears not only in searches up to £1 million, but also those over: potentially doubling traffic to your property advert.

After all, as my Dad would have said, “Look after the pennies, and the pounds will take care of themselves”.

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.

Women are three times as likely to pay the asking price for a property as men – at least according to Propertyfinder.com – 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.

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.

Most estate agents have great cameras these days, and will tell you they can get just as good shots as a pro photographer. After all, cameras have come on in huge leaps and bounds, and yesterday’s pro camera costing thousands is today’s amateur camera, costing less than a couple of hundred.

Meanwhile, Sam (me) tells you that you must have professional images to sell your house effectively and that an amateur’s efforts just won’t cut it.

So who’s right?

Me of course!

Here are seven reasons why you need a pro on the job:

1. A pro will see what an amateur won’t. When he has a tripod set up, he can evaluate the shot in a considered way, and move out of the way anything that might sabotage it: a cat bowl, a rubbish bin, even a colourful hairbrush. Anything that may distract a viewer from looking at the main features of a room.

2. A pro can deal with light levels. How often do you look at a photograph of a house interior on Rightmove, where the windows are just white boxes? This is what a pro calls ‘blown out’ and it is because an amateur doesn’t have the expertise to cope with dark corners and light streaming through the window, at the same time.

3. A pro sees shots everywhere. Unlike an amateur, who will generally just get one wide-angled shot of every room, a pro will see a creative shot in the turn of a banister, or across a garden feature towards the sunshine. He is trained to look for the shots where they occur, not snap what’s there.

4. A pro will add ambience. He knows when to turn lamps on, and when to rely on the sun coming through the window instead. He is adept at capturing atmosphere like a roaring fire or flickering candle.

5. A pro takes his time. He has allocated a certain amount of time for the shoot, often several hours, and will walk round the property and plan the shoot carefully in his head. He takes account of where the light falls, and its path over the course of the shoot.

6. A pro has professional integrity. He needs to get the very best shots possible of your home – that’s his job. Whereas for an agent, the photography is just part of a very complex, demanding job, a pro photographer can instead dedicate himself to the job of getting those perfect images, no matter what it takes.

7. A pro will deliver an exceptional finished result. It can easily take almost as long to edit a shoot as it does to take the photographs in the first place. In fact my sister, the fab wedding photographer Kathy Ashdown, takes 40 hours to edit a wedding that took her perhaps 12 hours to shoot. White balance, levels, saturation, sharpness, and lots more all have to be accounted for and enhanced so that the finished image is practically a work of art.

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 property isn’t just about selling bricks and mortar. It’s selling the idea of a life within those walls. Presenting a house as a home that’s ‘lived in’, which a potential buyer can buy into and picture themselves in.

This is where home staging is important.

It’s easy to think of home staging as a quick dust and tidy round your house before someone comes for a viewing – and who doesn’t love a clean and tidy home? But if you really want to maximise the selling potential of your house, there are other things that many property experts will recommend keeping in mind.

Catching a buyer’s eye

Staging helps to highlight the key features of a property and allows a potential buyer to see what they would be buying. It also makes it easier for estate agents to discuss the most attractive (and sellable) features of your property.

Tim Wright, Product Director at KeyAGENT says: “Thoughtful home staging is one of the key differentiators between a property that everyone ignores and one that seemingly sells itself.

“We define a successfully staged home as one that’s decluttered, while still promoting the character of the house,” he adds. “It’s a fine balance, but when it’s struck, the house sells quicker, and often for a higher price.”

Staging isn’t just useful for people viewing your home in person too. Many look online at property listings first, so it’s advisable to make your home stand out on the screen.

Home staging you can do

There are experts who can help with staging your home, which can be an option if you’re struggling to interest buyers.

But what if you’re on a tight budget? These top tips can help:

Get rid of clutter – the key to staging is to make sure anything that isn’t necessary to a room is hidden away. This makes a space look bigger and easier for a buyer to envisage living in.

Let in the light – A brighter home immediately feels more inviting. Open the curtains and pull back the blinds; let people see your home as somewhere for them to live.

Remove anything worn or tatty – an old rug, or scraggy cushions – anything on show that might detract from the effort you’ve gone to staging your home.

Paint the walls – simple, cheap redecorating, like repainting a room to appear more neutral, can help a potential buyer view your property as a blank canvas that they could put their own stamp on.

Staging also isn’t just about sprucing up the inside of your property. KeyAGENT explains the outside of your home needs just as much care and attention.

Think about keeping your pathway or driveway clear and make the garden look its best. Mow the lawn and get rid of any weeds, trim the hedgerow and fix the fence. It’s also advisable to remove any unnecessary clutter – store the garden tools and children’s toys in the garage or shed, for instance.

Helping you move house quicker

Staging your home might seem like a mammoth task, especially if your rooms are filled with a lot of clutter – trinkets, photos and ornaments – you need to sort out and remove. But it can actually work as part of your house moving process.

It’s a good idea to look at staging as a chance to get ahead of your packing, or have a clear out before you move house. You can put the belongings you want to keep into storage, or leave them with a friend or relative. That way, you’ve less to worry about shifting when you do move.

Having fewer belongings to move can help make you more reactive and help you to focus on speeding up the actual process of transferring ownership of your home, or conveyancing.

This is a sponsored post by Jonathan Mamczynski on the behalf of We Buy Any House the nation’s trusted house 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.