Despite the turmoil caused by Covid house sellers have done pretty well over the last few months. Strong buyer interest, strong sales levels and rising property prices have made it very much a seller’s market.
But things could be about to get a whole lot tougher over the next few months. As the pandemic drags on and the Stamp Duty holiday comes to an end – effectively making many properties more expensive – selling a house or flat might not be so easy. So, if you want or need to sell right now we’ll look at some tips for making any house more saleable.
Price it correctly
Some people advocate baking bread or brewing coffee but getting the asking price right is absolutely the number one way to make a property more saleable. The correct asking price not only makes a house or flat more saleable, it encourages more people to notice it and view it in the first place. That way, it should also help to get the best offer.
You can get an indication of correct pricing for a property by looking at what similar properties in the area have recently sold for .... not just what similar properties are up for sale for. However, taking advice from several estate agents is the best way to establish the correct asking price.
Choose the right agent
Not every estate agent is able to sell every type of property successfully. So choosing the best one to handle your property should automatically make it more saleable.
Whether you choose an online estate agent or a traditional offline estate agent check what their sales success rate is before hiring them. Also try to choose an estate agent who is already selling (and listing) properties that are similar to yours.
This post looks at Online Or Offline Estate Agents .... Which Are Best?
Stage it !
Home staging works brilliantly in new build show homes, so there’s no reason why it won’t work for existing properties.
The aim should be to think lifestyle here. Try to stage your property (or encourage your vendor to stage their property) so that it presents as a desirable place to live.
Basic staging tips include to make sure your property is clean, bright, decluttered and depersonalised. Visit some new build show homes and see how professional home stagers do it. Also snoop on the competition! Take a look at similar houses for sale and see what makes them attractive (or unattractive) to buyers.
You can also make a house more saleable by staging it so that it will appeal directly to the most likely type of buyer for it. Here’s a post which explains more about The 5 Types Of House Buyer.
Use every possible method of marketing
There are so many different ways of marketing a property today. So it’s difficult to know which the ideal buyer will use to find your property for sale. The only solution is to use every possible method of marketing!
Even in the digital age conventional methods of property marketing, such as a prominent sign board and an agent’s window display shouldn’t be ignored. It’s frequently the case that potential buyers live in the local area already and these methods will reach them directly.
When it come to marketing online listings on property portals like Rightmove and Zoopla are all very good, but properties need to be positively marketed online too. Social media is one way of doing this.
This article, Content Marketing For Estate And Letting Agents, offers more tips.
Use images, lots of images
The digital world has made images more important and valuable than ever in all kinds of marketing. This is just as much the case in property marketing as anywhere else. Rightmove and Zoopla have even redesigned their page listings in recent months to put more focus onto property images.
There’s probably no such thing as having too many images of a property for sale, so use as many as you can. As well as pics of the exterior and the principal rooms also offer prospective buyers pics of attractive details, such as period features or off street parking. Pics of the local area and local amenities such as shops, schools and parks are worth including too.
Offer video tours and viewings
As well as just static images the use of video is growing fast in property marketing. The big attraction of video is that it massively widens the potential buyer pool. With video the buyer pool is not just people who can physically visit the property but pretty much anyone anywhere in the world.
Video can include both a pre-recorded video tour which can be added to online property sales listings and which anyone can view, or live video viewings which can be conducted individually for selected interested buyers.
Choose the best prospective buyer
It’s worth bearing in mind that a house is not actually sold until contracts are exchanged and there are many pitfalls which can lead to a fall-through along the way. So one of the very best practical ways to make your property more saleable is to choose the best prospective buyer from amongst those who decide to make an offer.
The best prospective buyers are usually, in order of preference: 1. Chain free buyers, such as first-time buyers, those in rented accommodation or investors. 2. Buyers whose property has already sold. 3. Buyers whose property has recently gone on the market. 4. Everyone else.
Other ways of identifying those who make the best potential buyers (which you can find out by discreetly asking) include those relocating for a new job they’ve just got, and those who need to move in time for children to start at a new school.
There is no single way of making a house more saleable but all these techniques used in combination should ultimately give any house or flat the best possible chance of selling quickly.
