It's still a tough market, no question. Things are picking up, slowly, but give yourself the best possible chance to attract interest and beat the competition, with my action list:
1. If you have an unusual feature, design or story about your house, you can generate free PR by getting onto local radio or in the press.
2. Use the classified ads.
3. On 2nd viewings, offer a ‘Try before you buy’ afternoon with a meal.
4. Develop a Viewing Plan to make sure the house is being shown in the best way possible.
5. Offer a financial referral incentive to all on your email contact list, and ask them all to
pass it on.
6. Have a video made of your house, and offer it as a download and/or a dvd.
7. Leave your brochure between the pages of some of your used magazines, and then take them to doctors’ and dentists’ surgeries for their waiting rooms.
8. Create an index size advert including photographs, and put it in your local newsagent’s window.
9. Attend networking groups and leave your brochures on their contacts table.
10. Supermarkets often have noticeboards where you can leave an advert.
11. Attach a lidded, waterproof brochure box to your sign so people can help themselves to your brochures.
12. Open days can help generate interest but they need advertising extensively.
13. Organise a direct marketing campaign – send a mailout to every property on the market within a 5 mile+ radius of your house.
14. Your largest employers in the area will probably have noticeboards where you can pin a brochure.
15. Try Ebay – whilst bidders aren’t committing to buy, it might help reach a wider audience.
16. Some of the online agencies are very cheap to list your property, and quite a few are free.
17. Make sure your asking price maximises the search parameters on Rightmove, the largest property portal. Ie, round off your figure to ensure it turns up in more searches. For example, a £499,999 property won’t show up if a buyer has £500,000 as their minimum price, but at £500,000 exactly, it will show up in both searches.
18. Put your asking price on the for sale board. This particularly works well on a busy road, or on the rear fence of a house which backs on to a playing field or park.
19. Make sure the text on your brochure really sells not just your house – but the lifestyle it offers.
20. Stage your house before each viewing, eg light the fire, have new towels out and fill the house with flowers.
21. Re-photograph your house often so that the photographs are always current.
22. Have some small postcards printed with your property details and contact information; wherever you go, make sure you have some with you and can leave them in appropriate places.
23. Calculate the price per square foot of your house, and compare it to your competition; if it is favourable, print a table showing how you rank and give it out to buyers.
24. If you have a house over fifty years old, investigate the history of the property. Compile as much information as you can including photographs, census data and memories from local neighbours. Have this information bound nicely and give it out to interested buyers.
25. Visit the competition – anonymously if possible. See how your presentation and price compares with them, and whether you can use any of their styling ideas.
26. Create a local information folder including schools, amenities, transport, supermarkets, clubs etc.
27. Visit showhomes in the area for presentation ideas and to make sure you’re competing well.
28. When you have a viewing, find out as much as you possibly can about the buyer. Not only will they feel special with all the attention, it will help you sell the features of the house which appeal to them directly.
29. If you have a family house, make sure any children are well catered for, and encourage them to play on swings, slides, trampolines etc, leaving their parents free to look around in peace, and hopefully making sure that pester power will work.
30. Men buy with their heads, whilst women buy with their hearts, so make sure your house appeals to both. It has to be competitively priced and be as practical as possible for
the male buyer, but the woman needs to be seduced and tempted by the emotional and sensory pull of your home, so make sure you sell the lifestyle, not just the bricks and mortar.
31. Have music playing low throughout the house during viewings; make sure it’s of a type that will appeal to your particular type of buyer, though contemporary easy listening such as Norah Jones or David White will be appreciated by most.
32. Take photographs of your house in all weather and seasons; if you have a nice picture of it in the snow it will intrigue a buyer, as will a summer photograph shown to a buyer viewing it in the winter.
33. Ask your estate agent to supply you with your Rightmove Property Performance Report at least once a fortnight. This will indicate your ‘click-through’ rate, (buyers who click on your particular property to get further details) which should be at least 7%. If it is less than this, try changing your front shot and your description.
34. Make sure your house smells appealing, with scented candles (much nicer and more subtle than air fresheners), and ‘clean’ smells in the bathroom and toilet. If you have a real fire you may need to have your soft furnishings cleaned to get rid of the smoke smells, and try burning fruit tree wood, which has a nice scent. For a very subtle baking smell in the kitchen, try gently warming a vanilla pod in the oven just before a viewing.
35. Find your wow factor – every house has something special – then make sure it really stands out.
36. Keep your sale board clean and straight so as not to indicate how long you’ve been on the market.
37. Follow the developers’ leads, and place some signs around the house detailing appliances and any other features, such as pull-down loft ladders and garage door remote switches.
38. Employ a professional photographer and instruct him to get creative – interesting angles and stylistic shots will help your brochure and online presence.
39. An elevated or high-lift shot will help to show your buyer the extent of your garden, the prettiness of its surroundings and its proximity to greenery or countryside. Expect to pay around £150 – £200 for a really good shot.
40. Write a description of your garden detailing all the plants and flowers you have planted. Photographs and a plan, as well as a description of how your garden looks in the different seasons, can all be compiled into a booklet and given out to your more green-fingered viewers.
41. Ask your agent to arrange ‘executive’ viewings; these are when the agent either collects the viewers from their home or meets them at the office, and then chauffeurs them from property to property. In this way, the agent retains control of each viewing, and the time spent in the properties.
42. Keep a visitors’ book for your viewers to write their comments in. Make sure each comment is on a separate page so that you can tear out any less than favourable remarks!
43. Leave a tea and coffee tray with homemade cookies set up ready for your viewers, to recognise them for the special guests they are.
44. Make sure you have some spare brochures in the house in case your viewer doesn’t have their own.
45. Ask your friends and neighbours to write some nice testimonials about the house, the neighbours and the village or town. Leave these printed out on the table for them to take with them.
46. If you have any interesting local stories and/or famous or celebrity residents, make sure you detail these in a handout.
47. Make sure the car in your drive is a good one, clean and shiny and reverse-parked to look its best. If it's not worth showing off, park it out of sight!
48. Name your house – pick a good locally influenced name and have a nice name plate made up and fitted. Research shows that houses with names sell for more money than those with just a number.
49. Arrange a preview day for friends and neighbours. Make them afternoon tea with all the trimmings, or have a cheese and wine evening. Ask them for their feedback – good and bad – and give out vouchers detailing incentives if they find a buyer for you. Be generous – your incentive needs to have four figures to really motivate them!
50. Facbook sites are really easy to create – make one to showcase your house complete with local information, photographs, details about local stories and famous neighbours etc.
The message here is, don't leave it all to your estate agent - there's so much you can do. At the very least, you'll feel that you have taken back some control of the marketing of your property - and at the most, you might just find yourself a buyer!
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