Selling your house – the 3 P’s rule

If you’re looking to sell your home, all you need to remember is the 3 P’s rule – Price, Preparation and Presentation

 

Price -

 

• always get at least three valuations and check each agent brings evidence of similar sold properties
• put yourself in the buyers shoes and look at websites like www.mouseprice.com for recent sold prices in your road
• decide how much time you have to sell – the quicker you need to move, the more aggressive you’ll need to be on price

 

Preparation -

 

• De clutter and de personalise the property. Tidy the garden and work on your “kerb appeal”
• Obtain a marketing plan from the agent you’ve chosen to instruct – you need to know everything they are going to do for you for at least the first 6 weeks
• ask the agent to start marketing the property on websites and in the newspaper several days BEFORE starting viewings. This ensures all available buyers get a chance to see your home (and more buyers means more choice and potentially more money for you)

 

Presentation -

 

• Make sure the property details are perfect - check the agent has included lots of photos (all taken in a nice day with blue sky), floor plans (ideally interactive and colour coded), aspirational language, historical details, a map and so on. The same should be true for the internet details.
• Your property has to be widely marketed – the local newspaper is a must alongside property websites but don’t forget social media, a for sale board and the estate agent’s window display.
• The estate agent has to do all the viewings – you’ll get more information from the viewers if they do – but make sure the agent is capable of doing evening and weekend showings (and is experienced enough to know what they’re talking about)

 

scientia potentia est / knowledge is power

Sir Francis Bacon - Religious Meditations, Of Heresies, 1597

Guide to Selling Pt2

Viewings

Who should do viewings? Owners know their own homes best, but buyers prefer agents to show them around. The best compromise is to let the agent conduct all first viewings and then offer to be around for any second viewings, in case the prospective buyer has any questions, or you’d like to meet them and build a rapport.

When should viewings happen? In an ideal world, at the buyer’s convenience. Buyers like agents or owners to make their lives easier and be available after work or on weekends. Try to be accommodating and create a good impression. But do let your agent know if there are problematic times for viewings for you and if there are any local issues that may cause problems for viewing (eg limited parking during school runs).

Always expect feedback from viewings as a matter of course. How else can you find out if there are any problems you could fix? Agents should give you detailed, specific feedback within 24 hours. However, be aware that it takes, on average, several viewings to create 1 offer (or more in a slow market) so there will always be a fair amount of personal feedback.

Experience, enthusiasm and knowledge

Estate agency is partly a sales job – and experience counts. Avoid letting inexperienced agents handle your biggest financial asset. Some estate agents employ different staff to value homes and others to sell them – don’t get caught out and make sure the person you meet first is available to you for the whole process.

 

Opening hours and availability

Buyers work, just as you do, so having your home and agent available after working hours (and at weekends) is absolutely crucial to get the maximum activity from viewers. Your agent needs to be able to react quickly to viewing requests and accommodate viewers in early evenings and at weekends, so leave a key with them. The same is true of phone calls – if you can’t get through, the chances are your potential buyers can’t either.

 

Advertising

Rightmove, the property website is the market leader by far – if your home is marketed on Rightmove, entries on any other property websites are a bonus rather than essential. Make sure the photos look good, the description is eye-catching and comprehensive, and you must have floor plans for maximum effect.

Newspaper advertising – case studies have proven that between 30 – 50% of viewings still come from the local property paper. Make sure your property is featured regularly, with large adverts and plenty of detail.

Social media – technology moves on and many buyers are now using Facebook, Twitter and the like to look for properties. This trend is only likely to increase, so make sure your agent is marketing your home via these websites.

Window displays – we all look, even if we’re not buying, so traditional methods always have their place. Your property needs to look as good in the window as it does on websites.

Boards – like them or loathe them, they also have their place and act as a 24 hour salesperson.

If your agent uses QR codes on boards, they can also be useful to channel smartphone users direct to your online property information. (QR, or Quick Response code, is a type of barcode.)

Property details

Photos – are the most important aspect of your estate agent’s marketing. Your home will stand or fall in the market based on the quality of the photos taken. If you think about how buyers search for property, the photo is always the first thing they see – on the web, in the papers, in window displays and on details. If it’s not perfect, have it taken again. If your property stays on the market for a while, ask the agent to retake the photos from different angles to refresh the marketing.

Floor plans – make life easier for buyers and always have a floor plan for your property. Including them means you’ll get 30% more activity from websites. Viewers will be able to visualize and remember more about your home and they can scribble on the printed plan. Even better, put the photos and the plan together in an interactive plan. Always include total square footage of accommodation.

Descriptions – many agents will write descriptions by rote and these are easily recognisable. Choose an aspirational description that makes people want to view. Avoid stock phrases, clichés and always give full details on accommodation. State sizes on rooms and gardens and show compass directions.

Brochures (if required beyond the usual paper printout) – lots of estate agents charge for brochure production. Check with your local printer for price comparisons.

Videos/virtual tours – if you can find an agent with the capability, buyers love video tours. Grab one for your home if you can.

ALWAYS INSIST on approving the property details before they are released to the market. Feel free to make suggestions and changes – it’s your property after all.

Instructing an agent

Contracts – before you instruct an agent to sell your home, look through their contract in detail. Most agents will have a minimum contract period (you’re tied in to that agent for a certain number of weeks) so make sure you know what you’re signing up for. 4 – 8 weeks is enough in most cases. If the term is above 8 weeks, the agent might not have enough confidence in their valuation. Don’t forget VAT is payable on agent’s fees and look for charges like “cancellation fees” or “advertising fees”.

Marketing plan – sit down with your agent and agree a timescale for marketing. When will the details be ready?  When is the date of the first newspaper advert? When should viewings start? Before your home is marketed, you should know everything the agent is going to do for you for at least 6 weeks into the future.

Preparing your home for sale

You have a role to play in the sale even if you’ve employed an estate agent. Try to leave the property clean and tidy every day – even if you haven’t got any viewings booked: you never know when the phone will ring. All the little DIY jobs you’ve been putting off need to be sorted before the first buyer turns up. Look at the “kerb appeal” of your property – does the front garden need tidying, or the door painting? Do you need to talk to the agent about your pets and how to deal with them? Are there times of the day when viewings shouldn’t be booked? If you’re really stuck on how to present your property, ask your agent or a property stylist for their opinion.

Bath house prices – September 2011 update

As usual, some confusing discrepancies between reports on house prices so far this month. Rightmove and Findaproperty (both working on asking prices rather than sold prices) show monthly changes of -1.5% and +0.1% respectively for the South West (with annual changes -o.7% and +0%).

Working from Land Registry data (based purely on completed transactions and thus potentially 2-3 mths out of date), August prices rose in Bath and North East Somerset by 0.2% on the month and 1.5% over the year. The average selling price in BANES is now £230,000.

Figures from Mouseprice.com suggest June and July 2011 saw the most number of completed sales in Bath for any two month period in the last year. June alone saw more completions than any month in the last 18. Figures from this website are not yet available for Aug/Sept.

As regards supply levels, Rightmove are displaying a total of 870 homes in Bath , whilst Home.co.uk suggests there are currently 912 homes available to buy in the city (both websites will not filter out multiple agency instructions so the real number is likely to be about 10% lower). Both numbers would suggest a severe lack of supply, compared to previous monthly surveys of stock by Madison Oakley.

Bath house prices

Bath saw the third highest rise in city specific property prices in the country in the last year. The Nationwide House Price Index says that average prices in the city rose by ten per cent in the last 12 months. The average sale price over that period was £255,476 – the highest in the south west. Prices in Bath have risen by 85% in the last ten years, and went up by 2% in the last three months, according to the figures. Nationally, Nationwide said average prices fell by 1.2 % last year, although there was a 0.2% increase in the last quarter.

However, the latest H.M Land Registry figures (more accurate as based on all completed sales rather than the Nationwide’s own approved mortgages) show only modest gains in the average house price – May 2011 transactions averaged at £228,228 (May 2010 figures were £225,835). Admittedly, the Land Registry looks at the whole of Bath and North East Somerset whereas the Nationwide have concentrated on the more affluent part of the county – the city itself.

Numbers of sales in BANES, again from Land Registry data, have remained roughly similar to 2010.

No doubt the average house price will come as a shock to those wishing to live in the Bath area. However, prospective buyers need to bear in mind that, although Bath is full of inordinately expensive streets and districts, there are still plenty of areas within or just outside the city that are reasonably affordable. Searching for 2 bedroom houses within 5 miles of Bath on a popular property website brings results from approximately £120,000 upwards (we have ignored park homes or properties in need of refurbishment in order to give a more accurate picture) whilst 3 bedroom houses start from £130,000. Looking further afield to Trowbridge or Corsham (both within 10 miles) brings an even wider choice.

Among other factors, buy to let investment has fuelled price rises in Bath over the past decade. Two universities and four language colleges bring tens of thousands of students to a relatively small city. The World Heritage status and beautiful surroundings bring many more tenants of every stripe. No wonder some Bath suburbs previously occupied by families have become student strongholds and most small apartments in the city centre are long term tenanted.

For more information on Bath and properties for sale, visit our website

Bath – caught in a bubble?

From the bewildering array of house price surveys published every month, you might be forgiven for being a little confused on the current direction of the property market. The Halifax believes the market is “drifting downwards” nationally but expects “stabilisation towards the end of the year” yet the Nationwide survey is a full three points more positive. Neither base their figures on evidence beyond their own lending which, in a market full of cash buyers, gives seriously distorted findings.

Bath, like London and parts of the Home Counties, has always enjoyed a measure of protection from national trends. World Heritage status, excellent schooling, beautiful architecture and decent commuter links combine to make the city one of the most sought after destinations for homebuyers and Bath is regularly featured in Top 10 lists across broadsheets and internet surveys. However, one factor is constantly overlooked by local pundits – lack of supply. Having tracked the Bath market for many years, even we are surprised at the sheer lack of available homes in the area at present and we’re receiving calls every day from frustrated buyers.

H.M Land Registry figures show that, at the peak of the market in the summer of 2007, approximately 350 – 400 homes were being sold each month in Bath. Monthly figures since 2007 show transaction volumes dipping to between 100 and 200 per month on average (as we would expect from a recession hit period) and this year’s scores (January 111 sales and February 121 sales) are no different. However, it’s not lack of buyers keeping the figures low in 2011 - we are experiencing massive demand for any new instructions.

Although this might sound like a contradiction, there are 1246 properties currently for sale in the Bath area. Sounds like a lot? It’s less than half the stock we were dealing with before 2007. Rents have risen to such a stratospheric level that many Bath clients have chosen to stay put and we’re left with those who NEED to move – it’s not enough to satisfy demand from buy to let investors and job movers, let alone first time buyers.

Build more houses? Apart from the ongoing saga of the Western Riverside development, there’s no land for a project of any decent size and the planning issues would be legendary!

For more info on Madison Oakley or contact details for our directors, do visit our website.