Getting enraged at “Awaiting image”

I’m helping a few clients look for homes at the moment and spending a bit more time on property websites than usual. Normally, I’ll be checking our own properties or looking for comparables for valuations but now I’m having to look  from the buyers end a bit more.  I will be the first to admit I’m not a patient man at the best of times so, whilst doing this, I have found myself getting just a little bit enraged at some common habits;

“XXXX agents are pleased to present”

Of course you’re pleased but I don’t need to know! Don’t waste my time, just tell me about the property.

No floorplans

Seriously guys, its the 21st century.  Make a bit of effort, you’ll get more interest and I’ll won’t have to puzzle out your details.

Rubbish photos

Did you check them before you uploaded them onto the computer? You did? And you put them on anyway? Sheesh.

Awaiting image

You know that the first time a property goes on the net, it gets auto mailed to those buyers who’ve registered for updates. If you haven’t added the photos (or much else half the time), that’s what the buyers get to see and they don’t get resent it unless it drops in price by a certain percentage. Would you bother clicking on something without a photo? No, I didn’t think so.

Robots vs humans

How do you search for property these days? For most of the clients I’ve encountered this year the answer is universally “via Rightmove”. Whether you’re logging on at work, surfing after dinner or linking by smartphone, Rightmove seems to be the UK’s choice for buyers and sellers. The website itself claims more UK users than Yahoo, a market share above 80% and over 90% coverage of UK estate agents. Seems simple, doesn’t it? You’re “guaranteed” to spot all the homes you want, you don’t have to talk to the nasty estate agents until you need to and you can search when you want from where you want.

When I first started work as an estate agent (over 15 years ago now!), buyers registered on our mailing list. What this actually meant was we filled out a 6 x 4 blue card with all of their contact details and buying criteria, then popped said card in a alphabetized drawer of about 3000 others. If the buyer was especially proceedable, realistic and motivated, we kept a maximum of 30 cards on our desk (hot applicants, specials) for priority service. When our boss came through the door with a new instruction, we called our matching hot applicants first. Once finished, we might take a stab at the rest of the mailing list but boredom usually won by about the letter S.

So, technology and progress definitely win. Long live the age of the machine!

 Or maybe not?

Have you considered what happens when you try to apply human wants and needs to a robotic search program? Buying a house is a visceral and emotive process so do property websites take this into account. Here are a few issues we’ve come up with;

1) Searching by area or point then radius is all well and good, as long as the buyer has a good grasp of local geography. If not, they could be missing out on plenty of properties because the computer has decided they are “out of range”. For example, I met a client at a Widcombe flat whose search criteria turned out to be BA1 + 1mile. Southern parts of Widcombe are outside this radius yet under a mile from the edge of the city centre and thus well within his actual criteria. Did the flat appear on his Rightmove search? NO. Did he buy the property? YES.

2) Searches can be done on number of bedrooms only – what happens if the property has a loft room or a reception that can be used as an annex or ground floor bedroom? Some buyers need extra receptions (working from home?). There’s no flexibility or context to allow for unusual homes or unusual requirements, forcing buyers to widen their search or (what usually happens) not bother and potentially miss out.

3) Using the “Added In” function? You’re expecting to see only new instructions? You’re actually seeing not only genuine new properties but also price reductions over 4%, properties that have changed agents and also properties that have been artificially “refreshed” by the agent to seem new (although most websites say they discourage this). How do you know the difference?

4) Limited information – searching a property website means initially filtering properties on the merits of a price, a photo and 4 lines of text. I know many estate agents are awful at presentation but even the finest homes can be overlooked if you’re dealing with thumbnail shots and the usual “We are pleased to present” prose.

There are lots more issues we could highlight, like the current clunky smartphone interfaces or the revenue generating phone numbers Rightmove make buyers use to contact the estate agent, but suffice to say property websites are not the shining solution many buyers believe them to be.

However, don’t think because we’ve said this that we don’t believe property websites have an important place in the process. For research into prices and availability, Rightmove and the like are absolutely invaluable. The mistake comes when buyers continue to rely on such sites for the remainder of the search process.

So, how should you search for property?

Use websites to research what is available AND sold in the area you’re looking in. Can you afford what you want? Don’t just rely on the “big” websites – use sites like PropertySnake to see recent price reductions or UpMyStreet for local information. Check sold prices via the Land Registry and market surveys from the Halifax and Nationwide. 

Learn which estate agents deal in the area you’re interested in and make a list of who to call or visit. Don’t ring direct from the website – it’ll cost you!

Buy several issues of the local property paper and cross reference your website research with print – have you missed out on any agents or properties?

If you’re “not from round here” devote at least a whole day to walking or driving around your chosen area. Look for estate agents boards, pick favourite roads (and ones to avoid).

Visit your chosen estate agents – sit down and talk through your requirements. Ask if they are realistic and achievable. Listen to advice and re-tune your criteria if necessary. Give the agent every means of contacting you. Keep checking websites in case an agent not on your list takes on the right property.

Ask local friends or contacts their opinions – take their recommendations on agents, locations, schooling etc on board.

Keep in touch with the agents – pop in or call regularly so they know you’re still around. Make sure you’re the face they remember when a new property comes on.

Think outside the box. Widen your criteria or anticipate compromising on some elements of your wish list. Your ideal home might be exactly what you thought you wanted or something you’d never dreamed you’d like.

Remember the estate agent works for the vendor so make sure they think of you as a good prospect for earning them some commission. Can they get hold of you easily? Are you ready to view quickly?

Don’t just concentrate on new instructions. Revisit properties that have been reduced in price or ask the agent which homes have been on the market for a long time. Never ignore a property just because you’ve “seen it before so there must be something wrong with it”.

Utilising a combination of the internet, printed media, window displays and human contact is far more likely to give a representative selection in your search. It will take more time and effort on your part than sitting in front of the screen but you’re likely to end up with a better result all round.

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

Paper advertising vs property websites

With some local competitors no longer advertising in the city property newspaper, we thought it would be worthwhile analysing a selection of our own adverts to see whether our expenditure was worthwhile. We’re hearing more and more from industry pundits that property websites generate the most leads on any given home (and at the price they charge per month they should be!) but is it true in real life?

Case study 1 – St Anns Way, Bathwick (3 bed family semi with large gardens, priced at £425,000)

This was always going to be an easy one to get viewings on being in the second best postcode in the city, next to the best primary school and fee paying school, an easy walk to town and with plenty of potential to expand. By the time we finished phoning out the property, we had booked 8 viewings. Website releases generated another 8 bookings over two weeks. However, we advertised the property in a half page two days before our first open house appointment and were amazed to find an extra 12 viewers turned up (all clearly stating they saw the property in the paper on Friday or Saturday morning). That wasn’t all – we held another open house on the following Tuesday (and had 3 bookings from the usual websites) and another 4 people came from the paper ad.

Result – 45% of the viewings on this particular house came directly from one newspaper advert. Advertising on Rightmove, Findaproperty, Primelocation and many other websites for over 2 weeks only generated 31% of all activity, with the remainder coming from our mailing list.

Case study 2 – Abbey Court, Bathwick (3 bed mansion block apartment with garage and views)

Now, this one may have been a bit unfair to choose as a study as the vast majority of previous buyers in the block have been well into retirement. However, I wanted to see if, packaged alongside more orthodox second homes, the property websites would generate as much interest as they have on a Henrietta St or Johnstone St. Also, I secretly wanted to see if any retired buyers were web capable or if sons and daughters were looking for them over the web. Lastly, with almost 1000sqft of space, it is a superb alternative to nearby Georgian flats and I wondered if any of those clients would pick up on that.

The property was released to Rightmove and others on Saturday last week. The first ad in the paper (another half page) appeared today. Despite (for example) over 3235 summary views on Rightmove (and a 5.4%click thru rate), no viewings have appeared as yet from the web. Conversely, it took just 1 hour from publication to book our first viewing from the paper and 3 more have appeared since.

Result – 100% of viewings generated directly from newspaper ads during the course of a week.

Now, let’s deal with some possible objections to the results

“You chose particular properties to skew the results” – No, these are simply the last two instructions we had chronologically and are happily entirely different types.

“The Easter hols disrupted people looking for homes” – Surely the same factor would affect both web and paper but we deliberately exposed both homes to the web for a long time before advertising and both properties were advertised in the paper on different weekends (29th April and 5th May)

“People ring for details from the web then book viewings after they have received them” – Usually true if the information on the web is insufficient. However, in both cases we released full brochures to the web (checkable here) with floorplans, upwards of 12 photos per house, historical research and inventories.

If you have any other thoughts as to why these results are as they are, I would be delighted to explore them with you – comment below, follow me on Twitter (Madison_Oakley) or find us on Facebook .

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

Beautiful presentation makes all the difference

This stunning country cottage just south of Bath had been languishing on the market with two “upper market” Bath agents for 2 years. Cardinal marketing sins committed included grey unfocused photos (never updated), limited newspaper advertising, unaccompanied viewings, boards left up for months, no feedback to vendors and multiple web entries per agent on Rightmove.

Having known the vendor for many years, we were invited to see what we could do to refresh the marketing. The owner, somewhat weary of agents by then, needed straight talking advice and quick action. The photos were simple to correct, involving only a few visits at different times of day to capture sun on both front and rear elevations and a decent wide angle camera for the inside. An interactive floorplan allowed us to expose photos and plans together, whilst a 3D plan captured the imagination of buyers from Rightmove. Within a week we had a full brochure ready that, in the vendors own words “knocked the socks off” anything he had seen in the preceding 2 years. Teamed with a half page in the local paper and full coverage across 21 web portals, we achieved viewings immediately and an offer within 3 weeks (the previous agents had showed over 45 clients the house without any success and continued with the occasional fruitless viewing during our marketing). Due to chain problems below, the first offer didn’t proceed to completion but we had two back up buyers in waiting and one has just exchanged on the property today!

As many industry professionals have already discussed in their own blogs and newsletters, how we present our stock really does make all the difference to selling homes. With most buyers now using the internet exclusively to search for property, agents must create the very best showcase for our clients – even if this means repeated visits to get the job done right. Top line visibility for the product only delivers the goods when hand in hand with excellent presentation.

 

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

New websites for Madison Oakley

Three new websites now released for Madison Oakley Estate Agents – to help our clients in targeted/keyword web searches, we have opened three new linked sites in conjuction with our main website. They are;

www.propertiesinbath.co.uk

www.propertyforsaleinbath.co.uk

www.studentletsbath.co.uk

All new sites link back to our main site on various pages and will, over time, have directory functions to enable our business partners (solicitors, EPC providers, trades) to benefit from links to their own sites. In conjuction with our active Facebook business page and Twitter accounts, we believe our web presence is now considerably in advance of most local agents in Bath, providing optimum exposure for our clients and their properties.

Lansdown slopes, Bath

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