Selling your Home at a premium price

Arrange for professional photographs, including aerial shots of the property’s exterior and captivating lifestyle images. It’s important to remember that you never get a second chance to make a first impression, and in today’s digital age, nearly all prospective buyers start their search online.

I firmly believe that property owners should take the responsibility of hiring a professional photographer for these shots.

Ideally, you, as the property owner, should select an estate agent who recognises the value of professional photography and includes it as a complimentary service. In my 15+ years as an estate agent, I have yet to encounter one who is also a fully qualified professional photographer. So, be prepared to advocate for professional photography if they show up with a camera.

A professional photographer will ensure proper lighting and positioning of the camera in each room to capture the most appealing angles, presenting your home in the best possible way.

For every property listed with us we provide a professionally filmed, immersive walk-through tour, allowing potential buyers to experience the property authentically even before visiting it in person.

When crafting the property description, shift your focus from mere feature listings to emphasising the benefits it offers. Traditional descriptions from many estate agents might sound like: ‘XYZ estate agency is pleased to present this charming three-bedroom semi-detached house…’ However, today’s buyers are eager to envision the lifestyle a property can provide and whether it could become their next home. Therefore, your description should vividly illustrate the potential lifestyle, for instance: ‘Imagine the joy of entertaining in our spacious open-plan kitchen and dining room.’ This approach is far more appealing to potential buyers.

Getting Your Property on the Market

When it comes to selling your property, it’s all about timing and exposure. You’ll want to launch your property on the market and ensure that all the essential details are uploaded to major property portals. There’s a constant pool of potential buyers out there, actively searching for properties like yours. For instance, as of now, there have been 124,993 property searches for homes in Warrington, and 16,737 buyers have registered with rightmove.co.uk, eagerly waiting for alerts about new properties in Warrington.*

The demand is there; now, your task is to make sure your property stands out to attract these potential buyers. These are the ones who are most likely to pay a premium price for your home. The goal is to spark the interest of at least two or more buyers who’ll compete for your property.

Additionally, it’s crucial that your agent is tech-savvy, capable of texting and emailing property details to all registered buyers.

Handling Viewings

If you’re considering an open viewing, it’s vital to choose a specific day and time for it. Just a heads up, open viewings should be managed with care; when not done correctly, they can harm your property’s overall marketing.

In our experience, hosting an open viewing on a Sunday tends to work best. Most other estate agencies are closed on Sundays, so the viewers you attract are likely focusing solely on your house that day. This undivided attention is far better than being just one of many properties they see in a rush.

Furthermore, if potential buyers have checked out other properties on a Saturday, they might hold off on making offers until they’ve seen your house. If an open viewing doesn’t suit your needs or property, pre-agree two specific days and time slots each week with your agent. This helps group viewings together, creating a sense of urgency and competition among buyers, which can lead to getting the highest price.

One vital tip: Make sure your estate agent accompanies every viewing. This personal touch can make a significant difference in how potential buyers perceive your property.

Rightmove.co.uk and zoopla.co.uk have two promotion packages available to estate agents – standard and premium.

Premium promotion will make your property more visible compared to competing properties.

Make sure your agent is taking advantage of premium promotion which creates 100% more views, according to Rightmove.co.uk.

All “active” buyers will be regularly searching for a property online (we’ve already seen in step two the amount of demand there could be for your property) so it’s very important that you have a significant online presence. 

But what about the “passive buyer”? Ask any estate agent and they will tell you that they have, at some point, sold a property to a buyer who wasn’t actively looking. They are more of an opportunist buyer. You know the type, the one who saw the board on the school run, the ones who would “love to buy that house if it ever came on the market” or perhaps the one who would “buy a property in that block if one ever came up for sale”.

You also need to market to these buyers. A For Sale board is a great way to do this locally, but what about the opportunist buyers who aren’t local?

A great way to attract these potential buyers is to place an advert on Facebook, targeting

your demographic of likely buyer. (You can see the results in the image) The aim here is to reach as many passive buyers as possible.

Make sure your agent erects a For Sale or Open Viewing Soon board to attract any local passive buyers.

One week into the marketing  of your home you should ensure that your agent is monitoring the effectiveness of the marketing and analysing the Click Through Rate (CTR); making improvements or changes where necessary.

The CTR needs to be between 6 & 10%. Why? Because buyer interest drops by 50% after two weeks and your property will begin to stagnate on the market.

Usually, there will be around 8–12 images of your property featured online, make sure you use them all. Ensure that your estate agent is rotating the lead image, to keep your property imagery fresh.

Considering all the efforts put into marketing your home, it’s crystal clear that your agent can’t afford to overlook any inquiries. It’s absolutely crucial to ensure that every single inquiry, at any time, is captured without a hitch.

To make this a reality, your estate agent needs to be responsive around the clock, answering their phones 24/7. The importance here lies in never missing a phone call, as it could translate to missing out on a valuable inquiry or potential viewing opportunity. That one missed call might just mean missing the buyer who’s willing to pay a premium price for your property.

I totally get it, especially in this era. People rarely leave voicemails these days; it’s all about quick communication through texts. With the internet and smartphones at our disposal, information is readily available, and our expectations have skyrocketed.

If someone’s interested in your home and wants to view it right away but can’t reach your agent, they’re likely to explore the nearby house instead. They might fall in love with it, and your property won’t even cross their mind. That’s a potential buyer lost.

Here’s a little test: Try calling your estate agent at 18:45, just when most potential buyers are wrapping up their workday on a Tuesday night. Does your call get answered promptly, or do you end up with the answering machine? If it’s the latter, remember that you might have been the buyer for your own house, making an inquiry! Don’t let such opportunities slip through the cracks.

It’s crucial that viewings are carried out correctly otherwise steps 1 to 7 would have been pointless if you fall at the viewings hurdle. Here are a few golden rules:

• Always have your agent show buyers around. Buyers feel more comfortable and will be more honest. If it’s not for them, you want to know quick and move on. Not have them spend 30 minutes of wasted time to avoid upsetting you.
• Always block the bulk of the viewings together twice a week.
• The aim of a viewing is to “show” the buyer the house not “sell” the buyer the house.
• First viewings are emotional, second viewings are logical.
• It’s good if the owner can be in the property during a 2nd viewing to answer any questions the agent cannot which will speed up the decision making process.

MISCONCEPTION:

There’s a common misconception that property owners, or even online agents, should be the ones to show buyers around. The reasoning goes that no one knows the property like the owner does. However, this belief is a bit off the mark because, ultimately, “it is not about the property, it is about the buyer.”

Here’s the scoop: Owners often tend to go on and on about all the things they love about the house during viewings, and on a first viewing, this can be quite irrelevant. I’ve seen an owner talk endlessly about their 5 parking spaces for a good 10 minutes, only to find out that the buyer didn’t even own a car! It’s a classic case of the property owner’s perspective not aligning with the buyer’s needs and priorities.

Gathering candid, unfiltered feedback from every single viewing is absolutely vital for your successful sale, and here’s why – it’s a key piece of the puzzle that contributes to step 10.

On average, it typically takes around 10 viewings to find the right buyer. Since a property can only have one buyer, the feedback from the other nine individuals is like gold dust. It’s this feedback that can provide valuable insights and help you secure that offer you’re looking for. So, don’t underestimate the power of honest feedback; it’s your secret weapon in the journey towards a successful sale.

Once three to four weeks have passed, and your property is still available, it’s time for you and your agent to sit down for a face-to-face meeting. This meeting is crucial for reviewing the marketing efforts and the interest received up to that point.

Take a deep dive into various reports during this meeting. This includes marketing reports, “click through rate” reports, feedback reports, and market comparable reports. The market comparable reports reveal similar properties that have been sold while yours has been on the market.

During this meeting, it’s essential to discuss your plan for moving forward. Don’t simply leave your property on the market, crossing your fingers that the right offer will come along at some point. Instead, take control of the process and make strategic decisions to ensure a successful sale.

This is the most critical part of the process. Everything you’ve done in steps 1–10 will all be in vain if you and your agent stumble at this stage. By now, you should have hopefully received several offers from competitive buyers, and handling this part of the plan requires care and skill.

Keep in mind that most buyers make offers with at least some degree of emotional attachment to your property. While you don’t want to manipulate this, you should use it to your advantage. Don’t hesitate to negotiate diligently.

Don’t be disheartened by really low offers. Remember, any offer is a sign that someone is genuinely interested in buying your property. It’s your agent’s role to negotiate effectively and secure the highest possible price for you.

If you receive one or more offers early in the marketing process, exercise caution before trying to out wait the market for a better deal. Research indicates that the best offers often surface within the first four weeks of marketing a property.

Ensure that every offer is properly qualified, including an assessment of the potential buyer’s chain and financial position before engaging in negotiations. It’s worth noting that between 30-40% of sales fall through before the exchange of contracts. One of the primary reasons for this is a lack of due diligence by the estate agent during the negotiation stage. So, this step is crucial in ensuring a successful sale.