1. ‘Must-have’ features
In prime central London most buyers tend to be looking for the possibilities a property may offer rather than what it currently has because most buyers want to put their own stamp on a property. However, those seeking developer properties are buying a product and not just a property; therefore finish is everything. The level of finish is an indicator of how much work will need to be done: can we move in and do the work slowly or do we need to gut the property. A well presented clean property will always attract more viewings.
2. The biggest ‘turn-offs’
Carpet in the bathroom, and ill thought through design. Children tend to spend more time in the same place as their parents so families tend to look for large kitchens leading to gardens or patios than lower ground floor playrooms for example. The rest of it is replaceable and costs associated with this can usually be discounted when making an offer.
3. Decluttering to sell
Decluttering is essential as it makes the house look bigger. One needs to have a plan for each type of applicant – is it a family or is it a couple? The use of space will be different to each and as such the agent needs to have a different approach. It sounds clichéd, but you are not selling a house, you are selling a lifestyle and this is what people identify with.
4. The right price
At Maskells we produce a 15 page pricing report to ensure that we can justify the asking price to both the vendor and the applicant. At the same time, vendors need to be careful not to over price their property; the asking price is just that – a price that the vendor is asking for, but applicants can offer what they like. The key is to get two to three applicants offering at the same time to get what we term the “emotional quotient” or the “darling I don’t care what it costs, I must have it” offer and that only happens if they have not been scared off by the original asking price.
5. Valuing and selling
Particularly with the larges agents, when you are selling your house the person who comes to value your house is not the person who actually attempts to sell it. This is where the smaller agencies come into their own. At Maskells we have a one stop shop approach to selling a property. We provide an appraisal based on market value, comparative data analysis and our experience. The vendor deals with the same person through the appraisal, marketing and sale venture so the whole process is linked up. We even offer a post transaction service for anything a vendor (or applicant) might need via our sister concierge company White Circle Collection.
6. Local knowledge
Most markets (outside Prime Central London) are domestic and applicants will register with local agents if they are keen to move to a particular area. People will tend to look at localities first (they may be driven by the number of friends they have in the area, schools or may be somewhere they holidayed as children), so most people will have a clear idea of where they want to be and this directs them to a local agent. The cost of running national on line agencies and providing local knowledge and service is prohibitive (an online agent simply cannot, and in most cases, does not conduct viewings and will have little or no interaction with the vendor). They know little about the local area and nuances which are needed in order to portray the property as a lifestyle choice for the applicant and their family over and above it being just another house.
7. Listen to your agent
The most important element however is price. There is no such thing as a bad house, just a bad price. Listen to your agent – they sell houses for a living and you are doing it probably for the first time in years. There is a market and there are clearing levels – if marketed properly, the offers received are what the house is worth. It really is no more complex than that.
Charles Curran, Principal and Market Data Analyst, Maskells