I spent 16 years in the advertising industry helping to advise some of the biggest companies in the country such as Ford, Guinness and Unilever on their advertising and marketing. I have now run BigBlackhen.com for over 8 years and so I thought I would give you my take on how to market your home to get the best possible price. It is, after all, the thing that is on most sellers minds when they put their house on the market.
In marketing they talk about the four “P”s: Product, Price, Packaging and Promotion and the principles are the same when you sell any product, including a house.
PRODUCT
We live in our properties as homes and it’s often the case that by the time we come to sell they are in need of a spruce up and de-clutter to show them to best effect. We work closely with local House Doctors to help clients stage their homes to make them as appealing as possible and offer a free consultation for our clients that need this service.
PRICE
Tip 1: Don’t price too high.
It sounds obvious, but getting the asking price right from the start is crucial. The biggest mistake people make is to price a house too high. This kills the sale stone dead as the property sits on the market for a few months and by the time the price is reduced people wonder what is wrong with it.
Tip 2: Strong but realistic is best.
Make sure that your price is supported by other comparable properties that have sold in your area, not by what the neighbours are asking, especially if they haven’t sold for 6 months or more. If you set your price at the strong end of realistic then you maximise interest over a short time period which gives you the best chance of getting the true market value.
PACKAGING
In the context of house selling, the “packaging” is really the photography and property description that appear in the brochure as well as online.
The first part of the packaging is photography. People buy with your eyes so you need to ensure that you have as many professionally taken photographs as possible. And they need to be on a sunny day with the interior and garden looking immaculate. It’s amazing the number of sloppy photos I see on Rightmove with unmade beds, washing up on the drainer and all manner of other clutter. Simply not good enough.
The next packaging element is the brochure. People may search online but they still seek peer approval from friends and family before and after viewing your house. That’s why we take such time and care to produce high quality glossy brochures with floor plans and even maps for the more expensive properties. You only get one chance to make the right impression so don’t leave it to a poor quality print out done by your viewer on their home printer.
PROMOTION
Pretty much all property searches start online these days so it goes without saying that your home needs to be advertised on the large property web sites such as Rightmove. However, there are lots of ways that we help clients get ahead of the competition.
Tip 1
The first is by giving your home a Premium Advertisement on Rightmove which can get more that 35% more impact than a standard advertisement. Have a look at how we present our client’s homes on Rightmove and you will get the idea!
Tip 2
The second thing we do is to arrange an Open Day where we get a large number of potential buyers to view your home over a short period of time, ideally over an hour on a Saturday morning. This allows us to get the property perfect for viewings and also helps create a sense of competition between buyers that helps get the best price.
In Summary
To sum up, if you want to get the best price for your home, remember the four “P”s. Get the Price, Product, Packaging and Promotion right and you can look forward to a successful sale at the best possible price.