With the new year comes new plans. Plan to eat healthy, lose weight or set goals for what you want to achieve in the coming year. For many people, the new year marks the start of a house-moving journey, whether buying a first home or selling a property to buy a new one. Blog posts and social media are filled with information about how to get your house on the market and what to do to find your next dream home. But what if your home is already on the market? What if you've been trying to sell your property for months now? You may not find any articles offering this kind of advice until now.
It's normal for a quieter time throughout December as potential buyers' attention is turned in other directions. Busy with shopping for presents, planning family gatherings and preparing the biggest feast of the year, searching for a new home is not at the top of many people's to-do lists. But, if you have been on the market for a little while, you may have noticed a lull in interest much earlier than December.
As a property is launched to the market, the interest levels will be at a height. A new property to the market will be promoted to databases of buyers and advertised online as a new instruction. The buyers searching for a property will be alerted of your home coming on the market. They may be worried about missing out and the property being snapped up by someone else, so they will rush to book viewing appointments. But, if you haven't accepted any offers after a few weeks on the market, this initial flurry of activity will wane, and with each passing week, the number of viewings will dwindle.
Rather than the usual blog posts about how to get your home ready for sale, here are some tips on how to reignite your property market to get those viewing figures up and the offers coming in for you this new year.
- Upgrade your photography - the photographs are the first thing a prospective viewer will see of your property from the online listing. If your pictures are not up to scratch, you may struggle to persuade a viewer to arrange a viewing appointment. You can either opt for a re-jig of the order of the photographs online so that the listing looks different in the hope of capturing buyers' attention or arrange another photoshoot for brand new updated images.
- Look at the brochure description and summary wording - do the words used in the market accurately describe your property? Do the words inspire and highlight the prominent selling features of your property? Do the words promote your property truthfully and emotionally, indicating to potential buyers the wonderful life your home might provide them? Your property description is a powerful tool that can make or break a sale. If you read your property description and think to yourself, "I'd buy it", then you might not need to do anything, but if there is something lacking and you don't think that it would inspire or persuade a prospective buyer to view, then perhaps it could be renewed and upgraded.
- Pricing - being honest with yourself, do you think your property is competitive with other similar properties listed on the market for sale? Have other properties just come onto the market that seem cheaper than yours? A guaranteed way to increase the interest in a property is to reduce the price. This will reboot the promotion by websites like Rightmove, and your agent will be able to match out to their database of buyers again to inform them of the new price.
A price reduction isn't for everyone, but it might be the right thing to do if you are struggling to sell your home. But it is essential not to make rash decisions or start cutting your price randomly. Instead, have a frank conversation with your agent about how they could promote the property and ideas that they might have that they have not yet tried to generate some interest. If they think that a price reduction is right, ask them to assess the market and re-value the property to assert the right price to reduce to.
Another option would be to consider a change of agents. With this, there can be an upgrade to the marketing, a fresh approach and a renewed sense of vigour to generate interest in your property and get you moved. This change could be the key to unlocking a successful sale.
If you would like to discuss how we can help you sell your home this New Year, call us today or visit our website to learn more about our services and how we can assist you in selling your property.
