July & August – our busiest months yet
July and August have been our busiest ever months. This is contrary to overall market conditions, yet the two are linked.
The properties we’ve listed/will soon launch are with sellers who are committed to selling their homes, and disappointed with a combination of poor marketing and lack of interest from their previous agent. These two are definitely linked.
According to a recent survey* 80% of buyers said they would click on a listing purely because the initial image was appealing while 59% said they would bypass a property with an unappealing first photo. Most agents use agency photographers who will come in, shoot a few rooms and be gone in under an hour, sometimes not even bothering to open curtains or move furniture to show rooms off to their best advantage, never mind adding staging touches that will really make a house shine.
23% rated floorplans as important – how many agents don’t bother with a decent floorplan?! So frustrating for buyers who have to work harder to figure out what goes where.
We invest heavily in marketing our properties – up to 10 times as much as other agents – at our own cost. We do this because it works, and we believe your home is worth the investment.
Crucially, too many properties were overpriced during the first half of this year, and even now. When the market started to turn late last year, several agents (I’ll mention no names!) instructed their staff to “tell the seller what they want to hear, we’ll deal with a price reduction later” in order to win the business. Not only is this unethical but it’s counter-productive, leaving some sellers ‘chasing the market down’ in terms of price. Had they launched at a suitable price, they may have sold by now.
We don’t overprice properties and that policy hurt us in the first half of this year, but now we’re working with sellers who are, understandably, annoyed at having been sold the dream rather than the reality.
As always, when selling your house it’s crucial to get the balance right; marketing, price, service.
To find out how we can help you move, contact us at any time.
Natalie
Founder & Director
Kai Carter Estates
* Estate agent today / Barrows & Forrester