Struggling to sell your property...Simple steps on how to revamp a stale property listing

Selling a property isn’t always a walk in the park.  If you have the right property, in the right location in an upward rising market that’s short on property and long on buyers, it might not be too stressful an ordeal.

But for other properties, things aren't always quite so easy.  Maybe they are a little further from a station or schools.  The décor isn’t to everybody's taste and the layout is a little quirky.   These types of properties usually do take a little longer – or at least make the agent work a little harder, if you can find one!

The real dilemma nowadays is that web has become a great resource of information – and that means buyers can see what your property last sold for. How the property prices have risen in your area year on year.  How the schools are performing.  How many metres away the station is and lastly and most damaging – how long you’ve been on the market!

I recently read that as many as 60% of properties are now being sold by the second estate agent to be instructed, which means a lot of properties have gone stale on the market and the marketing needed reigniting.  Maybe the initial agent had nothing to do with it.  Maybe they just overpriced it?  Unfortunately for sellers, in a market low on stock some agents will do anything to get the numbers on their books, even if it means cooking the valuation price a little.

But lets assume you’ve been on the market a month- and in some cases a month is all that’s needed for a property to have the equivalent of leprosy and be cold-shouldered completely.

What can you do about it?

Here’s a few pointers for you:

1. Talk to your agent, and don’t fall for ‘agent talk’.  You want the truth, even if it’s a little painful.  You don’t want to hear “we’re sure we’ll have a buyer any day now”.  You want a detailed account of what they recommend is required to find this mysterious buyer.

2. Take them to task if the images are not good enough.  Did they advise you clean and tidy first?  Are the kids clothes in shot?  Remember – online is your window for the world to see and if the images aren’t up to scratch, you won’t get as many viewing requests.  Imagine you are being interviewed by Hello Magazine.  You’d work hard to make sure your house was perfect wouldn’t you?  Perhaps you need to change the appearance of your property.  Some photos maybe tell buyers too much and shouldn’t be shown.

3.  What about the description of your property?  Many buyers these days come from out of town.  What is your agent doing to sell your property as a dream home to a buyer from out of town? If your listing consists of 5 bullet points, it probably means your agent isn’t trying hard enough.  Asking for a better description is a minimum here.  And if they can’t manage it and you enjoy writing, give them some help as its your home and you know what might appeal to other people like you.

4.  What websites are you listed on?  Many agents dropped Zoopla in favour of On The Market.  The problem is that not many buyers know about On The Market and Zoopla is still clearly the number 2 UK property portal.  If your agent isn’t on Zoopla, there’s a chance you’ve not had as many viewings as you could have.  You might want to consider changing your agent.

5.  What other tools is your agent using to entice buyers?  Magazines, online magazines, video tours etc.  If you are going to be on the web, you might as well make use of all the tools available to try and elevate your property amongst the competition.

6.  Repairs needed?  Get the basics done.  Your agent should have spent a good while telling you initially what you’d need to repair to appeal to buyers.  It isn’t simply, point a camera, place on Rightmove and win over buyer.  Especially if your property is in need of some TLC.   So give it a little TLC now, as your buyer isn’t forthcoming.

7.  Feedback is vital from your agent.  If you don’t get any or its not constructive enough – how do you know what to do? If your agent hasn’t been great in this aspect, give them a good kick where it hurts (their pockets usually).  Feedback is the process to understand just what is needed to find your buyer as people tend to think like – yep, people, you guessed it.

8.  Price.  The number one reason for why your property isn’t attracting viewers.  Price too high and you’ll have dribs and drabs through your door.  It’s not unusual for an agent to bring a person over who didn’t actually enquire about your property and you find yourself a buyer.  But just make sure your agent isn’t bringing people over to make up the numbers, as it rarely yields a good result. So you need to know that your advert is attracting leads for you – and to do this make sure you ask your agent for the viewing statistic report.  It tells you how many people are looking at your property and the click through rate (CTR).  If the CTR is high, the price is probably about right and your listing is good.  If it’s very low (4% and under) people are over-looking your listing and something isn’t right.  Knowing this data often leads to an interesting conversation with your agent, especially if your property listing is already stale.

At hunters we’ll offer you a free Hometrack report (worth ￡19.95) to check the value of your home against your marketing price – useful if your listing is stale and your viewings few and far between.

It’s a good starting point, before you seek some impartial advice on how to kick start your marketing and try to attract that buyer at the price you wanted to achieve.