There are several factors to ensuring a successful house sale.
One of these is how well it’s marketed.
So, how does the property marketing process work?
Read on for our overview and top tips on this.
Why market a property?
Every month, about 100,000 residential properties are sold in the UK.
Potential buyers will look at an average of six properties before they decide to make an offer.
So, if you want to sell your property, it must be marketed.
And if you want to get the best possible price and time frame, it must be marketed well.
Otherwise, you’ll limit the potential buyers interested in it and may be forced to accept a lower offer.
Most of the marketing is done by an estate agent. However, you can help them with both preparation and cooperation.
How to market your property
No matter what type of property you have, there are set steps to follow.
There are ways to sell property that don’t require marketing it (see below). But the below steps refer to selling on the open market.
Fixing up your property (or not)
Before you begin to market your property, consider whether it’s first worth renovating or decorating it to increase its value.
Two factors will come into play for this decision:
- Expected return on investment (ROI): Will the money you put into making improvements raise its value enough to justify spending it. Otherwise, you may simply be gifting new owners with a better value buy – at your expense.
- Time frame: How long will the improvements take? Do you need (or want) to move before this?
There are many relatively quick, cheap changes you can make to a property.
These vary depending on a property’s specific condition and features, but popular ones are:
- Repainting the front door
- Repainting the outside of the property
- Fixing up the garden
- Cleaning (or hiring professional cleaners).
Find the right estate agent
Choosing an estate agent is important – each has different networks and strengths.
To check how well an estate agent can market your property, check their website and existing listings.
You should be able to get a good sense here of how well marketed the properties are.
For example, are the photos high-quality? And are the descriptions well-written?
Next, check each estate agent’s reviews. Be sure to go beyond the most recent and check ratings.
Is marketing mentioned? It’s not necessarily a bad sign if it isn’t (perhaps it was so seamless and efficient that reviewers overlooked it). But it should be checked for.
Finally, ask the estate agent directly about how they will market the property.
Include questions about how wide they believe their network to be and what they think is important when marketing property.
These discussions can sometimes include negotiations over their fee, too.
Choose your contract
You need to sign a contract with an estate agent before they can market your property. It gives them permission and rights to market for you.
There are different types of estate agent contract.
Most give the estate sole rights to marketing it. Others, such as multi-agency agreements, enable multiple estate agents to market it simultaneously.
Alongside your signature, estate agents will also need:
- Property details
- Proof of your identity
- Proof of ownership
- Energy Performance Certificate (EPC).
Get a Valuation
Price is an essential part of marketing.
So, before they can value your property, estate agents need to know what guide price to market it at.
Sellers have the final say on what price this should be. But in practice, the estate agent often heavily influences it.
They begin the process by visiting the property to give it a valuation. Next, they discuss (or debate!) this with you.
Listing preparations
To create a listing, estate agents need photos and a floor plan. They will then write up a property description and post it on different channels.
You can help with this process by staging your property (see below) before the photos are taken.
It’s worthwhile checking the listing once it’s posted to let the estate agent know if you think anything should be changed.
Stage it
Staging a property refers to preparing it for viewings.
Its most basic (but essential) aspect is cleaning and tidying the property.
Aside from this, other elements can come into play, such as:
- Lighting
- Depersonalisation
- Scent.
Consider curb appeal
Curb appeal refers to how property looks from street level.
This includes not just the property and its land, but the neighbouring buildings, gardens, street, etc.
Its separate to staging, but overlaps with it. After all, there’s only so much you can control beyond your own property boundaries.
One quick win for improving curb appeal is to move your car(/s) before photos and viewings.
Having more space outside the property ‘declutters’ its surroundings.
It also makes potential buyers viewings more practical (if they park in available space), adding positively to their experience and impression.
Viewings
Viewings are both the result of and a part of the property marketing process. They are also part of the sales process.
At this stage, it’s generally up to the estate agent to help persuade potential buyers of the property’s value.
Whether a seller should be present is harder to say. One study back in 2013 found that 60% of potential buyers don’t think sellers need to be present. And 10% prefer them not to be.
Other considerations (channels)
Selling on the open market via an estate agent is the most popular – but not the most common – way to sell a house.
There are alternative property-selling channels or methods. Some of these, such as auction houses, also involve marketing a property.
However, others don’t. For example, selling privately to a friend doesn’t. And neither does selling to a quick property sale company.
The latter are generally cash buyers, which means they directly buy your property (rather than relying on a loan or another property sale).
Avoid marketing with We Buy Any Home
We Buy Any Home is a quick sale cash buying company. We buy all kinds of property in all kinds of conditions.
Marketing takes time and our service is centred around helping sellers sell their house fast – in as little as 7 days.
So, by selling to us, homeowners can avoid waiting for listings, viewings, and negotiations.
