Time on market = 2 years!!
Number of previous estate agents = 6!!
Time on market with The Personal Property Shop = 8 weeks
A property that’s been on the market for 2 years…you must be wondering what was wrong with it? The answer = absolutely nothing! This gorgeous property in Braintree had had an unfortunate start with a combination of poor marketing and a lack of enthusiasm and it resulted in it sitting on the market far longer that it should have. The poor owners had been through 6 different estate agents, and not one of them could sell the property. Luckily, we met Mrs Moss at a local business networking event and soon gave her some hope.
What did The Personal Property Shop do?
We went to the house and had a chat with Mr and Mrs Moss, saw the property and discussed what had been going wrong. Here’s what we found:
- Photography – this was one of the worst cases we had ever seen of bad estate agent photography. When I asked the couple how long their existing estate agents in Braintree had taken to take their photos, their reply was just 5 minutes! They’d used a bog standard digital camera, rushed around the house to take the photos and the result was very poor indeed. This was a truly beautiful property, that was presented perfectly and yet poor marketing was causing it to sit on the property market. They’d had only 3 viewings in the time it had been on the market which was no surprise given the quality of marketing materials!
An example of their original photography:
Our photo of the same room:
- Description writing – the description the existing estate agents had used was BORING! It wasn’t selling the property at all and simply listed meaningless facts about the property. We took the time to think about the kind of buyer that would buy the property and tailored the marketing materials accordingly. We aimed it at family buyers and hey presto, a family bought the property!
- Changing the main Rightmove image – in the 2 years that this property was on the market with other estate agents, they had used the SAME photo the entire time. This meant that buyers instantly recognised it as “that house that’s been on the market forever” and would instantly dismiss it. By changing the main Rightmove photo every week it keeps people clicking on the property details and encourages more viewings. If the outside didn’t appeal to one buyer then another photo, like the kitchen, might. We change the main image on all our Rightmove listings every single week.
The result?
Instead of a measly 3 viewings in 2 years we arranged 10 viewings in 8 weeks and got them a buyer who offered only £5,000 below their £350,000 asking price – result! The couple were happy, having achieved what they wanted to and are now loving their new home in Braintree.
The moral of this story?
Research your estate agents before you choose one! Have a look at their presentation on Rightmove to see the standard of their marketing materials. For example take a look at ours here: https://www.personalpropertyshop.co.uk/property-search/