The Seller’s Trap

I had an enquiry recently from a rather cross man who has had his house on the market for six months.  In that time, his agent has only managed to produce one viewing.  Given that his asking price seems at first glance to be perfectly fair for the size and location, I listened carefully to his tale of woe in order to discover the reason for the total lack of interest in his house.  I didn’t have long to wait….

I asked him to talk me through what had happened so far, and he began his story with his negotiation on the agent’s fee.  “She wanted 1.75%!” he exclaimed with disgust.  “No way was I prepared to accept that,” he sniffed, “I told her I wouldn’t pay a penny more than 1.25%, and she eventually caved in” he added proudly.  I think he wanted me to congratulate him, but I moved swiftly on to his photography, which I thought was pretty awful.  The rooms looked dark and poky, and the outside of the house was very shadowed, and had been photographed at some very unflattering angles.  “I was offered professional photography”, the seller explained, “but the agent wouldn’t include it in his fee; she wanted another 400 quid for it!” he exclaimed,  astounded.  “I told her to take the pictures herself, and she did”.  So what about the brochure, I asked.  “That was another thing”, he said, heatedly, “the agent wanted me to cough up for that too!”

“What was he proposing?” I asked, but I knew what was coming….. “Well she expected me to pay £250 for a glossy brochure but everyone knows they don’t make a difference” he said, pleased with himself.  “The one she’s done on the office printer is pretty impressive actually”, he added.  I could just imagine it….

Had he noticed anyone driving slowly past the house, looking interested, I asked.  “They can’t”, he explained, “we live behind big gates; you can’t see the house from the road”.  So the photography and brochure were going to have to work hard to tempt viewers to pick up the phone.

So far, this seller had cut the agent’s fee to the bone, and used a cheap brochure and poor photography to market his house.  He’d fallen into The Seller’s Trap.  Is it any wonder that to date, only one viewer had been tempted enough to come to the property?

It’s a tough market out there at the moment, and your house really has to stand out from all your competition.  Here are the 3 golden HomeTruths’ rules to get you sold:

1. Don’t negotiate on your agent’s fee, unless it’s upwards.  Incentivise them by offering over his commission fee, by at least 0.25%
2. Always always always use professional photography.  At an average of £400, it can return 100 times your investment in your eventual selling price
3. Pretty brochures DO sell houses!  Look at the types of brochures premium brands use to sell their goods, and compare the value of the product to your house!

Look at the commission fee you’re paying your agent: are they really being paid enough to want to sell your house?  Don’t forget 1% of nothing is nothing! You need to create an ally, and keep them onside, so pay them well.

And if you’re not sure your photography and brochure are up to the task of selling your lovely house in an very challenging market, give me a call.  I’ll tell you whether they are good enough, and if not, what you need to do about it.

If you’d like my help to sell your home more effectively, please answer a few short questions here and if I think I can help you, I’ll be in touch.

 

 

What to read next: Sales Progression Management – what is it?

What to do next: Sign up to my Selling Secrets http://www.home-truths.co.uk/selling-secrets

The post The Seller’s Trap appeared first on Home Truths.

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The Seller’s Trap

I had an enquiry recently from a rather cross man who has had his house on the market for six months.  In that time, his agent has only managed to produce one viewing.  Given that his asking price seems at first glance to be perfectly fair for the size and location, I listened carefully to his tale of woe in order to discover the reason for the total lack of interest in his house.  I didn’t have long to wait….

I asked him to talk me through what had happened so far, and he began his story with his negotiation on the agent’s fee.  “She wanted 1.75%!” he exclaimed with disgust.  “No way was I prepared to accept that,” he sniffed, “I told her I wouldn’t pay a penny more than 1.25%, and she eventually caved in” he added proudly.  I think he wanted me to congratulate him, but I moved swiftly on to his photography, which I thought was pretty awful.  The rooms looked dark and poky, and the outside of the house was very shadowed, and had been photographed at some very unflattering angles.  “I was offered professional photography”, the seller explained, “but the agent wouldn’t include it in his fee; she wanted another 400 quid for it!” he exclaimed,  astounded.  “I told her to take the pictures herself, and she did”.  So what about the brochure, I asked.  “That was another thing”, he said, heatedly, “the agent wanted me to cough up for that too!”

“What was he proposing?” I asked, but I knew what was coming….. “Well she expected me to pay £250 for a glossy brochure but everyone knows they don’t make a difference” he said, pleased with himself.  “The one she’s done on the office printer is pretty impressive actually”, he added.  I could just imagine it….

Had he noticed anyone driving slowly past the house, looking interested, I asked.  “They can’t”, he explained, “we live behind big gates; you can’t see the house from the road”.  So the photography and brochure were going to have to work hard to tempt viewers to pick up the phone.

So far, this seller had cut the agent’s fee to the bone, and used a cheap brochure and poor photography to market his house.  He’d fallen into The Seller’s Trap.  Is it any wonder that to date, only one viewer had been tempted enough to come to the property?

It’s a tough market out there at the moment, and your house really has to stand out from all your competition.  Here are the 3 golden HomeTruths’ rules to get you sold:

1. Don’t negotiate on your agent’s fee, unless it’s upwards.  Incentivise them by offering over his commission fee, by at least 0.25%
2. Always always always use professional photography.  At an average of £400, it can return 100 times your investment in your eventual selling price
3. Pretty brochures DO sell houses!  Look at the types of brochures premium brands use to sell their goods, and compare the value of the product to your house!

Look at the commission fee you’re paying your agent: are they really being paid enough to want to sell your house?  Don’t forget 1% of nothing is nothing! You need to create an ally, and keep them onside, so pay them well.

And if you’re not sure your photography and brochure are up to the task of selling your lovely house in an very challenging market, give me a call.  I’ll tell you whether they are good enough, and if not, what you need to do about it.

If you’d like my help to sell your home more effectively, please answer a few short questions here and if I think I can help you, I’ll be in touch.

 

 

What to read next: Sales Progression Management – what is it?

What to do next: Sign up to my Selling Secrets http://www.home-truths.co.uk/selling-secrets

The post The Seller’s Trap appeared first on Home Truths.

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The Seller’s Trap

I had an enquiry recently from a rather cross man who has had his house on the market for six months.  In that time, his agent has only managed to produce one viewing.  Given that his asking price seems at first glance to be perfectly fair for the size and location, I listened carefully to his tale of woe in order to discover the reason for the total lack of interest in his house.  I didn’t have long to wait….

I asked him to talk me through what had happened so far, and he began his story with his negotiation on the agent’s fee.  “She wanted 1.75%!” he exclaimed with disgust.  “No way was I prepared to accept that,” he sniffed, “I told her I wouldn’t pay a penny more than 1.25%, and she eventually caved in” he added proudly.  I think he wanted me to congratulate him, but I moved swiftly on to his photography, which I thought was pretty awful.  The rooms looked dark and poky, and the outside of the house was very shadowed, and had been photographed at some very unflattering angles.  “I was offered professional photography”, the seller explained, “but the agent wouldn’t include it in his fee; she wanted another 400 quid for it!” he exclaimed,  astounded.  “I told her to take the pictures herself, and she did”.  So what about the brochure, I asked.  “That was another thing”, he said, heatedly, “the agent wanted me to cough up for that too!”

“What was he proposing?” I asked, but I knew what was coming….. “Well she expected me to pay £250 for a glossy brochure but everyone knows they don’t make a difference” he said, pleased with himself.  “The one she’s done on the office printer is pretty impressive actually”, he added.  I could just imagine it….

Had he noticed anyone driving slowly past the house, looking interested, I asked.  “They can’t”, he explained, “we live behind big gates; you can’t see the house from the road”.  So the photography and brochure were going to have to work hard to tempt viewers to pick up the phone.

So far, this seller had cut the agent’s fee to the bone, and used a cheap brochure and poor photography to market his house.  He’d fallen into The Seller’s Trap.  Is it any wonder that to date, only one viewer had been tempted enough to come to the property?

It’s a tough market out there at the moment, and your house really has to stand out from all your competition.  Here are the 3 golden HomeTruths’ rules to get you sold:

1. Don’t negotiate on your agent’s fee, unless it’s upwards.  Incentivise them by offering over his commission fee, by at least 0.25%
2. Always always always use professional photography.  At an average of £400, it can return 100 times your investment in your eventual selling price
3. Pretty brochures DO sell houses!  Look at the types of brochures premium brands use to sell their goods, and compare the value of the product to your house!

Look at the commission fee you’re paying your agent: are they really being paid enough to want to sell your house?  Don’t forget 1% of nothing is nothing! You need to create an ally, and keep them onside, so pay them well.

And if you’re not sure your photography and brochure are up to the task of selling your lovely house in an very challenging market, give me a call.  I’ll tell you whether they are good enough, and if not, what you need to do about it.

If you’d like my help to sell your home more effectively, please answer a few short questions here and if I think I can help you, I’ll be in touch.

 

 

What to read next: Sales Progression Management – what is it?

What to do next: Sign up to my Selling Secrets http://www.home-truths.co.uk/selling-secrets

The post The Seller’s Trap appeared first on Home Truths.

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As an owner of multiple ovens, I know the perils of letting photographers into one’s kitchen | Adrian Chiles

James Brokenshire has been feeling the heat over his four ovens – but at least they weren’t as disgracefully filthy as mine

You’ve got to be careful when being filmed in your kitchen. It’s very easy for people to find stuff in there to hate you for. I’ve been on the end of that, so shame on me for having a good old tut at James Brokenshire, who was revealingly photographed in his kitchen for a Sunday newspaper. That said, two double ovens is an awful lot of oven. I’ve got more than one oven myself. Not as many as the Brokenshires, but more than two. And that’s all I’m saying.

I have used my kitchen for filming on various projects. I did so wary of the consequences, invasion of privacy etc. But television involves the most horrendous amount of faff, not least the finding of locations. In the interests of avoiding an endless journey to someone else’s kitchen, it is so much easier to get the crew to come to me. Hang the consequences.

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Raising the steps

There’s a story I once heard about a Spanish bank. Apparently their elderly customers were taking up a disproportionate amount of their staff’s time, yet their business was of little value to the bank. But how to gradually ease them out without causing offence and starting a PR scandal?

They simply increased the height of their steps that led to the bank.

Of course, nowadays this would be terribly non-politically correct, and anyway, there would be a ramp! But this was some time ago, and the original stone steps were the only way into the branch.

So, the bank increases the height of their steps and one by one, the elderly customers stop coming, and over time, the average age of the bank’s customer decreased. Yes, they probably did upset some of their older customers, and I’m not necessarily advocating this as a customer retention method (!) but in the bank’s case, it did mean that they could offer a better, more appropriate service to their younger customers.

When it comes to selling your house, it’s your estate agent’s job to raise the steps, metaphorically speaking. If he adopts an open-door, anyone-can-view policy, you will spend your time preparing your homes for one time waster after another to view. There will be those who ‘haven’t sold yet’, those who are ‘just looking what we can get for our money’, and even the ones who admit ‘we’re just the neighbours – always wanted to have a look inside’. Not to mention those viewers who ‘haven’t checked yet’ what they can borrow and the “can’t afford it but thought it was worth a cheeky offer” types.

And slowly but surely, with each viewer who views your house, and each month that your house spends languishing unsold on the market, it becomes less and less desirable. Even your once-optimistic agent starts to become disheartened: “20 viewers and no offers” he will note glumly, “must be the price.” And so you begin the inevitable downward spiral of price drops, resulting in seller demoralisation and despondency, and agent bewilderment. At HomeTruths, when we re-launch a client’s property to market, we give a very clear instruction to the estate agent: only show the house to buyers who can actually buy it. Do your homework, we tell him: find out the viewer’s budget, their buying position, what else they’re looking at, and ask lots of questions about the type of house they’re looking for. By making viewings by invitation only, overtly or discreetly, a buyer will feel they are being allowed to see an exclusive property, for which they have been especially selected.

A HomeTruths’ client last year had experienced 60+ viewings over the course of a year, and yet had not received one single offer: not even a cheeky one. We re-launched her house with a new, motivated agent who was fully supportive of her asking price, new photography and a beautiful brochure, and told the agent to screen all her potential viewers carefully. The result? Only four viewings in eight weeks: but two offers. She accepted the higher of the two, and she and her family were able to finally move on.

The lesson here is to raise your steps. Don’t make it too easy for a buyer – make them work a little. Play a little hard to get; we all know how attractive that can be.

If you’d like my help to sell your home more effectively, please answer a few short questions here and if I think I can help you, I’ll be in touch.

What to read next: “What’s that smell?!” What prevents your home from selling? 

What to do next: Sign up to my Selling Secrets http://www.home-truths.co.uk/selling-secrets

The post Raising the steps appeared first on Home Truths.

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Raising the steps

There’s a story I once heard about a Spanish bank. Apparently their elderly customers were taking up a disproportionate amount of their staff’s time, yet their business was of little value to the bank. But how to gradually ease them out without causing offence and starting a PR scandal?

They simply increased the height of their steps that led to the bank.

Of course, nowadays this would be terribly non-politically correct, and anyway, there would be a ramp! But this was some time ago, and the original stone steps were the only way into the branch.

So, the bank increases the height of their steps and one by one, the elderly customers stop coming, and over time, the average age of the bank’s customer decreased. Yes, they probably did upset some of their older customers, and I’m not necessarily advocating this as a customer retention method (!) but in the bank’s case, it did mean that they could offer a better, more appropriate service to their younger customers.

When it comes to selling your house, it’s your estate agent’s job to raise the steps, metaphorically speaking. If he adopts an open-door, anyone-can-view policy, you will spend your time preparing your homes for one time waster after another to view. There will be those who ‘haven’t sold yet’, those who are ‘just looking what we can get for our money’, and even the ones who admit ‘we’re just the neighbours – always wanted to have a look inside’. Not to mention those viewers who ‘haven’t checked yet’ what they can borrow and the “can’t afford it but thought it was worth a cheeky offer” types.

And slowly but surely, with each viewer who views your house, and each month that your house spends languishing unsold on the market, it becomes less and less desirable. Even your once-optimistic agent starts to become disheartened: “20 viewers and no offers” he will note glumly, “must be the price.” And so you begin the inevitable downward spiral of price drops, resulting in seller demoralisation and despondency, and agent bewilderment. At HomeTruths, when we re-launch a client’s property to market, we give a very clear instruction to the estate agent: only show the house to buyers who can actually buy it. Do your homework, we tell him: find out the viewer’s budget, their buying position, what else they’re looking at, and ask lots of questions about the type of house they’re looking for. By making viewings by invitation only, overtly or discreetly, a buyer will feel they are being allowed to see an exclusive property, for which they have been especially selected.

A HomeTruths’ client last year had experienced 60+ viewings over the course of a year, and yet had not received one single offer: not even a cheeky one. We re-launched her house with a new, motivated agent who was fully supportive of her asking price, new photography and a beautiful brochure, and told the agent to screen all her potential viewers carefully. The result? Only four viewings in eight weeks: but two offers. She accepted the higher of the two, and she and her family were able to finally move on.

The lesson here is to raise your steps. Don’t make it too easy for a buyer – make them work a little. Play a little hard to get; we all know how attractive that can be.

If you’d like my help to sell your home more effectively, please answer a few short questions here and if I think I can help you, I’ll be in touch.

What to read next: “What’s that smell?!” What prevents your home from selling? 

What to do next: Sign up to my Selling Secrets http://www.home-truths.co.uk/selling-secrets

The post Raising the steps appeared first on Home Truths.

from Home Truths http://bit.ly/2Vpgane
via IFTTT

Raising the steps

There’s a story I once heard about a Spanish bank. Apparently their elderly customers were taking up a disproportionate amount of their staff’s time, yet their business was of little value to the bank. But how to gradually ease them out without causing offence and starting a PR scandal?

They simply increased the height of their steps that led to the bank.

Of course, nowadays this would be terribly non-politically correct, and anyway, there would be a ramp! But this was some time ago, and the original stone steps were the only way into the branch.

So, the bank increases the height of their steps and one by one, the elderly customers stop coming, and over time, the average age of the bank’s customer decreased. Yes, they probably did upset some of their older customers, and I’m not necessarily advocating this as a customer retention method (!) but in the bank’s case, it did mean that they could offer a better, more appropriate service to their younger customers.

When it comes to selling your house, it’s your estate agent’s job to raise the steps, metaphorically speaking. If he adopts an open-door, anyone-can-view policy, you will spend your time preparing your homes for one time waster after another to view. There will be those who ‘haven’t sold yet’, those who are ‘just looking what we can get for our money’, and even the ones who admit ‘we’re just the neighbours – always wanted to have a look inside’. Not to mention those viewers who ‘haven’t checked yet’ what they can borrow and the “can’t afford it but thought it was worth a cheeky offer” types.

And slowly but surely, with each viewer who views your house, and each month that your house spends languishing unsold on the market, it becomes less and less desirable. Even your once-optimistic agent starts to become disheartened: “20 viewers and no offers” he will note glumly, “must be the price.” And so you begin the inevitable downward spiral of price drops, resulting in seller demoralisation and despondency, and agent bewilderment. At HomeTruths, when we re-launch a client’s property to market, we give a very clear instruction to the estate agent: only show the house to buyers who can actually buy it. Do your homework, we tell him: find out the viewer’s budget, their buying position, what else they’re looking at, and ask lots of questions about the type of house they’re looking for. By making viewings by invitation only, overtly or discreetly, a buyer will feel they are being allowed to see an exclusive property, for which they have been especially selected.

A HomeTruths’ client last year had experienced 60+ viewings over the course of a year, and yet had not received one single offer: not even a cheeky one. We re-launched her house with a new, motivated agent who was fully supportive of her asking price, new photography and a beautiful brochure, and told the agent to screen all her potential viewers carefully. The result? Only four viewings in eight weeks: but two offers. She accepted the higher of the two, and she and her family were able to finally move on.

The lesson here is to raise your steps. Don’t make it too easy for a buyer – make them work a little. Play a little hard to get; we all know how attractive that can be.

If you’d like my help to sell your home more effectively, please answer a few short questions here and if I think I can help you, I’ll be in touch.

What to read next: “What’s that smell?!” What prevents your home from selling? 

What to do next: Sign up to my Selling Secrets http://www.home-truths.co.uk/selling-secrets

The post Raising the steps appeared first on Home Truths.

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