Can I Set My Own Asking Price - Austins Estate Agents

Can I Set My Own Asking Price

Posted on Wed 17 May 2017 by daniel
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Why your property description matters

When it comes to selling your house, there are three elements that play a part in drawing your viewers in. These are:

1.     Price – how your property is priced

2.     Presentation – how your home is presented

3.     Promotion – how your property is marketed and promoted

All three of these elements need to be working together to sell within the quickest possible time and for maximum value. A property description would fall under the ‘Promotion’ part of this. Photography, description, online presence, printed brochure, floor plans and any videography would all come under ‘Promotion’.

So, what is the aim of the property description? To sell your property to potential buyers of course! Pretty obvious really isn’t it. However, there are so many descriptions out there that are unappealing, flat, boring and use far too much estate agent jargon.

Your property description is your chance to tell your potential buyers why they should view your home. It is your golden opportunity to get them through the door. They say on average it take six viewings before you get an offer. So, it makes sense then to get multiple offers and the best chance of a quicker sale for the highest price ideally you want 6-12 viewings. The first two weeks on Rightmove are critical for grabbing your viewers’ attention. This is usually the period of time where home buyers scouring the property portals for their new home are more likely to click into your listing as it is new and fresh. This is your opportunity to grab the viewer and get them to pick up the phone and book that viewing.

Speaking to your viewers, through property marketing is critical in doing this and therefore this makes the property description a vital element when promoting your home.

So, what is the best way to appeal to your viewers? Get into your buyer’s mindset. You may have heard me mention this quite a lot throughout my blogs but it is so important. If you can understand your buyer’s needs, dreams and aspirations you can show how your house is the home that meets all their desires.  You can show them how living there will give them the lifestyle that they crave.

The estate agent is usually responsible for writing the description, and rightly so, after all that is what they are paid to do isn’t it? Well, yes, it is, however, it is so utterly critical that the property description is written correctly in an appealing, informative way that it is vitally important for the seller to have input. The seller can have complete control over this if they wish. Make sure you tell your estate agent you want input into the marketing and specifically the description. I hope most agents would really value this. If you work together, you should be able to come up with something truly delightful.

Where do you even start with writing a description? Once you have discovered who you think your ideal buyer is – next think about how you would appeal to them.  Imagine what they would want to see in a house, what would appeal to you if you were them? In fact, what appealed to you about your house when you bought it? List all the positive attributes your house and the surrounding area has that meets these.  Then have a look at ‘keywords’ amongst all this. What words jump to your mind when you think about these attributes?

This list of attributes and keywords can form the base of your description. From here answer the following questions that the potential viewer maybe asking themselves:

What the house has got?

Where is it?

Why you should view?

Ensure that in all three sections you hold your ideal buyer in the forefront of your mind, ‘talk’ them through your home and hint to them through the description, why it is their dream home. Make them fall in love with your property.

Any bullet points need to be draw from this overall description, headlines and bullet points should be short, snappy and have maximum appeal.

Finally – make sure that the particulars are included such as tenure – leasehold or freehold, council tax band, brief information about utilities i.e. mains fed gas supply – all the boring but factual info that a reader may want to know. Don’t go overboard though, just list the main points. Room dimensions should be stated on the floor plan, avoid putting these in your description.

Write the description so that the potential viewers get a feel for the property without delving into the depths of the houses’ kitchen draws and how many plug sockets there are per room.

By working with your estate agent and following these simple suggestions, coupled with a good floor plan, amazing brochures with fantastic photography you are onto a winner and your viewers should be queuing down the street!

Now you’ve read this – what do you think of your property description? Want a second opinion? Email it over to me and I’ll see if I can help anu@austinsestateagents.co.uk

If you haven’t downloaded our FREE guide ‘A Smarter Way to Sell Your Home in Wolverhampton’ yet, visit http://austinsestateagents.co.uk/resources to claim your download today.