Frustrated you are not getting enough viewings? - Austins Estate Agents

Frustrated you are not getting enough viewings?

Posted on Thu 16 Mar 2017 by Anu Joshi
Share this

Frustrated you are not getting enough viewings?

Here at Austin’s we understand your pain…. we often speak to frustrated home owners whose viewings have dried up. There may have been an initial bought of viewings in the first few weeks but now interest has faded and a potential buyer has not stepped over the threshold for weeks, months, sometimes years (yes… years believe me this happens).

So, here’s how it usually goes – you speak to your agent who immediately recommends you drop the price, you feel even more frustrated because you have put faith in your agent to market the property at the right price in the first place, however you do this, months pass by and you STILL haven’t sold, this then becomes a vicious circle and frustration builds and builds, argh!

Be very wary of this, dropping your price can damage the sale and create a long term negative effect. You should consider what potential buyers see when they observe you dropping the price. They may think there’s something wrong with your home, confidence can dwindle, after all who wants to buy a house off the whoopsy shelf? Would you?

But don’t despair, you’ll be pleased to hear that dropping the price is not the answer, there are other ways to spark up interest again. Here are a few suggestions:

1.      Speak to your agent and ask to see your property performance report off Rightmove. This shows various statistics such as how many searches your property is appearing on, and critically – click through rate, a very important stat indeed! The national average click through rate is about 5% so this will give you a benchmark to see how your property is performing online. If the stats are not looking good you need to focus on your online marketing. To get it above 5% you need amazing photographs that are seasonal and up to date. These photographs should be rotated, people become almost blind or desensitised when they see the same thing over and over, a new front image or rotating the images can make your property stand out once more.

Look at the online description, the heading should be short and snappy and the introduction should be emotive, look at selling a lifestyle not just a house. Things like ‘Garage’,4 bedrooms’, ‘garden’ are boring boring boring! You need to play on people’s hearts here to draw them in.

 

2.      Review your property brochure. This very much ties in with the first point, you need to think about who your potential buyers are? Then write down a list of key words that would appeal to this type of buyer. Incorporate these words into your brochure description, use these keywords in the online description too. Think…. you are selling a dream…. a lifestyle….an aspiration not just bog standard bricks and mortar. Does your description conjure up an image of your potential buyer’s dream? You need to get under the skin of it and think like them.

 

3.      Instruct a home stager. What is home staging I hear you say? In brief, it is an independent consultant that will look at your house in an unbiased way and advise you on how you can improve the saleability and how you can make the most of your house. Usually there is very little expense and home staging can make a huge difference in attracting the right buyer. Home staging helps sell a lifestyle which potential buyers buy into and can imagine themselves in.

 

When you do have a discussion with your Estate Agent about refreshing interest in your home and getting viewings up, ensure you stay strong about dropping the price. This is the easiest option for them but as you now know, this is not always a good idea and there are other ways. Be open to any other suggestions that they might offer, but remain firm on the price reduction. Make your estate agent work for their money, in the end it’s of benefit to you both to sell your house quicker and at the best price possible.

Are you struggling to get people through the door? Get in touch with us, we’d love to help, we offer straight talking good advice and would be happy to chat about how you could improve the chances of selling your home. Call us on 01902 244200 we’d love to hear from you.

Follow us on Facebook for more tips on selling your home.