Why Rightmove Alone is Not Enough to Sell Your Home for the Best Price
We are living in strange technological times. Where your last conversation or Google request will result in an advert about that very subject on your phone. In this article we look at how EVERY property requires personalised marketing to a specific audience in order to sell for the most money in the shortest amount of time to the best buyer.
If you have ever sold a home, you probably know how the process typically works. You invite a selection of agents to your property, they discuss the value of your home, take some pictures, write a colourful description of your home and then market the property.
When an average estate agent markets a property, they do all of the above and then simply publish it on the usual property portal websites; Rightmove, Zoopla, On The Market and cross their fingers that potential buyers will get in touch to arrange a viewing.
This average action alone usually gives average results. it will generate a few calls or email enquiries if they're lucky - usually in the first 72 hours of publication. Maybe they'll book some viewings. Maybe, they even get an offer to put forward to their client.
Is this marketing strategy of hope and finger crossing really the best way to ensure that you get the highest possible price for your property?
Discreet Marketing
What if you don't want the world knowing that you are looking to sell your home? There are a number of reasons why you may want to sell your property without putting the property on the world wide web for everyone to see.
Perhaps you don't want to potentially alert your employer, you may be going through a relationship break-up or perhaps a falling out with a neighbour. It may be simply that you are not entirely sure, at this moment in time, if you are actually going to move in the near future.
Many people also prefer to avoid questions and conversations with neighbours about their reason for moving or how the sale is going. Off portal marketing can help avoid all of this and a more discreet sale means that you can let the people you care about most know only when you are ready.
Simply publishing your property on the online property portals is definitely not discreet marketing!
A further benefit of initially keeping your property off the portals could be the option to 'test the market' with an asking price. This can be really useful where the property is very much unique or where demand is likely to be high. Testing the price with selected viewings before releasing it to the open market can give valuable feedback and can then help on the pricing strategy when entering the open market, if it is required.
Finally, if the property is not quite ready for formal marketing, i.e. photos and virtual video tours, because aspects of the property are still being finished, it is possible to find a buyer using a more proactive marketing approach and, hopefully, achieving a sale by the time the property is complete and ready.
Creating Demand
It makes sense that the more people that are interested in your home, the more chance of receiving market, or, even more than market price. Marketing needs to create demand and great estate agents should create interest and not simply hope that a potential buyer finds your property themselves during the never-ending finger scroll of properties on the portal websites.
Rightmove and other similar property portal websites attract a passive audience. What you need, is an altogether more engaged audience.
A disengaged audience will produce high click-through rates, as nosey people look at the photographs in more detail, but very few genuine leads from interested buyers.
- What sort of buyers are in the databases of these agents?
- Is it an engaged database of quality buyers that has been appropriately qualified? Does the agent know what stage of the process each applicant is at to pinpoint the exact time that they are ready to buy?
- Can they drill down to the precise location they want to buy so that they know just who to contact when a property comes onto the market in that location?
You would expect so, however, in most cases agents are using out of date technology that is simply not fit for purpose in the current property environment. If a database is just an endless list of phone numbers or email addresses that contain no relevant details about what that person is searching for, they will be inundated with emails for every property listed by this agent, whether it suits them or not.
Plus, there is often no clean-up process, so they will stay on this list long after they've moved house too.
Proactive Contact and Engagement
At Cope & Co, we work within a fully connected, intelligent and data driven database which is always working behind the scenes, ensuring that the database is scoured to find the perfect buyer for your property as soon as it becomes available.
Of course, our team don't just sit back and let the artificial intelligence do ALL the work! They work in conjunction with the system harnessing innovation and technology to work smart in finding you the perfect buyer. And why should your agent use AI to locate the perfect buyer?
Simple, because if your home is perfect for someone, that someone is likely to pay the highest price possible to buy their perfect home.
At Cope & Co, we have 3 ways of finding out what you home is worth, each differing in price accuracy. We can also offer a no obligation home consultation prior to marketing your home to offer any advice on preparing it for sale.
