You may have seen some badges on your agent’s website, property details or in their window; but what do they actually mean, and do they afford the buyer and seller any protection?  Here’s my guide to the organisations and schemes these badges represent, and what you can do if you’re unhappy with the service you receive from an estate agent:

The OFT Estate Agents Redress Scheme

The Consumers, Estate Agents and Redress Act 2007 (CEARA) makes it a requirement for estate agents to be members of an OFT approved estate agents redress scheme.  This scheme allows buyers and sellers of residential property to refer complaints concerning members of the scheme to an ombudsman who has the power to make a range of awards, including requiring a member to pay compensation.  To date, there are two approved schemes:

• The Ombudsman for Estate Agents (OEA)
• The Property Ombudsman (TPO)

When a firm displays the OFT Approved code logo it operates to higher standards of customer protection than the law requires, you can have confidence that OFT Approved code businesses:

• Are committed to treating you fairly if problems arise
• Will guarantee good customer service
• Give you clear-cut information about the goods or services they’re selling
• Have user-friendly, straightforward and quick procedures for dealing with customer complaints
• Will use clear and fair contracts
• Will offer free or low cost dispute resolution, such as arbitration or an ombudsman, if you can’t agree how to sort out a problem.

To check whether your estate agent is registered with the scheme, enter the details here.

The National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA)

The NAEA, founded in 1962, is the UK’s leading professional body for estate agency.  Its key roles include providing help and guidance for property professionals across a broad spectrum of disciplines while continually campaigning to make the property market more efficient and user-friendly for the home buying and selling public.

By using a Licensed NAEA agent you are guaranteed:

• That the agency is covered by a Client Money Protection (CMP) Scheme.
• That the agency has Professional Indemnity Insurance.
• That your agent is qualified and trained and can give you professional up-to-date advice and guidance.
• That you are dealing with an agent who voluntarily follows the Code of Practice and Rules of Conduct.
• That you have a route to redress should something go wrong; it is a mandatory requirement that all NAEA members belong to an independent redress scheme.

Here are the NAEA Rules of Conduct to check against your agent’s service levels.

The Guild of Professional Estate Agents

The Guild of Professional Estate Agents is a national network of independent estate agents.  The Guild insist that its members and their staff are regularly trained and fully qualified in estate agency practice and customer service, under The Guild Associate Scheme.  Guild members adhere to The Guild’s Code of Conduct and are covered by professional indemnity of up to £1 million.  Here’s the Guild’s code of conduct for you to check against the service provided by your Guild member.

By choosing an estate agent who is a member of an approved body, you will have the reassurance that they are accountable to someone, so that if things do go wrong, you will have some chance of getting it put right.

I spoke to a lady recently who hadn’t had a viewing in six months; another gentleman seller called me who had been trying to sell his house for three years, and in all that time had only had three viewings.  If you’re in that boat, you have my sincere sympathies.  It’s even harder if a friend or neighbour is getting a viewing a week.  So what can you do today that would help you get more viewings?

1.   Review your marketing – look at your photography, description, online advert and brochure, and make a list of improvements you could make to them.  Ask your estate agent about getting the house re-photographed, and whether they would cover the charge of a professional photographer.  Write the description from scratch, including ‘owners’ quotes’, interesting historical anecdotes, and any other human interest element you think might intrigue a buyer.

2.   Call your agent – my experience has shown that the more often you talk to your agent, the more likely your house is going to be in the forefront of their mind if a prospective buyer calls.  How often have you phoned your agent to ask them why you haven’t had a viewing in a while, only to be told a day or two later that someone wants to view?

3.   Take a break – taking your house off the market for a little while may seem counter-intuitive, but sometimes it’s all you need to increase the interest in your house when you re-launch.  It’s also a good idea if you are going to revamp your marketing materials, as your home will have extra impact when you go back to the market.  As a general rule of thumb, I would suggest a month off the market for every six months you’ve been for sale.  Upon your re-launch, an email alert will hit all the inboxes of buyers who have registered with Rightmove and the other portals, and this alone could help encourage viewings.

By taking action, not only will you give yourself the best possible chance to increase interest in your property, you will you feel reassured that you are taking control of your own house sale.

If you ask your estate agent why you haven’t yet sold your house, he’ll blame either your asking price (too high) or the market (too slow) or both.  So what’s his answer?  ”Drop your price”.  This strategy, he assures you, will combat a sluggish market and bring previously hidden buyers out into the open.  He is persuasive, after all, there is no other answer.  It’s a sale at any cost.

But wait – it’s a sale at your cost! If you drop your asking price by £50,000 (and let’s remember – that’s more than twice the average annual wage in the UK) what is your estate agent going to lose in commission?  At 1.5% the company will lose only £750.  And what about the sales negotiator?  If they are on 3% of sales commission, which is about average, that’s only £22.50 to lose.

So, let’s get this straight: your sales negotiator is putting pressure on you to drop your asking price by £50,000 so you can sell, but his only stake is a loss of commission of £22.50.  Is that fair?!

Don’t be the biggest loser – do everything you can to protect that most precious of commodities – your asking price.  After all, if you don’t think your house is worth it, how can you expect your buyer to?

Thanks to Core Architects of London for this lovely image

More and more these days, the total floor area of a property is included on the floorplan, which can be very useful to a buyer when they are trying to work out how much house they are getting for their money.  At HomeTruths, we compile a ‘Price per square foot analysis’ for our clients, so they can see how they compare with the competition.  But what should you include, or exclude from the overall square footage total?

Well, it’s certainly not an exact science, and other industry professionals may have their own formula, but I thought I would share mine with you here, so you can decide for yourself.

Firstly, let’s look at what the figure actually means; when your floorplan is compiled, the floor area is calculated automatically by the software that was used to create it.  This area is the gross internal floor area, which means, it is the total area within the external walls of the building, as if there were no inside walls.  So corridors and wall thicknesses are included in this figure.  If your property is a square or a rectangle, you may be able to calculate this figure yourself, by taking the outside footprint then deducting the external wall thicknesses (usually around 12” for a brick/cavity/block construction).

Next, let’s consider what should and shouldn’t be included in the overall figure.  As a general rule of thumb, I include any area which is, or could, be used as residential accommodation; therefore I would include an internal garage, because these are usually constructed so they can be easily converted, but not a detached garage, which often isn’t.  I wouldn’t include an inside swimming pool, whether or not attached to the house, but I would include an over-garage studio, which is extra accommodation.  If there is a detached cottage in the grounds, I would include that separately, as it can often skew the results, and position it in the comparison table in two places, to see what effect it has.  Cellars can be included if they are full head height (at least 7 feet), similarly with attics.

It is worth bearing in mind though, that not all square footage is equal: town houses, where the accommodation is spread over three or four floors, are not equal to bungalows, where the overall footprint of the house, and its plot, are much larger.  There is no formula to take this into account, so when you compare your property to others for sale, try to pick similar styles of home to compare to.

What this exercise may highlight, is how much each room is worth to you: often a valuable insight in itself.  For example, if your price per square foot is £300, and you have an unused bedroom or boxroom at 10’ by 10’ (100 square feet) it is actually worth £30,000 of your house price; if you don’t define its use for a buyer, they may well dismiss it, and as a consequence, your asking price will appear to be £30,000 overpriced.  Multiply that by three rooms, and you’re potentially ‘wasting’ around £100,000!

If you’re not sure about your own floor area, and have a question, or would like further explanation, why not drop me a line at sam@home-truths.co.uk and I’ll try to enlighten you.

Image credit: www.jintudesigns.com

When a potential buyer sees a photograph of your house, they will have an emotional reaction to it, to some degree.  The reaction may be positive or negative; it may be indifference, which will probably cause them to dismiss your house as a possible next home for them.

Clearly, the main image is crucial as your best chance to generate a positive emotional reaction, and one way of doing this is to make sure that your front door can be seen in the main shot.  Let me show you what I mean.

Take this lovely property for a start; it has some great period features – that decorative brickwork for example – and it clearly has an elegant and perfectly fitting front door, if you crane your neck to see it, that is.  What a pity that buyers can’t see it in any of the photos online.

And this old school house, with its pretty windows and attractive roofline, would look so much more inviting if you could see the front door.  If nothing else, I’m curious as to what it would look like.

This Lakeland stone property has been photographed at an angle that shows the front door, giving balance to the image and the best chance of creating a positive emotional response in a buyer.  I would be intrigued by the fact that the door itself appears contemporary in style, tempting me to seek out the rest of the images, to see what it’s like inside.

What a pretty conversion; imagine if the photographer had taken the shot straight on to the garage; the cute porch wouldn’t be visible.  This way, a buyer can see the character of the outside that could give a clue about what lies inside.

So if your house is on the market, check out your online advert to see if your front door is visible; if not, consider asking your agent to change your front shot so that it is and give your buyers the chance to make that emotional connection with your house right from the start.

This week, I received a call from someone who has a beautiful, architect-designed home for sale in Lancashire.  A very unusual home, it’s a cross between a Huf House (do Google it if you haven’t come across them) and an individual ‘Grand Design’.  It’s all dramatic angles, huge atriums, and an abundance of glass, chrome and natural wood.

The photographs of the external are stunning; cleverly, there are dusk shots – images taken in the early evening – with all the internal lights on so that it looks homely and welcoming.  Because, you see, it’s not lived in.  The owner, who lives about an hour away and built this property to sell and top up his pension, has put a few pieces of furniture in the key rooms, to give an indication of how it could be used.  So the master bedroom has a bed in it, and the main living room contains a sofa and armchair, but there’s nothing really to indicate how a buyer might live there.

Now this is usually enough for a male viewer; men like impressive facades with dramatic angles and grand proportions.  They are interested in the bricks and mortar aspect of a house: the number of rooms, the outside space, whether it has a double garage, those kind of things.  Give him some gadgets too – a remote controlled fire, automatic gates, integral media system – and you’ll have him hooked from the first click.

Women are different.  We rely on instinct far more.  We will walk into a house and say ‘no’ before we’ve left the entrance hall, because it doesn’t ‘feel right’.  On the other hand, men can end up totally bemused and bewildered by the strength of our conviction when a home does feel right, despite perhaps having none of the attributes from the original jointly-drawn up ‘tick list’.  A lady owner may well tell you, even when she’s lived in the house for years, how she felt when she first walked in: “I just knew” she will sigh.  And by the way, don’t underestimate the importance of her buying motivation: 80% of buying decisions are made or influenced by a woman.  Ignore her needs at your peril…….

Statistics show that only 5.5% of men pay the full asking price, and only 78% offer 90% or more of the asking price.  Women buyers, on the other hand, are more motivated to secure a house, whatever the price, and 17% of them simply offer the full asking price of the property they want.  An impressive 90% of female buyers offer 90% or more of the asking price, so determined are they not to lose the home they have set their heart on.

So as a buyer, how on earth do you connect emotionally with a lady buyer to make her “just know” as soon as she walks through the door of your house?  As I told the seller of this Grand Design: by making it beautifully homely, and at the same time highly aspirational.    All the little touches that make a house a home need putting in place to seduce her: window dressing, luxurious bedding, sumptuous cushions, a kitchen full of gorgeous cookware, candles and towels in the bathroom, and those shiny floors adorned with warm, textured rugs.

I’ve estimated that to add this feminine appeal in a house that is over 7,000 square feet may well cost him between £20,000 and £30,000, but his property is for sale for £1 million.  A 2-3% investment is a far better route to securing a buyer than the alternative his agent is recommending – to drop the asking price by £50,000.

If you can identify what a woman wants, and give it to her, she’ll not only fall head over heels in love with the house, she’ll also persuade a less emotionally-driven partner that they absolutely, positively must buy your house.

Image courtesy of Huf Haus

I’ve just sold my house.  Not the one I live in, but a little cottage I bought, renovated, and then because of the banking crash in 2007, I had to rent out for a few years.  When the tenant moved out last year, I took my chance, and prepared it for sale.  Just as I advise my clients to do, I freshened up the paintwork, washed all the soft furnishings, and bought lots of lovely accessories to stage it.  Then I had professional photographs taken and I wrote a great description, specifically designed to tempt viewings. Finally, I employed a designer to put together a beautiful brochure for me, together with a logo for the cottage, to add some brand appeal.

It all looked fantastic.

So which agent would be worthy of marketing such an easy-to-sell house?  I looked at the local independents: too parochial.  The big nationals: too impersonal.  Really, I wanted to sell it myself, but the private seller sites, like Tepilo, just aren’t big enough yet.  I know that buyers only look at the four big portals: Rightmove, Primelocation, FindaProperty and Zoopla – that’s where I needed to be, but they don’t accept private sellers.

The answer, was to use a ‘virtual agent’.  If you don’t know what one of these is, you might be interested in reading my previous blog post on the subject, but briefly, it’s a no-frills agency that offers just enough of a service to comply with the property portals, but doesn’t offer viewings, or charge a commission.  In addition, they don’t ‘value’ your home; you tell them what you want your asking price to be.

I tried several virtual agents before I found one good enough to sell my cottage; most of them don’t allow you to upload your own brochure, which was none-negotiable for me, as I know how important it is.  Finally I found an up and coming online agent who was just right: right attitude, right approach, right skills, right price.  (I’m not going to share with you on here who it is, but I can create for you a plan to help you sell with them, exactly as I did.)

Viewings to organise now; as I don’t live near to the cottage, I found a local lady who could do the viewings for me for a small fee, and who I trained in how to prepare the cottage, and how to show it to viewers.  She called me after every viewing to give me feedback straight away, which was really helpful.  No waiting for days for the agent to call with it.

This weekend, encouraged by my viewing lady, a buyer called me direct, and made an offer to me.  I was able to explain my situation, and negotiate directly with him, and we settled on a price that suited us both, which was the 95%  I was hoping for.  Even better, there are no further agent fees to pay!

So what did it cost in total?  Here’s my spend to date:

Staging costs                                      £ 1000

Photography                                      £   300

Brochure design                                £   240

Viewings                                             £   200

Upfront fee to virtual agent             £  199

Energy Performance Certificate     £   60

For sale board                                    £    40

Completion fee to virtual agent       £ 199

Total expenses                             £2238

I’ve saved a total of £2500 on agency fees, which basically has paid for me to prepare the cottage the way I wanted to, which in turn, has resulted in a much better offer than I would have received.

If you’d like to find out more about how I put my money where my mouth is, why not get in touch?  My direct email is sam@home-truths.co.uk and I’d love to hear from you. Drop me an email today, and I’ll reply straight away.

There are many resources estate agents and valuers can draw upon to ascertain the value of a home, but they all rely, in one form or another, on precedent: what other properties have sold for in the road, village or area.  But how much can past performance really be an indicator of what a future buyer is prepared to pay for their dream home?

A property that has similar neighbouring properties, perhaps in a terrace, row of semi-detached houses, or a small development of detached homes, usually has ample precedential evidence; sales over recent years will paint a picture of rises and falls in the local market; ‘done-up’ properties setting the glass ceiling for achievable sale prices, houses in need of renovation bringing up the rear.  They all make up the rich tapestry that determines your asking price.

When valuing a unique property however, the tapestry starts to unravel.  You can look for precedent: perhaps at the last sale price for the property, though if that was more than five years ago, and the house has been the subject of an improvement programme, what can this really tell us?  It might help to look at the price per square foot, which can indicate a benchmark pricing for comparable properties, though it’s a pretty complicated process to add or subtract swimming pools, acreage, a Clive Christian kitchen or an Amdega conservatory.  Ultimately, the only real way to ‘value’ a unique home is to look at four saleability factors:

• Affordability - what kind of buyer does your home most appeal to, and can they afford it? A London buyer may be able to afford more than a local, but if your home is dated, or unsuitable for a contemporary buyer, an urban buyer may dismiss it in favour of something with move-in appeal.

• Scarcity - how unique is the house?  Is it unique because it’s been extended so much over the years, the original house is unrecognisable, or is it a sixteenth century house that Elizabeth I once stayed in?

• Appeal - if you were a buyer, would you want your home?  Does it tick lots of boxes?  Does it have all that a family buyer has been dreaming of?  A pony paddock and a swimming pool may not be on their list, but may just clinch the deal for you, making sure they are thinking with their hearts, and not with their heads.

• Competition - what else could they buy for the same money?  How does it compare with yours?  Be honest – which one would you choose?

If you’re trying to sell a unique home, and would like some honest, independent advice on its saleability, why not drop me a line?  You may just be ready for some HomeTruths.

sam@home-truths.co.uk

Ladies, have you ever visited say, Debenhams, no money to spend, and only seen the most beautiful dresses and shoes?  If only you had some spare money, you would surely find the perfect outfit.  But walk into the same department store with a plan to buy a dress, and the money to match, and can you find anything?  No, you can’t!

Well it’s the same with houses.  When a viewer who has not yet sold his house (or maybe not even put it on the market) views yours, the chances of him falling in love with it are far greater than if he was in a position to buy.  I have long since held this belief, and not only has it been proven many times, it actually happened again today, and to me!  Viewings have been high, at 1-2 per week on average.  Today, I had a viewer who absolutely loved the house, and promised vehemently that he would put an offer in – just as soon as he’d sold his house.  A tad annoying really……

The lesson here, is don’t get excited if you get strong interest, unless the buyer has already sold, or is in a proceedable position.  Otherwise, you’ll accept the offer, relax your marketing and staging efforts a little, (or a lot) and pat yourselves on the back that you’ve practically sold your house.  Beware though; your buyer wants your house all the more because he can’t have it, and when he finds himself in a position of being able to transact, don’t be surprised if he changes his mind.  After all, what do you think he was doing all those months he was on the market?  Looking at other properties of course; just to be sure.  There are a lot of properties out there on the market after all.. so much choice……

So many dresses.... so little time

If there’s one area of a house needing updating that sellers absolutely have to put right, it’s carpeting.  I’ve seen the dingiest, most awful houses absolutely transformed by spending a couple of thousand pounds in their local carpet shop.  A clean, neutral carpet in a light colour will add so much light and space, you won’t recognise the place.  If you know someone who’s trying to sell a house with a carpet like this, point them in the direction of my blog… please……

So, time for more horrors…… prepare to be bowled over by these colourful catastrophes.