Help – Seller Tips

Seller Tips

Selling your property privately, without representation, is not difficult - in fact it's very straight forward.
Below are some important points to consider when preparing your property advertisement.

1) Photographs - The first impression is essential. If buyer's aren't sold on the images they see online then chances are they will move on.

When taking exterior photos, be sure to take them when the weather conditions allow for a clean and clear shot - without any harsh sun glares.  Getting up at dawn isn't everyone's idea of fun, but it's the ideal time of day to get the best photographs of the outside of a property.

Tips for Individual Rooms

Living Room: Because this is part of the home where an family spends the majority of there time, be sure to create a comfortable, relaxing atmosphere.  You can move furniture around or remove it altogether, to create the desired effect.

Bedroom: This is also a very important part of the home.  It's where the owner will begin and end each day and should be a private and restful sanctuary.  As you prepare your bedroom for the photo shoot remove clothes from the floor.  Buyers want to see a clean slate, not your private items.  Make sure you've made the bed neatly and have highlighted any extra perks, such as a stunning view out the window.

Kitchen and Dining Area: This is usually an area that can benefit from a little bit of extra cleaning before a photo shoot.  Remove any detergents or other household cleaning products, and tidy away dirty dishes.  Focus on the best features to detract from a small space, if applicable.

Bathroom: Even a large bathroom can seem quite small in a photograph if shot from the wrong angle.  Stand in the corner of the room to get the right angle, and make the room look larger.  Take care not to accidentally include a photograph of yourself in the mirror!

Images to be uploaded should be in the JPG format.

2) Description - When you're posting your property for sale it is imperative that your ad has an eye-catching headline that looks different.  Your headline is an extremely important part of your listing so try to find a way for it to stand out from the crowd.

Buying a property overseas is a massive step and people like 'buying the dream' as much as the actual property itself.  Provide inspiring information about what it is like to live there.

Write a song captivating opening statement.

When writing your property description, it is important not to be misleading.  The property details should accurately represent the property you are offering for sale.  Determine the best features.  Make a list of the things that bring the most value to your home.  Think of everything, whether it's the views, a chef's kitchen or an open living/dining space, a fully built basement, upgrades and smart or green features, the size of the garden, a beautiful pool, basement or garage space, heating/air-conditioning, security, proximity to towns, restaurants, beaches, golf courses, airports etc; arranging the list to start with this features you consider would be most important to your potential buyer. 

Highlight keywords in your description using CAPITAL LETTERS.

We recommend your description is at least 2000 characters (20 lines).

3) For Sale Board - A For Sale sign is a simple but effective marketing tool to help sell your property.  I can't think of any really good reason for not having one!  I can tell you what you're missing out on by not having a For Sale sign:

Drive by - these are people who don't even know they are a buyer yet.  They're not looking for a house, they're not trawling Rightmove or the local property pages, but they drive past your villa regularly and they've always like the look of it.  They're not looking to buy a villa - until they see that yours is for sale.  This happens more often than you night think,so don't miss out on these unexpected angels.

Relocating - these buyers don't know the area at all, but they are being sensible and taking a drive around to work out which areas and streets they like before concentrating on those in a web search. They won't know enough to match up your internet photo with the streets they drove around, so you might find yourself out of their search area if you don't tell them by way of a For Sale sign that there's a house available on that street.

First they like to peek - buyers who want to take a quick look at the outside of the house and the area it's in before they book a viewing.  They've not called the owner or agent yet so they don't know the address, just the street name.  With no sign outside, it's likely they won't find your house and they'll end up frustrated.  Definitely not a good start. Help them out - let them know which villa they're supposed to be checking out!

Early-Birdies - a little bit like those wishing to take a peek.  Early-birdies turn up way before their allotted viewing time.  They probably have the address but it's a heck of a lot easier to identify the right villa if there's a sign outside that can be seen at  30mph from 10 houses away.  And again, a sign avoids any feelings of frustration and annoyance.  First impressions remember - you only get one chance to form them, so they have to be good.

In a nutshell, your for sale board could be your most effective marketing tool, so use it to its best advantage, to make sure that everyone knows your home is on the market, and to lure those buyers to view.

The moral of this story is that if you're serious about selling your house, a For Sale sign is an elementary requirement.

For full details on our personalised boards CLICK HERE.   It is your very own 24-hour around the clock salesperson.

4) Floor Plans - Another helpful marketing tool much sought after by buyers.  Floor plans help sell properties.

Pre-inspection with a floor plan, buyers can piece together the photos and property in their mind.  The floor plan helps buyers to see where rooms are located in context to one another, and how the property 'flows'.  It also gives the buyer an idea of important details, such as the number of windows in each room, the way in which the space is oriented, and how much storage space is available.

This is an important advantage because buyers are more likely to choose to inspect a property that already make sense to them thanks to the intersection between the photos and the floor plan.

Post-inspection, a plan is a great reminder of layout, allowing serious buyers to imagine living in the the home by mapping out their own furniture placements.

Floor plans can bring an unseen property to life -  For full details on our floor plans CLICK HERE

5) I-Movie Tours - Why you should consider a video tour of your home

A prospective home buyer may not have enough time to go and see every house listing, so if you have created virtual tours for your home which the buyer can readily see in their home, you are more  likely to get more enquiries and a quicker sale.

With digital video becoming the norm, sellers are beginning to see the benefits of using video to sell homes.  A well-done property presentation can clearly communicate the 'wow factor' of a home by bringing a prospective buyer into the home and walking them through it from your perspective, highlighting your favourite aspects of the property.  Further, rather than taking just one viewing appointment at a time, hundreds of people can look at the house simultaneously online.

Listings accompanied by videos get many more enquiries than photo listings alone.   In today's digital world, make sure you are marketing effectively by using as many tools as possible in order to reach as many potential buyers as you can.

For full details on our I-Movie Tours CLICK HERE