My property won’t sell, what can you suggest?

Q: My property has been on the market for two months now and it’s not selling. Do you have any tips?

A: The current market is a tough one. Transaction volumes are considerably down versus this time last year, so it can be tricky as a seller. However, don’t despair; there are a number of things that you can do to attract a good buyer at a fair price.

Firstly, have an objective look at your property to check whether it presents itself in the best way, and that appeals as much as possible to whichever type of buyer is going to purchase the property.

For example, we recently represented a couple selling their London townhouse. It had been on the market for a couple of months last year and hadn’t sold. When they retained us to provide a Managed Sale service for them early this year, we advised them that their most likely buyer would be a family. Our sellers didn’t have children so they hadn’t laid out the property with a family in mind. It was stunning, but there were certain rooms which could have been presented more appropriately to show potential buyers which rooms could have been used as a play room or nanny room.

Our clients enlisted the help of a home staging company, who removed some of their items and installed new pieces of furniture to change the overall feel of the property. We also ensured that certain rooms on the floor plans were labelled differently, more in-keeping with the family house market. So, instead of ‘study/dining room’, one of the rooms was labelled as a ‘playroom’.

Working with our clients, we revalued and adjusted the price of the property, which was lower than previously advertised but in line with client expectations. Within 10 days, we received an asking price offer and our clients were delighted. They achieved exactly what they had set out to.

Selecting the appropriate estate agents was important too. We recommended different agents, to who they had previously chosen, based on their market share within the area and also on the other properties that they were advertising at the same time.

So, in your quest to sell your home, either enlist some professional advice from an independent company, or make a judgement call on the factors talked about. Implementing small changes can make a big difference to your sale outcome and how quickly you get there.

If you have a question you’d like Jo to answer please email Jo.eccles@eccord.com or tweet her @joeccles.