In 2023, only 52.88% of properties that came to market ended up selling, giving homeowners a flip-of-a-coin chance of selling their home.
With this in mind, I wanted to offer any homeowners considering selling in 2024 some advice to help get you moved this year in the quickest time possible and for the best price.
On average, it is currently taking 67 days to agree to a sale on a property and a further 113 days to go through to completion.
This means if you are one of the 52.88% moving home, it will typically take 6 months from you placing your property on the market to actually moving home.
At the time of writing, this would mean listing your home at the start of March would typically result in moving home at the end of August.
What to Consider
The first month of marketing any property is the biggest chance to get sold and achieve the highest price with research showing properties that sell typically generate at least 40% more interest than comparable properties that are on the market over the first three weeks of marketing.
There were 17.03% more properties for sale in February versus the same period last year and this was also 3.85% up on January.
More competition from other sellers means you need to have your choice of agent, asking price, and marketing spot on to give you the best chance of selling.
Not only this, buyer affordability has reduced by 27.5% compared to the record low-interest rates of two years ago, so you need to be doing everything to attract these buyers to your property and make it look like great value for money.
The most recent data shows that 9% of properties are selling in their first week of marketing and 32% are doing so in the first 30 days.
By following the tips below, you will be significantly increasing your chances of being one of the sellers that are in the numbers above and selling your property in the first month.
You will also increase your chances of selling for higher than the average 95.4% of the asking price and not be one of the 48% who are selling their homes following a price reduction.
9 top tips to get you sold
Over 70% of traffic on Rightmove is on a mobile device, where only your first will be seen in the search results.
You only get 3 seconds to capture a buyer's attention, so do a quick search via Rightmove on your phone or tablet to check how the listing appears.
It is also worth noting that you are competing against 24 other properties on a page if a buyer is not using a mobile device to search Rightmove.
A property advert with at least 7 images gets twice as many enquiries as those with less than 3 images.
Ensure your property advert has a minimum number of images to capture the attention of buyers.
Property listings with a video or virtual tour receive on average 8% more detail views and 6% more enquiries than those without.
Advertising your property listing with an online viewing sticker can increase the number of detail views by up to 10%.
Only 34% of properties on Rightmove have a video or virtual tour, make sure you are one of them!
37% of buyers will not enquire about a property that does not have a floorplan and having a floorplan increases the number of enquiries on an advert by 12%.
Make sure you have a floor plan with all the measurements and the overall size of the property.
A property advert with photos, a floorplan, a video, and an exact location gets up to 145% more detailed views compared to a property advert that just has photos.
Be sure to have all of the above and not cut any corners to increase the number of buyers looking at your property advert.
According to data from Focal Agent and TwentyEA, estate agents using high-quality professional photography alongside other professional marketing including floorplans, 360 tours, professional property videos, elevated pole and aerial drone photography are 39.4% more likely to agree on a sale and achieve 1.63% more for the property as well.
Ensure the agent you work with does all of the above to give you the best chance of selling and for the highest possible price!
Double the amount of detail views on your property by making it a featured property and get 20% more detail views by giving it a premium listing.
Work with an agent who offers a featured property and premium listings as part of their marketing package to increase the exposure of your property.
The “99p” style of psychological pricing is outdated and simply doesn’t work in the world of home hunting.
Instead, set your asking price at a minimum or maximum price point.
This will make sure your advert is seen by people searching both up to and from a certain price.
Listings that are priced this way get 11% more views than those that aren’t.
Properties that reduce their asking price are 10% less likely to sell than those that do not, take twice as long to sell, and are twice as likely to have a sale fall through.
You want to make sure you price correctly from the outset to give you the biggest chance of selling for the best price, in a quicker time, and not having a sale fall through.
I do hope my 9 top tips to consider when selling your home has given you an insight into what it takes to give you the best chance of finding a buyer and for the best price.
If you would like to discuss this in further detail or have any questions, please feel free to contact us, we will be very happy to help.