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Making Your Property Stand out from the Crowd Online

I’m sure this can go without saying, but let’s say it anyway for emphasis, the vast majority of buyers start their search for a property using the internet, notably Rightmove and Zoopla, the portal behemoths. This means that making your property stand out from the crowd has become paramount, otherwise you won’t maximise the potential of property portals.

Now, most similar guides on the internet suggest doing the cosmetics (see our guide on how to prepare for a viewing). For example:

  1. Improve the kerb appeal (i.e. first impressions count) by cleaning the windows, cutting the grass, planting flowers, hide bins, generally give the exterior a good clean.
  2. Remove all unnecessary clutter
  3. Deep-clean
  4. Give the rooms a lick of paint where necessary
  5. The list goes on…

This is absolutely crucial, as a seller if you are serious about selling your home, then you must do your best to make your property look its best. However, it doesn’t end there. Have you thought about the agent you employ? Are they trying to make your property look its best? Most agents are notorious for producing terrible images, undescriptive property information and just generally bad marketing. This will have an effect on the end result to you, either you won’t sell or you won’t maximize your potential to sell at a higher price.

Let me show you a real-life example of this. Take the screenshot below, which property stands out the most to you?

Click the image to enlarge.

I’d like to think you said the 3rd property down. This is a property we sold recently that was listed after the rest on this list and still ‘sold subject to contract’ within two weeks. Normandy Drive in Yate has fierce selling competition, as proven by the screenshot, and yet, our property sold quicker than the rest.

Here’s another example, The Eye in Bristol City Centre also has a lot of competing properties so, instead of keeping with the norm, we decided to go way above the rest and shoot the building’s architecturally beautiful exterior at twilight.

Click the image to enlarge.

So, How Do You Make Your Property Stand out from the Crowd?

To be honest, every property is different and may require thinking outside the box, even for a standard three bedroom terraced property. However, here are some rules to check that your chosen agent is fulfilling to help make your property stand out.

  1. Make sure your agent makes use of a professional photographer

    The photos are a direct representation of your property. If they are taken by an agent who has no experience or understanding in photography, look wonky, are dark and ‘dingy’, make the property feel small, then that won’t inspire a potential buyer to take action. Here’s an example from our portfolio.


    Before


    After

    Which one inspires you? Interestingly, this property was on the market for quite some time with the previous agent (the “before” photo). The seller changed their marketing to us (the “after” photo) and we sold the property.

    You also shouldn’t have to pay extra for professional photography. At the end of the day, it’s in the agent’s interest to make sure their marketing is done properly. All of our sales property images (including the images in this blog) are photographed professionally by me (Edison Ford’s ‘in-house photographer’) and this forms part of our marketing package at no extra cost.

  1. The more photos, the better

    When you are scrolling through a list of similar properties and one property has only 6 photos, whereas another property has 15+, what does that make you think? The property with 15 photos has a lot more to say. Now that doesn’t mean your photographer starts taking photos of every small meaningless detail in your house, it means your agent should think outside the box and advertise its location, photograph anything unique about your property, etc. Location shots of for example local amenities can help buyers to further visualise how they will live in your property and the fact that there’s a greater number of photos will grab a buyer’s attention. Most agents don’t do this as it means investing in a photographer’s time. However, we regularly do this as part of our service.

  1. Ask the agent to photograph your property at different times of the day

    Twilight or sunrise/sunset is especially great for making your property look unique. This will require time and planning. For example, if you are planning to photograph a property at sunset, then making use of a sun position calculator will help greatly. We regularly make use of SunCalc.net for quick information or PhotoPills for more in-depth planning.

  1. Is your agent capitalising on the latest technology in property marketing?

    Virtual reality is a relatively new technology and it has become more and more useful for countless industries and property marketing is definitely one of them. As a buyer, it gives you the ability to be able to get a real sense of space and volume without having to go there and can help to reinforce and make decisions. As a seller, it enables you to remove time-wasters and increase the interaction rate on your property as it’s a relatively new exciting technology. The potential negative to virtual reality is that it enables people to view homes without an agent being able to sell the property to them or at the very least, understand why the property might not be for them. We’ve invested heavily into the functionality of our virtual tour software and for anyone to view a virtual tour, they first have to register which enables us to contact them directly. Again, our virtual reality offering is included with our marketing package at no extra cost.

As I said earlier, every property is different however, asking your agent the above questions will help you find an agent who will have the ability to make your property stand out from the rest. I could go into more detail but that would be telling and we don’t want to give all of our secrets away! Why not give us a call to arrange your free, no obligation consultation and put our comprehensive marketing to the test? Call Tanya on 01454 316718, she will be more than happy to help.

Written by Peter Allen

About The Author

Everyone at Edison Ford works as a team to bring you this content however, the content is generally written by Peter and the advice included in our guides comes from our own experiences and research collectively. We hope you find our content insightful and if you have any suggestions, then please feel free to email Peter.

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