Why you shouldn’t settle for lazy marketing by estate agents.

Welcome to the first blog post from Roberts & Co. For this article I am going to explain why you should think carefully about which agent you would like to market your home, your biggest financial asset. When you put it like that, it isn’t a decision you should take lightly is it?

All too frequently now I am seeing homes being listed on Rightmove and Zoopla by competitor agents with, what I consider to be the basics, simply missing! It baffles me as to why these home owners are happy with their pride and joy being marketed with no floorplans, no professional imagery, social media or virtual/video tour! Surely these are the basics that EVERY property deserves?

Why do Roberts & Co include all of the above as standard? Well, firstly we believe that YOUR property deserves to be shown off in the best way that it can. By showing ALL of your property’s best features in a variety of different media, we will be maximising the amount of interest we can generate for your property. Our job then is to turn this into a good number of quality, pre-qualified viewings for people to explore your home further.

I suppose property marketing is a bit like having an online dating profile in some respects. You have to capture peoples interest before they ‘swipe- left’ to the next one! We ALWAYS put our best image of the property as one of the first 2 photos to ensure your property gets a ‘click-through’ to the more detailed listing.

Nowadays we all do more online, and property buying is no different. We need to get YOUR property on peoples shortlists. If you don’t have a floorplan, how can they plan their renovation, or check there is a room they can convert to a playroom, or see if they can create that amazing dining kitchen with an island they have always dreamt of…?  If you don’t have a full suite of internal photos, why? Buyers may wrongly assume that your property needs renovation. If you have a house on a large plot, why don’t you have drone footage- that is your property’s USP!

And you don’t need to just take my word for it, research has proven it too.  According to Rightmove, 1 in 3 buyers are less likely to enquire about a property if there is no floorplan AND astonishingly, 1 in 5 would ignore the listing completely! If that is not proof enough that floorplans are essential then what is?

Similarly, research* has proven that properties sell up to 14 days faster with an effective social media campaign

By publishing a FULL listing including all of the marketing elements I have mentioned, we see RESULTS for our vendors. We are able to get a great number of viewings from the start, maximising the initial buzz and interest a new listing naturally generates. And, importantly, we know that by doing a fabulous job of marketing the property fully, we are genuinely making every effort to get the best possible price for the owner, our customer…because ultimately, that is important, right?

Aside from this, at Roberts & Co, we believe our listings are an extension of us as a business. We take PRIDE in presenting our properties well and invest heavily to deliver what our customers deserve. As a business we don’t make compromises, so why should you?

Emma Roberts is Managing Director of Roberts and Co in Preston.

* Countrywide Properties