So, what do we now know that we didn’t know a month ago?Your Read More Link Text
Month: October 2009
Can You See Your Property the Way Others Do? (Part 2) – Schedules/Sales Particulars – The Limitations of Self-Marketing
I’ve already answered this question from the point of view of ‘staging’ your property. The answer, which my own experience of ‘staging’ (i.e. presenting) my own property for sale has more than convinced me, is ‘no, you can’t see your own property the way that others do’. Why? Because it is absolutely impossible to be dispassionate. And it’s very difficult at times to take your own best advice. Even if you quite regularly share that advice with clients who pay you for it (as I do!) and now with people on your Blog who DON’T pay you for it (as I now also do!).Your Read More Link Text
Can You See Your Own Property The Way Others See It? The Benefit of a Third Party Giving a Professional Opinion (My Personal Experience)
This is another question that has cropped up since I started marketing my own property. It also cropped up today in the context of me advising clients about the presentation of their own property for sale. Through both of these experiences, I think the answer is quite clearly, ‘No!’ to the first question and that estate agents really do have a critical role to play in the presentation of their clients’ properties, a role that adds a lot of value to the process of marketing your home for sale. So why am I now more convinced than ever of this and how has the process of marketing my own property further convinced me of this?Your Read More Link Text
What if Virgin Did Estate Agency in Edinburgh?
I’m reading Richard Branson’s (relatively) new book at the moment: ‘Richard Branson: Business Stripped Bare’. I’ve just read the lengthy chapter on ‘Delivery’: in other words, delivering on the promises you and your brand make to your customer.
I’ve felt that the book has been a little bit rambling up till now. However, when you just let go and don’t hope for a Top Five Tips to Becoming a Billionaire Overnight, it’s actually a good read and you start to get a far better understanding of the ethos behind the company. It feels honest and he doesn’t pull his punches about the fact that much of the success was NOT planned, there WERE mistakes along the way and that he’s not going to rewrite the strategy behind these decisions with the benefit of hindsight. So it’s very much the antithesis of most business-related or popular business philosophy books (I’m thinking in particular of ‘Everybody Wins’ which is a book by two management consultants about the story of the Re/max estate agency company) in that it doesn’t take examples of successful companies and then, after the event, create strategies that they must have followed to have achieved the success they have achieved.Your Read More Link Text
Open Viewings – Are They Worth Waiting In For?
To do Open Viewings or not to do Open Viewings…that is the question…
It’s one I’ve been asked for several years now and the answer has always been the same: if you can do it, I’d recommend that you do it. Why? Because anything we can do to make a property easier to buy is surely a good thing.
Why did I find the flat that I currently live in? The answer is that I was viewing two others in the same street on a Sunday afternoon, hated both of them, was walking home with my father when I saw the For Sale Board outside this flat, went in totally on the off-chance that it might be what I was looking for (a 2 bedroom flat with dining kitchen) and ended up falling in love with this one (a one bedroom flat with a whopping great dining kitchen, massive box room and huge basement). Totally random chance. And my story is not unique by any means!Your Read More Link Text
Home Reports: Where a ‘2’ Feels Like a Kick in the N*ts!
Aaaaargh!!! The last time I sold a property, Home Reports didn’t exist. Since 1 December 2008, by law every property marketed for sale in Scotland must have a Home Report, prior to going on the market.
I wasn’t the biggest fan of Home Reports, I’ll be honest, when they came out. However, they seem to have had a fairly positive impact on an otherwise terminally rubbish property market in the past (almost a whole) year. So I’m not against them now quite as much as I was before. My attitude, however, does remain that they are actually a great marketing tool and therefore it should be optional for the seller to get one. Most sellers would get them but some who perhaps weren’t so committed to selling wouldn’t bother because of the risk of wasting their money if they decided not to proceed with their sale.Your Read More Link Text
Moving House – How Easy is it to Take Your Own Medicine?
Okay – so I spend my life, and run a company, that markets and sells properties. I therefore spend a large amount of time advising people on moving home.
And now the boot’s on the other foot. My own home is on the market. With my own company of course!Your Read More Link Text
What Does ‘Offers Around’ or ‘Offers in the Region of’ Actually Mean?
I have had a lot of people asking this question recently, so here is a bit of an email that I just sent to a property buyer to try and explain what it means.
‘Offers in the Region of’ and ‘Offers Around’ is a bit of a moveable feast depending on the prevailing property market conditions. The last 12 months saw relentless downward pressure on property prices. ‘Offers Around’ therefore usually translated as ‘Offers Slight Below’ the asking price.Your Read More Link Text
Bringing a Little Science to Self-Development – ’59 Seconds: Think a Little, Change a Lot’ – Prof. Richard Wiseman (Author) – Short Review
For a couple of years, I read pretty much nothing else apart from business-related or so-called self-development books. Then I started my own company a couple of years back and stopped reading. Fortunately, I rediscovered my passion for this kind of reading recently and bought ’59 Seconds’ from Borders at Fort Kinnaird. Total impulse buy, but I’m really glad I did.Your Read More Link Text
How Do You Decide What to Bid at a Closing Date?
The last couple of months have seen a bit of a spike in buying activity and, sadly for buyers, a return to the days of Closing Dates and blind bidding. Closing Dates and blind bidding have been confusing buyers since I started working in this field so hopefully this will be useful to any of you thinking of buying a home at the moment.
So the question is: how do you, as a buyer, decide what your bid should be at a Closing Date?Your Read More Link Text