When I started Mr Green nearly 1.5 decades ago, I was the last chance saloon for property sellers; they had tried everyone else, failed and had nothing left to lose in trying the young kid (I was 24 and looked 12) with a bit of chat, working out of his mum’s spare bedroom.
Beautiful things can happen when you combine an agent with no formal training and a must-do attitude with sellers open to trying something new.
My most challenging conundrum of a sale was a property that had been on the market for 3.5 years without success! A terribly dull apartment, in terrible condition, that someone had inherited, costing them £3500 per year in service charges…. Ouch. They had tried every agent and were somewhat desperate to escape the thing.
In this scenario, you can take risks but can’t beat great marketing fundamentals. I start with the questions I ask myself on every sale:
- Who is the buyer?
- Why will they buy it?
- How do we ensure they see it?
- How do we make sure they enquire?
- How do we get the highest price?
- How do we do it fast?
At this stage, “we” was I. But you get the idea.
After much research and chin scratching, the property went on the market for ‘Guide Price £10’.
Instant eyeballs. Viral marketing before viral marketing was a thing.
The main photo was of a stuffed Dog in the doorway. A black and white collie. The most stand-out image possible for the search this property would appear in.
The write-up was beyond honest about all the bad parts of the property, “Great balcony if you like over-looking car parks.” a line I remember.
We had 7 million enquiries (ish) for the property. Hours upon hours upon hours of wading through nonsense. But, within the rubbish, there were serious buyers. Two weeks later, it was sale agreed to a fast buyer at a decent price.
Okay, so great story, Simon. How does that help me? I’m selling a great property; people will love it anyway.
Those 6 key questions mean more to you than a difficult-to-sell property. A 3% swing in price is huge money. It is the difference between finding a buyer or not finding a buyer for you in a more challenging market.
Would I use the dog as the main image for you? No, everyone is using drones now. But drones now don’t stand out, so how do you stand out?
Go left when everyone is going right.
