Do I need a for sale sign outside my property?
With the internet now the leading method of property marketing you may well be asking yourself, “do I need a for sale sign outside my property”? As estate agents in Bishop’s Stortford, this is of course a question we are regularly asked and so we thought it would be a good topic for our latest blog post. Rightmove and Zoopla have of course now taken over as the market leaders in property advertising. The newspaper and shop windows are now outdated and people are turning to the internet to start their search for their next property. What about the for sale board though? Has this died along with other traditional property advertising methods?
Let’s start with a question – why WOULDN’T you want a for sale sign outside your property?
The main reason we come across, is that many home owners are worried that their neighbours will find out that their home is for sale and they’ll be the subject for gossip for weeks to come. It’s certainly a talking point when a new property comes up for sale in your street, I can’t help but hop on to Rightmove and check out the details whenever one becomes available where I live (that’s if we’re not selling it already!)
However, the truth of the matter is that regardless of whether you have a board up or not, your neighbours will know your home is for sale! How? Through our friends over at Rightmove and Zoopla is how. So many people I know are signed up to Rightmove’s property alerts for their local area so they can keep track of what’s on the market and check out the local property prices. Many of these people aren’t even considering moving home but they like to browse Rightmove out of interest. Even if a neighbour doesn’t sign up to Rightmove themselves no doubt another neighbour will fill them in, or perhaps a friend will mention “I noticed that there’s another house for sale in your street”. They will know!
Let’s consider now – why WOULD you want a for sale sign outside your property?
If you’re selling your home then no doubt you’ll want to sell it for the best possible price, in the shortest possible time frame – everybody does! The way we see it is that all exposure is good exposure and if you really want to get your property sold, then having a board up outside can only be a good thing. We get 7% of all our enquiries as a result of boards outside properties in Bishop’s Stortford (and the surrounding areas) and whilst you may argue that’s a small percentage it’s still almost 1 in 10 of all our enquiries. It’s a potential extra viewing or two that you wouldn’t have had otherwise without someone having spotted your board. Sometimes people spot a board outside, like the look of the house and will make an enquiry whereas perhaps it didn’t appear on Rightmove under their search criteria and so often we find people end up buying properties that are totally different to their initial ideas!
Plus nowadays we’re using our revolutionary ‘brochure boxes’ so that passers-by can take a copy of the property details there and then as they’re passing, this is ever increasing the number of enquiries we gain from advertising by for sale boards. If you haven’t seen these already then take a look at our blog post ‘Bishop’s Stortford estate agent, revolutionary new idea’ – The other benefit of these boards is that if the neighbours ARE aware of houses for sale, think about their network of friends and family who may be looking to move to the area. We all know networking works, so who better to sell living in your street than your own neighbours?
We advise all property owners to have a for sale board outside their property. It certainly can’t hurt and will give you that little bit of extra exposure that could be that extra viewing you need to get an offer. What have you got to lose?
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