The winner takes it all!
You’ve got one chance at a valuation. You either win it or you don’t.
How do you put yourself in the best position to win more, more of the time? Do you offer more or less marketing than your rivals? A good and engaging write up, thoughtful and well taken images, a media tour, floorplan? Or none/some of the above?
Having an estate agency background, I was asked for an impartial appraisal by a close friend following three valuation visits from a couple of her local agents. The valuations were all more or less in the same region, and the fees were not wildly dissimilar. My friend is savvy enough to know that in a competitive market the fees are the last issue she should be concerned about. She always drives a hard bargain. However she wanted a bit of advice on whether certain marketing elements were important, or required, and whether they would help achieve ultimately a quicker sale and a better price.
The Options?
Over coffee we briefly looked at what the three agents offered. One, a large national corporate and two local independents. The large chain’s fees were the highest – however, they were prepared to throw the kitchen sink at marketing her property. Everything. Including a media tour and a floorplan. Of the two independents, the first promised great photos and a write-up, however provision of a floorplan was conditional upon her ordering an EPC from their ‘chosen provider’. (She’d already done a bit of research on this and found much cheaper quoted prices online). This agent also offered a media / video tour as an extra, which came in £50.
A great marketing strategy – that won’t work…
Lastly, and this is what I personally found astonishing, the final independent agent said they are moving away now from too much online ‘added marketing’ as “we feel that it’s better to leave more out – to encourage more viewings”. So, we looked at their listings to see exactly what that agent meant. We found the briefest of property descriptions, 10 images as a maximum on every listing, only one floorplan and no media tours or interactive content at all. Yet surprisingly, this agent’s quoted fee was comparable to the first independent.
I will have to admit, I was flabbergasted by this. Their argument was effectively “they will do less to get more”, which of course is absolute cobblers. Their marketing strategy was qualified by the fact that – they preferred to invest more time in ensuring the sale goes through after a buyer has been found, rather than wasting time and unnecessary resources to find a buyer in the first place. They apparently backed this up by suggesting that as long as the property looks okay on Rightmove, it will sell anyway. Well I’ve got some news for them. No matter how good they are ‘after the event’, without a buyer in the fast first place, all that means nothing. And that definitely not what my friend wanted.
I told my friend she wanted to give her property the best chance of finding a buyer, and accordingly to try to get the agent who offers the best marketing would obviously be the best course of action. Good quality photos, a good write-up, floorplan, and a media tour (which can dramatically increase click through rates) were all good things to have.
OUTCOME
She eventually negotiated a satisfactory fee with the first independent. She got her floorplan and media tour thrown in. It sold within three weeks and is now off the market -moving swiftly through to an exchange.
So is doing less really isn’t a strategy to win new business? Not really.
I would imagine my friend is a typical example of the selling public and these days every vendor expects more from their agent. If you’re not providing clients with marketing that includes bells and whistles you’ll be losing out. It’s competitive out there and if you’re spending a fortune getting the valuations in the first place, why lose out by not at least offering to throw the ‘kitchen sink’ at marketing your client’s homes. The results will come. Better fees and market share awaits those who invest a little more!
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