How do sell Faster & Higher - Part 6 - The Final Recipe for Success

How do sell Faster & Higher - Part 6

The Final Recipe for Success

So here we are.  Part 6.  Our final frontier to sell faster & higher.  One that is just as important as all the others.  No more. No Less

Feed Your Feminine Side 

I can feel you boys all sighing and rolling your eyes, but stick with it. 

It has been proven that there are gender differences in brains.  These don't always accompany the gender differences in bodies though! Female brains work with emotion, they use empathy more.  Their emotions push to the forefront when dealing with stressful situations. 

Ladies/female brains are fine tuned to detail.  We notice things.  From someone’s shoes, to dirty fingernails.  We are attuned to our emotions and we like to go with our gut feelings. 

We are traditionally, don’t shoot the messenger, homemakers.  That was a product of the past.  The present hasn’t changed us, we just try to do it all, career & children, with this we also want the perfect ‘home’.

No matter what style or type of house you are trying to sell, appealing to your feminine side is so very important. 

I’m not talking about floral patterns in hues of washed out pinks and lilacs, surrounded by lace accompaniments. I’m talking more about the comfort factor. 

Methodical Males  

A male brain works very methodically.  They look for FACT:  "4 walls, a bed that fits, stairs don't creak"  They have the ability to push their emotions away, they work systematically.  

Therefore, we must work these two in harmony:

Consider a room’s functionality first and foremost. (As explored in Part 1)  Then consider its comfort.  These things have to balance, a functionality of a room must be offset by luxury. 

Consider a basic hotel.  There are chains up and down the country that offer a basic level of comfort.  White pillows, white bed linen, blank walls.  Then consider your upmarket hotel, feature cushions, additional bedspread to compliment, luxury fluffy towels, all giving the room depth, all upping the comfort dial!

These extra ingredients make a big difference to the feel of a room, add an emotional level and give a different perspective to your viewers, both male and female.

The Result - The Icing on the Cake

We have covered a large part of assisting you to achieve a higher price in a shorter time.  It works.  Try it.  I would love to know how you get on.  I would love to see your before and after pictures as well as hear your stories.  

I hope you enjoyed my six part series. 

It is now up to you to make the first steps to your future.

It's now up to you to put in some elbow grease to reap rewards. 

Its now up to you to want achieve more.

This is your time to make a real difference.  And it works.  After reading this you may choose to not follow my advice, but what if you had?

I'm Victoria Green.  I give tailored, expert, bespoke advice just like this for free during your Market appraisal. Sometimes we all need a little extra help.  We cover Morecambe, Lancaster, Kendal and all surrounding areas.  

Just give me a call direct on 01524 230722

Or Visit us at

www.v-move.co.uk

How do sell Faster & Higher - Part 5 - Lifestyles: Package it Right

How do sell Faster & Higher - Part 5

Lifestyles: Package it right

Your home will only sell when a viewer has been to look.  In order for this to happen you have to get the packaging just right.  Then it needs to be wrapped in the best paper with the prettiest bow.  

Pretty things attract.  We all know this.  This is why an engagement ring comes in a box and not just an envelope.  Its why we send pretty invitations to our weddings.  It sets the tone.

Your Estate Agent should be ensuring that the right tone has been set with your photographs, your description and their branding.  Bringing in more views online and more views in person.  Attracting the audience, engaging them and teasing a sale from them.

Photographs:

Photographs have to also trigger positive emotions as explored in part 4.  You have to pique their interest.  Draw them in using their desire buttons.  One of the key ways to do this is via photographs.

Photograph by VMOVE

Use ‘lifestyle photographs’.  They are used all over media today.  Almost every single piece of marketing and product/service promotion depicts a lifestyle.  Your house should be no different.

Marks and Spencer, Harvey Nichols and even big brands such as Prada, Louboutin and Chanel all market their products to be desirable.  Adverts that make people want to own, or use, or have.  They inspire you, to believing that by owning, or using this product or service it will increase your happiness levels and your lifestyle (there’s that word again) will be more appealing.

What can we learn & how do we apply this?

At VMOVE, and this is something you can ask your own agent, we include these pictures to help feed this emotional need.

Photgraphs: Magazines & books: 

Photograph by VMOVE

Have you ever wondered what Madonna reads? Maybe what the Queen reads in her spare time?  I bet its not your regular gossip magazine.  So hide these.  Bring out the big guns.  Your local country walks magazine if you are close to the countryside.  More city based, try top of the range GQ.  Just remember to feed your market.  A magazine on country homes and interiors wont cut it in a Penthouse bachelor pad in the centre of a 24 hour city that never sleeps.

Photograph by VMOVE

And books, these are important when trying to sell a lifestyle.  Consider your market once again.  Bungalow, although they are not always just for retirees anymore, a book on learning the spanish language with a local guide to a bustling Spanish town, gives the impression of living a lifestyle where you can afford to travel.

Photographs: Dining room:

Photograph by VMOVE

Photograph by VMOVE

Make your table your feature.  Dress your table.  Imagine you are in John Lewis, you are deciding on your wedding list.  You need to include silverware, crockery, tables and chairs.  How do you know which one you prefer?  They lay them out.  They set a scene.  What happens you are drawn in to the idea of having your table just perfect.  So, off you go tagging the items exactly as they are displayed. They have created a desire.  Next also do this in their catalogues, with their homeware, they dress it well, pull you in, not just wanting a throw but the cushions and rug to match.

Use your best china. Polish your silverware, and sparkle your wine glasses.  Lay the table on a bed of a quality table cloth with a central fresh flowers and a table runner to pull in the colours from around the room.  A seller did a great job of this one for us, while I was beavering away in the living room, they were setting the table.

Photographs: Outdoor

Sunny days are the best days.  Your agent should have asked when the sun is on all parts of your house.  Where is rises and sets, in order to pick out the best time of the days to photograph it.  Even if it is winter on a sunny day, set your scene by dressing your outdoor table.  Clean up your barbecue.  Weed your garden and plant vibrant flowers.  Make people want to spend time there.  Take inspiration from spring summer catalogues from places like B&Q.  How do they sell their outdoor spaces? 

I always have things up my sleeve for my photography visits, last week I photographed a lodge.  The original tablecloth sucked the room of light, and made the room look a less inviting.  It required something cleaner, lighter and a little more slick.  Table was a little worse for wear and with no other linens in the closet, I removed a white duvet cover from the bedroom and used it as a tablecloth.  Nobody knows, and the photographs came out great.

Photograph by VMOVE

I even take props too.  Sometimes homeowners don’t have the time to complete everything prior to the photographs being taken.  Check out this picture:  They took advice from me, but didn’t have time to get everything sorted.  The pictures on the wall are from my staging stock, as is the duvet and dotted around the house was my plants from my home staging stock.  They made a big difference.  Try borrowing from a friend or relative.  Even if it is just for the photographs.  The basic fundamental parts of the house wont change, and after the viewers have been they will still have the property photographs to refer to at a future date.  Positive Reinforcement.  (Honestly, I was listening through my psychology A-levels)

Words

Make sure the wording in your property particulars is positive.  Again, let people feel an emotional bond.  You probably have no control over this with your agent.  A good agent will provide good wording, try challenging them if your not happy.  Make sure they have listened to what you have said about your house during the market appraisal.

A good agent will be ready and armed to prepare your home’s marketing in a way that sells. 

I'm Victoria Green.  I give tailored, expert, bespoke advice just like this for free during your Market appraisal. Sometimes we all need a little extra help.  We cover Morecambe, Lancaster, Kendal and all surrounding areas.  

Just give me a call direct on 01524 230722

How do sell Faster & Higher - Part 4 - Lifestyles: Aspiration and Desire

How do sell Faster & Higher - Part 4

Lifestyles: Aspiration and Desire

This is my favourite part of selling houses.  This is the bit that makes all the difference.

So firstly lets get down to two of the main reasons for purchasing:

Emotional – Things we form an attachment to.  We are human and hard wired to feel emotions.  People act on emotions.  It is the main reasons we give to charities, it is also the main reason we pick the products we do.  For instance we buy holiday because of the happy people on the adverts, we often buy products because of the way they are portrayed in the media.  Emotions are a powerful motivational factor for a purchase.

'Dream Lifetsyles' by Ferrari

Desire – a want, a need, an aspiration.  We purchase things that perceive to promise a lifestyle, a way of life, an answer to a problem, a social status symbol.  For instance we buy designer perfumes to make us feel more desirable, to make us a little more like the celebrity that is endorsing, with the sleek physique, the glamourous lifestyle and the perfect hair and nails.  Car manufacturers are brilliant at creating this desire, BMW, Audi and Mercedes are amongst the best.  They create an aspirational lifestyle within their 30 second adverts to flick the right switches with consumers. To push their ‘buy’ buttons

So if this is our main motivation to buying why aren’t more people adopting this simple technique in selling their houses?

The truth is Estate Agents got lazy.  (I have to say that this does not apply to all, I know many a good Estate Agent, from far and wide check them out on my twitter)  The peak of the previous housing bubble saw the houses walk off the shelves, many before they even touched down on the Estate Agent floor.  Therefore the work involved in selling was pretty much abolished.  Have they recovered and upped the ante?  Some have.  To my level?  I will let you decide.

So the question now is:

How can I create a lifestyle to make my house sell FASTER & HIGHER?

The main thing is to avoid triggers for people to to switch of emotionally.  As we explored in part 2 uncompleted DIY is a trigger.  It means people will start to look more analytically at the purchase and are less inclined to listen to their emotions.  The analytical hat reduces the emotional need.  We automatically hinder our ability to feel.  A survival technique pre-programmed into each of us. 

Expert tricks to ensure you trigger positive emotions:  

Photographed by VMOVE - Lancaster Property

Lighting – You cannot get enough light in a house.  We all know that natural sunlight increases serotonin.  Happy emotion.  Use it. Its free.  Open curtains wide.  Turn on all lights.  Do you have any dark corners.  Light them up. Lamps, wall lights, tall floor lamps all increase the amount of light in a home.  Look at the different types of lights.  Keep kitchen and bathrooms well lit, the use of Spotlights, down lighters or new energy efficient LEDS work best here, go for a softer light with more warmth for living rooms and bedrooms.

Sumptuous fabrics – Have you got a wooden floor? Leather sofas?  Both in the same room?  This can appear a little cold with all those cool to the touch materials.  Add some drama with different textures, floor to ceiling curtains to bring back the luxury or a selection of Mongolian fur cushions, of set with a crunched velvet blanket draped over the sofa.  This gives the room depth and prevents it feeling clinical.  This will evoke feelings of desire for luxury.

Fresh Flowers & plants – literally breath new life into your home – they help with delicate scenting to provoke feelings through smell and plants actually help to calm people while “positively enhancing perception and contributing to well being” (Helen Russell, Surrey University) which is why new office design concepts actually include plants.  




Sell the dream - This often requires a little thought before hand.  Think of luxury brands, of things that people class as ultimate luxuries and make sure they are on display.  The trick is not to go over board but to place things about so that it's recognised as a luxury but not thought about as strategic product placement.  Put out your best designer bottles in your bathroom.  Limit it to one or two.  Borrow empty bottles off friends and relatives.  Do you have a designer coffee machine? Dress it up.  Make it a feature in your kitchen without it being too obvious.  Brew a pot before your viewing and leave out the tools for the job on the countertop.  Create an image of a designer lifestyle.

Space is key:  If you have a small room this could be identified as a flaw.  And can create a negative reaction.  Negative thoughts are powerful.  So make your room feel bigger with these simple tricks: (I’m not taking the beige brigade here either although a light colour will help)

Mirrors:  Sell the dream - This often requires a little thought before hand.  Think of luxury brands, of things that people class as ultimate luxuries and make sure they are on display.  The trick is not to go over board but to place things about so that it's recognised as a luxury but not thought about as strategic product placement.  Include these.  If it works in the room place it facing the window.  This will not only bounce the light around the room but is also seen as good Karma, bouncing negativity back out. 

Reflective surfaces:  Opt for a picture(s) in a frame with a glass front instead of a canvas.  Try laquered vases as opposed to matt ones.  They work in a similar way to mirrors making the place feel much bigger.

Show off the floor: whether it’s a bedroom or a living room opt/or borrow furniture on feet.  The more floor space you can see the bigger it will feel.

Light it up:  As before. Plus they can be angled to all the dark spots in the room or to the reflective surfaces to brighten it all up.  Clever.

Happiness is key.  People like to feel happy.  Happiness breeds more happiness.  Make your viewers happy. 

I'm Victoria Green.  I give tailored, expert, bespoke advice just like this for free during your Market appraisal. Sometimes we all need a little extra help.  We cover Morecambe, Lancaster, kendal and all surrounding areas.  

Just give me a call direct on 01524 230722

How to sell Faster & Higher - Part 3 - First Impressions count - Make them Memorable.

How do sell Faster & Higher - Part 3

First Impressions Count – Make them Memorable.

We have explored the basics, and even the excuses. 

Now lets draw them in.  Tease their imaginations.  Push their curiosity buttons.

Judging a book by its cover.  It is what we all do.  Everyone has an opinion.  In order to optimise your chances of selling it’s about feeding those initial responses, ensuring that they are positive.

It is true.  Buyers have made a decision on purchasing a property In the first seconds upon entering one, so your first impressions are the MOST IMPORTANT during a viewing.

An initial positive response, paves the way to a great middle and nail biting end to a book.  The same is true for your house. The front cover attracts.

Here’s how to ensure a positive response and increase your chances of an offer:

First, Grab your coat and go outside your house, out of the front, walk across the road, turn around and look. 

Look at your house, your next door neighbours and the rest along the street.

This is the first view a buyer will have. 

This is your first impression. 

This is your front cover.

Make it the best front cover you have ever seen. 

You are probably now looking at big things, your looking at your bricks, your windows and your walls. 

But guess what, your buyer isn’t.

They are looking at your garden gate, your front garden, your front door, their initial inspection is about appearances.  The structural stuff they will see much later, even on a second or third viewing.  But for now, its about the feel and overall look of a property.  Lets get it right.  Let’s make them happy to be there:

Front garden -   It’s about grabbing their attention 

Grass:  If there is grass, mow it.  Keep it neat while you are on the market.  There will be more drive by’s than actual visits, it is key to grab there attention and make them want to see more. 

Weeds:  Get rid of them all. Show your buyer that you have kept your garden well maintained.  They will see this and automatically assume that you are house proud and have kept inside to a similar high standard. 

Flowers:  Plant some bright ones. Make it look loved.

Driveway – Remember that your car won’t be there during a viewing so it’s very important that this space is clean.  Sweep up pebble dashing, leaves, tackle those pesky weeds in between the block paving, and my favourite, if you have time:  Power wash too.  It will make a big difference.

Gates & Fences – Often these are faulty, broken, rusty, damaged.  Get them fixed.  This is a boundary to your home, having a working gate and solid fence helps people to feel less vulnerable.  A little safer.  Fix them up.  show them some love.  Every little helps. if there's less to do, there is also less to bargain on, if they like it enough to make an offer.  Think about it.  For a little elbow grease, you can create something people want to see.  But its not over yet... 

Front Door – This is the part of your house your buyer will be looking at closely first.  So, make sure it opens.  Get rid of those creaks! Make it welcoming.  Replace the door furniture to something new, if you have time, get it repainted.  Make sure that your Estate Agent can use this door.  It gives the wrong impression if they have to use the rear/service entrance.

So we have tackled your house, but the first impressions aren’t just for your house.  They are for your area, your street, especially your neighbours. After all, if they decide to buy, your neighbours will soon be their neighbours.

So take a quick look at those front gardens on either side.  Use the same principles as above.  You want it to look neat and tidy, and well kept. 

Neighbouring gardens - You can just ask your neighbours to help you out, while your house is on the market, and politely request that their front gardens are kept neat. 

Sometimes, there may be a reason they cannot do this.  Elderly residents may struggle, so put your best foot forward and offer to clear the weeds or mow their lawn regularly for them.  I have personally done this myself, I have cleared weeds and had a tidy up, with permission of course, and it made a huge difference to the overall look of my house too.  Especially on the photographs.

Finally, you have the house across the street, that will have a big impact on your sale.  When your viewers come round they often head for the window to see the view, to see what they couldn’t see from the street.  This is very true for a bedroom window.

I would like to suggest you complete the same as above, with this house too.  This is the one the new owners will be looking at everyday.  They want this to be a pretty view.  Add bright flowers in a bright pot or two and ask if the owners could display them for you at the front of their house.  The best bit is you will have some fabulous planters to take with you to your new house. #toptip

Now you have your front cover  - your internals should offer the substance and back up to keep them interested and make them really ‘want’ it.

Part 4 coming soon:  Lifestyles: Aspiration & Desire.

I'm Victoria Green.  I give tailored, expert, bespoke advice just like this for free during your Market appraisal. Sometimes we all need a little extra help.  We cover Morecambe, Lancaster, kendal and all surrounding areas.  

Just give me a call direct on 01524 230722