The 3 items you MUST Have On Your Listing if selling Foreign Property to the British Market

Brits are obsessed with property – they devour TV property shows and listing sites and property magazines. One of the main weekend pastimes in the UK is viewing properties in estate agent windows or walking around show homes on new developments regardless of whether they are actively in the buying market or not. People spend years saving up to get on the property ladder as fast as possible and will buy and sell several properties in an average lifespan. In fact it’s true to say the British economy is more or less built on this home ownership compulsion.

What this also means is that the British are also fairly discerning and pretty clued up when it comes to searching for a property – so if you want to be in with the slightest chance of a precious click on your most recent, expensive, listings upload – there are 3 key things you literally MUST HAVE IN PLACE to be in with a chance…

This may seem totally obvious but we have observed literally hundreds of listings that have NO images – or at best a bad, fuzzy place holder. In the 3 seconds you have to make an impression and grab a potential buyers interest, you are making a terrible mistake if you list an instruction before you have your images in place.

We spoke to buyers at the Second Home Expo and asked if they would consider clicking on a listing without an image and of the 12 people we asked 11 said no, they would scroll straight past – and just one said they would look but only if it was on a resort that they had already been searching on.

It is 100 per cent worth the time it takes to obtain great images of the exterior and interior of the property and all exceptional features, ie terrace, pool and garden – and to also make sure you have the CORRECT IMAGE SIZE for the listing site you are using.

80% of all Rightmove traffic in the UK is on mobile and it is critical the images are size correctly or you could miss whole bits of the image which again looks unprofessional.

We can’t overstate this enough. There is something about the British mentality that means they think in feet and inches and straight lines. A pretty picture and glowing description is not enough. For Brits to really be able to imagine themselves in a property or get a feel for a home they need to see the layout and measurements in a floor plan.

Recent stats from Rightmove states that a staggering 81% of buyers want a floor plan and are quoted as saying they find them “very useful or essential”. We spoke to one prospective buyer at A Place In The Sun Birmingham who said she wouldn’t even look at the listing if it didn’t have a floor plan.

“I would assume that the listing isn’t complete and the agent is not doing a very good job – i.e. they don’t know the property very well and have just got the listing up as fast as possible. It may not even be legally for sale yet and I certainly wouldn’t think all the proper checks and due diligence has been done on it if they haven’t got the layout available at least.”

Buyer also like to see a satellite or other aerial view of the property, so they can see what is along the street, who the neighbours are, how close to the road it is etc. If you are really serious about getting the listing in front of the right buyers – a layout is a critical element.

Having ALL of your information available and correct at time of uploading the listing ensures you have the best possible chance to reach the most amount of people. If you list too fast, thinking you can add your images and floor plan later on, you are missing a huge trick!  When you finally complete it your listing will NO LONGER BE RECENT which means it will stop showing up as NEW in buyers searches and you have missed that crucial promo window!

Delaying your listing to get it 100% right may seem counter intuitive but the experts at Rightmove have analysed their portal data and confirm your listing should be as complete and relevant as possible at upload. If you don’t then you may well be scrolled straight-past, don’t waste it simply for the sake of a day or two to get it right – you have paid for this advertising opportunity after all…

If you really want to give yourself an edge and give your clients the reassurance and trust in your service that they are looking for, consider joining AIPP in membership.