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Your property has been on the market for 6 to 8 weeks and there has been no activity - very few viewers and very few offers. This is the time to review the marketing strategy. When do people reject the house:
- There have been no requests for details - check the frequency and placement of adverts, position in estate agents' showroom, consider an estate agents' board if you at first rejected one, search the Internet for your home using Google as well as your estate agent's own site. Also consider a drop in the price - this could be the factor. Actions to take:
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Call your estate agent - ask them for their view as to why there have been few requests for details. Ask about what they are currently doing to promote your property. Is there another property similar in nature available for less money?
If you have difficulty in finding your property using Google - consider other (paid for) Internet Estate Agencies - take a look at the following sites - HouseWeb, My Property for Sale
- There have been requests for details, but no viewings - Take a good look at the details sheet. Is the photograph good? Is there too much unnecessary detail - there only needs to be enough to convince people that your house is worth a visit. What else is being offered in the price range that is competing - are you "bottom of the range"? Consider changing the details, and if others in price range offer more, consider dropping the price. Take a look at the following:
Number of bedrooms in the price range - The two requirements that home buyers are sure of is how many bedrooms they want and what their price range is, if your house is a 2 bedroom house and all others in the price range have 3 bedrooms, can you convert the study to a bedroom so you have 2/3 bedrooms?
Running costs - Mortgage lenders sometimes go through a budget with prospective (first-time) buyers and give them an idea of the running costs they can afford if they borrow £200,000 (or whatever). This means if the running costs (council tax, electricity, gas bills) are on the details sheet, then these could be putting buyers off. Consider reducing your running costs (and then getting the reductions on your details sheet) by going to Uswitch - probably the market leader in utility bill reduction.
- Viewers but no offers - Here you get the maximum feedback. Watch and listen carefully as people look over the property, when do they decide "no"? Can you do anything about it? Also listen to the reasons that they provide the estate agent with. There may be factors that you had not considered - the carpet you have already taken up to take with you makes the lounge look bare. Get a good friend's honest opinion too - there may be things everyone else is afraid to say.
- Offers that have not gone through to completion - This could be plain bad luck - buyers circumstances changing, but could also be due to surveyor's reports putting large retainers on the mortgage. All subsequent buyers will probably get similar results, so finding out the cause and fixing it is going to be paramount. Note that where (lack of) planning permission is an issue, there are insurances that can be bought to cover these problems. Get your sollicitor's advice on whether this would be suitable in your specific circumstances.
Gain the opinion of your estate agent - do they now feel a drop in price appropriate? Have they reached all potential buyers?
Finally, the last resort - renting this house out as a buy to let property. Obviously there are many factors to consider in this decision, but it may help if you are desperate to move. Check the possibility of a buy to let mortgage here.
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