With Rutland, Stamford and South Lincs seeing a booming housing market over the last couple of years (which is predicted to continue throughout 2022), it may be tempting to try and sell your home yourself. However there’s more to selling a house than saying it’s for sale, not to mention a long list of risks for not using an estate agent.
Most people do use an estate agent to sell their country house. There are plenty of reasons for doing so… Selling requires good preparation. It’s also stressful, time consuming and a world of mind boggling laws, processes and local market knowledge. A good agent can be critical to reducing stress levels and securing the best possible price in a timely scale. Find a good one, and their fee is worth every penny. Here’s a few reasons why you should always instruct an agent…
Property knowledge
Unless they’re an estate agent themselves, sellers won’t understand how the local market is performing, how their type of house sells, who buys them, how best to market them to that target audience and how much something is realistically worth. Get this wrong and you won’t sell quickly for the best possible price. A good estate agent has all of the experience necessary to give you the best chance of selling quickly and for the best price.
Setting the price right from the offset
We may be in a hot sellers market at the moment, but that doesn’t mean you can wack a huge premium on a house. It will only be worth what a buyer is prepared to pay. Last year demand was very intense, and whilst we expect there to be an inbalance between demand and supply again this year, buyers may be more cautious about how much they spend due to rising energy prices and the bank rate.
Registered buyers
Estate agents have a good pool of serious registered buyers, especially at the moment because there are far more purchasers than there are available homes for sale.
Conduct viewings on your behalf
We always recommend sellers don’t conduct viewings themselves. This is simply because it tends to make buyers uncomfortable, risking putting them off altogether. Agents are in the best position to arrange the viewings, conduct them and answer any questions. They will always update you afterwards as to how the viewing went.
Various marketing platforms
Sell via an estate agent and you will have access to all of the marketing platforms they use to promote houses to the widest possible audience – not just locally. For example: we advertise locally, we have a press office securing editorial around our houses in the national press such as The Times and Country Life, we list our homes on all of the main property portals, an interactive website, we have global exposure as a result of being part of a huge international network, we have a window display in Mayfair at Fine & Country’s HQ and we appear in Fine & Country’s luxury magazine each month. People buy as much into lifestyle of a property and its location as they do the bricks and mortar, so we utilise sophisticated, intelligent and creative marketing that provides the type of information buyers need to see.
Good negotiation skills
Negotiating with buyers is not for the faint hearted, and something estate agents are highly trained in doing. They are the best equipped to negotiate on your behalf to get the best possible result. It can be time consuming, stressful and complicated – especially if there are bidding wars or sealed bids going on.
Keeping updated on progress
A good estate agent will keep an eye on everybody’s involvement in the process, from others in the chain through to solicitors. Remember, our job is to manage the sales process from beginning to end to ensure a smooth sale for you.
Find Out More
Despite it being a really strong housing market here, there are numerous things to think about to attract significant interest quickly, and then ensure a smooth ride to exchange and completion. For more information about Fine & Country can help, contact Jan or Ildi on 01780 750 200 or e-mail: stamford@fineandcountry.com.
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