Does Next Door Really Matter?

When people put their property on the market, most people go to great lengths to ensure it is as saleable as possible. Fresh paint, a tidy garden, new carpets and a kitchen facelift all have their place, along with a host of other pre-sale improvements. These are, mostly, all good and worthwhile.

However, when it comes to saleability, the most important element is “how does it compare to the property down the street that has just come onto the market?” This is because the only person who determines the saleability of your property is the buyer. And buyers buy by comparison. While buyers may have some idea of their ideal property, their overriding motivation is to move house, and they will still do so even if that perfect home does not exist at the time or in their preferred location. So, they will compromise by buying the best property they can, within their budget, that happens to be available, even if it falls short of their wish list.

In other words, the type of stock available influences the type of property people can buy. This is one of the reasons why people usually compromise on location before anything else, if it means they can buy a more suitable or impressive property (school catchment areas excepted!)

The nature of a “hot” buyer is that they need to move urgently. This buyer will typically view about seven properties for sale and with then buy the best of the bunch. So, comparison is critical here, and if your property is going to be the one that buyer chooses, it has to be the best of the seven the buyer views. They need to reject the other six. You need to win both a price war and a beauty parade! Your property must be listed at a more attractive price than those competing six and be somehow “better” than the others too. Only when these two elements are in place, can you regard your property as relatively saleable.

When helping sellers position their property for sale, we take a detailed look at the competition, and we then guide our clients through an understanding of the market from their likely buyer’s perspective. This is one of the many ways in which we work in partnership with our clients, and why we are involved in so many sales locally. Why not contact us for an in-depth review of your own property’s saleability in relation to your surrounding market?

You might be pleasantly surprised!