Should I sell my home now? How the current shortage affects your home’s price

2021 was a tremendous year for home price growth in the UK – the strongest since the mid-2000s – with many areas and types of home seeing values increase by double-figure percentages. This means a house bought for £500,000 only two years ago could be worth up to £600,000 today!

The huge imbalance between supply and demand, with many more buyers than homes available, has been the key driver behind these extraordinary increases. If you own a unique home and you’re thinking of selling, you have a rare opportunity to sell your home for far more than its ‘logical’ value.

Chicken and egg

Across much of the country, the best price rises have been at the higher end of the market. Historically low mortgage rates and a desire for extra space – especially as more people have found themselves working from home – has encouraged many homeowners over the past couple of years to upsize to larger homes.

The biggest challenge with the current lack of homes available to buy is that many homeowners can’t find anywhere to move to, so instead are staying put until that dream home comes on the market. This has created a ‘chicken and egg’ situation where the market is facing a stalemate – no one can move if no one is moving!

What’s likely to happen to prices as we move through 2022?

As more sellers decide to take advantage of current demand and put their home on the market, that increase in supply is likely to lead to slower price growth, with Rightmove predicting that average prices will have risen by around 5% by the end of this year, marking a considerable slowdown in price increases compared to the last two years.

At Allan Morris Malvern & Upton, we’re already seeing a significant increase in the number of people inviting us to give them an up-to-date valuation of their home. Therefore, although right now, demand from buyers is still far outstripping supply, we expect this gap to close over the next few months.  As this happens, buyers facing a greater choice will be less willing to pay a premium for their next home, even if they can afford to do so.

Getting the right price for your home

Sell sooner rather than later to get the best price. Of course, no one knows what’s going to happen to house prices in 2022, but early indications are that we just won’t see the record prices achieved in 2021. This means selling now will give you a degree of certainty and avoid you regretting sitting tight later in the year when house prices could flatten out. This is especially true if you’re downsizing or selling a second home, when you can best take advantage of the price differential or the funds you could realise in an early sale.

National, and even regional, house price averages are just that – averages. Every area has its own micro-market, and the price performance of different types of home can vary from one village, and even one street, to another. As your local property experts, we keep a very close eye on the details of the market, so we can best advise you on timing and selling strategy, to help you maximise your selling price.

What’s next?

Let’s have a chat about if and how moving on right now could be the right decision for you. At the very least, we can act as a sounding board to help you make an informed choice. And at best, you could realise a life-changing sum of money from your house sale and move on, secure in the knowledge that you captured the very peak of the market.

You can reach me, Richard Ashton, on 01684 561411 or at richard.ashton@allan-morris.co.uk, and I’ll very much welcome the chance to chat through your potential plans.

How saleable is your home? Try our saleability scorecard and see

Selling a home might not be an exact science, but there are a number of factors that will make a huge difference to how successful your sale will be.

Our experience has shown us that homes that sell quickly and for a good price tend to have certain key things in common, so we’ve developed a checklist that we can use to analyse the saleability of any home. We rate various elements of your marketing approach across five categories, awarding up to a maximum of five points for each element to give your home an overall ‘Saleability Score’.

Using our scorecard, you’ll be able to see for yourself where there may be room for improvement in your marketing. Once you’ve identified which areas aren’t as strong as they could be, you can discuss those points with your agent and work together to turn things around so that your home makes the right impact on buyers.

So, if your home has been on the market for a while and perhaps you haven’t had quite as many viewings as you’d hoped, run through our Saleability Scorecard and see how your marketing stacks up. Set aside a couple of hours, and make sure you have your printed brochure and online listing to hand. Think about every question carefully, and try to look objectively at your marketing materials and how your home is presented. Then give your answers in the form of points, awarding from a minimum of 1 to a maximum of 5 for each bullet point listed under each element below:

1. Your estate agent

Communication and feedback are key to helping you understand how the marketing is going and reassuring you that your agent really is doing their best to sell your home. So:

• Do they call you regularly – at least once a week?
• Do they accompany every viewing?
• Do they give you detailed feedback after each viewing?
• Have they made any suggestions around how you might be able to generate more viewings – other than dropping the price?

2. Your brochure

Your brochure needs to convey the quality of your home, setting a standard and value before the prospective buyer sees it in person. And the photographs have got to showcase a desirable lifestyle, grabbing buyers’ attention and enticing them to view.

• Does the brochure fully represent your home – we usually recommend 16–20 glossy pages – and does it have a luxurious feel?
• Are your photographs professional, and do they sell a lifestyle? The features of each room should be shown in crisp detail, and the images should convey an aspirational feel. In a sitting room, for instance, fires and candles should be lit, fresh flowers put out, and lights switched on to ensure the room looks spacious and bright, but cosy and inviting at the same time. A gently bubbling bath with flickering candles is selling a relaxing and luxurious lifestyle, not just a bathroom. And for kitchen photographs, some fresh baking will bring the image of the room to life and stimulate more than just the buyer’s visual senses.
• Is the written description enthusiastic in tone and full of emotive adjectives? The copywriter should be conveying a narrative that really captures the buyer’s imagination and makes them want to experience your home for themselves.
• Does the floorplan include dimensions and the overall floor area and show the orientation of your home?

3. Your advert

This is your virtual shop window, and with the possibility of hundreds of other homes appearing in search results, your listing needs to stand out.

• Does your main photograph grab a buyer’s attention and encourage them to click for more information? We find that a twilight shot with all the interior and exterior lights on can be a particularly striking image and is often the best one to use online.
• Does the listing have a punchy, eye-catching headline?
• Is the description concise, while still selling the best features of your home in a flattering way?
• Is there a good-quality image of the floorplan, and brochure download button available?

4. The price

If a home is marketed at too optimistic a price, it tends to sit on the market for longer. So you must make sure your home is advertised at a price that both reflects its true value and attracts buyers.

• Is your asking price a round figure, e.g. £950,000, not £949,999?
• Does your home appear at the top of a search in your price range?
• Do you know how your price per square foot compares to that of other similar homes in the area?
• Have you stuck to your asking price, even if your agent thinks you should drop it?

5. Preparing your home for viewings

You must do all you can to make buyers fall in love with your home – from the moment they first see it on the market to the end of their viewing.

• Do you style and tidy the outside – both the garden and your home itself?
• Do you have fresh flowers inside?
• Do you dress all the beds?
• Do you switch on lamps, light candles and have fresh coffee or baking to create a homely and welcoming atmosphere? For more inspiration, take a look at our blog, ‘6 simple steps to prepare your home for viewings’.

Now, add up the points.

If you have a Saleability Score of more than 80, well done – that suggests both you and your agent are on top of your home sale! Just take note of the areas where you might want to make a few tweaks, and if you still find you’re not getting enough viewings, then get in touch with us.

If you’ve scored between 50 and 80, there are probably quite a number of areas that you and your agent could work on. The good news is, this means there’s every likelihood that if you can just make the right improvements to your marketing, you should be able to attract much more interest and start to get some offers coming in.

However, if you have under 50 points, it’s probably time to consider a full marketing makeover. And if your current agent hasn’t already addressed the various challenges, it could be time to switch to one that’s more proactive and professional in their approach. We would be more than happy to discuss how we can help you with this, so please feel free to get in touch with us at any time.

And if you’re feeling a little disheartened by your result, be encouraged by the fact that there are plenty of things you can do to make your home much more saleable – with the right agent on board. The important thing is that you take action right away. If you don’t, your home will simply sit on the market, leaving it at risk of possibly going ‘stale’, which is likely to reduce your chance of getting a good sale price. When buyers see the same home being advertised in the same way, week after week, it gives the impression that something isn’t quite right. So it’s time to grab the bull by the horns!

The first port of call is to speak to your agent, show them our Saleability Scorecard and find out whether they agree with your ratings. It may be that they have their own ideas about the kinds of changes that could be made and are keen to work with you to turn things around.

However, if you don’t get the response you were hoping for, give us a call – we can review your marketing ourselves and give you our expert opinion on what needs to be done to secure a successful sale. Then, once we’ve visited your home to appraise it fully, we’ll come up with a bespoke marketing strategy that focuses on promoting all the best features of your home and relaunch it onto the market in style!

If you’d like to discuss your current situation and find out how we can help you and your home get the sale you deserve, just give us a call on 01684 561411 – or email malvern@allan-morris.co.uk – and we’ll get right back to you.

Thinking of changing estate agents? Our smooth move guide

A great agent will be focused on selling your home at the best price, in a timeframe that suits you. If everything goes well, they’ll put the right value on it, market it effectively, then negotiate and progress your sale so you can move on to your new home as planned – and they’ll make the whole process as pain-free as possible. That’s what we strive to achieve for every one of our clients, and it’s what every seller hopes their experience will be.

But it’s not always plain sailing, and if your home’s been on the market for a while, with no sale in sight, you might be feeling disappointed and thinking of changing agents.

There could be several reasons why things haven’t gone as you’d hoped. Your agent may have seemed like the perfect choice to sell your home in the beginning, but they haven’t quite lived up to expectations. Maybe the viewings you were promised never materialised and now the agent is putting you under pressure to drop the price. Or perhaps they were attentive and positive at the start, but now their phone calls and emails are getting less and less frequent, and you feel as though getting your home sold is no longer a priority for them.

On the other hand, you may think your agent really has done their best, but for some reason things just haven’t worked out, and it’s probably time for a change.

Whatever the situation, if you feel you’ve come to the end of the road with your current agent and you want to switch to a different one, what’s the best way to go about it?

Here’s our handy guide to making the transition from old agent to new as smooth as possible:

1. Be clear on exactly what’s not working for you

It’s often helpful to make a list of what you’re not happy with and what’s been done to address things to date, so that you’re well prepared for a frank conversation with your estate agent. Doing this will also help you be clear on what you want a new agent to do differently.

2. Check the terms of your current agreement

The most common contract between an agent and their client is ‘sole agency’, meaning that only that estate agent has the right to sell your home and claim the sale commission. Check if you have a tie-in period, and what notice you need to give, so you can plan accordingly.

3. Have a forthright discussion with your estate agent

Before you jump straight into terminating your agreement with your agent, have a chat with them. They may have no idea you’re unhappy and disappointed with the way things have gone so far, especially if you haven’t voiced your concerns to them. A good agent will ask for a review meeting with you and suggest ways in which your saleability could be improved. They may offer to re-photograph your home, re-launch it on the portals or suggest a reduction in price.

Whether you decide to give your estate agent another try or terminate your agreement and switch to another estate agent, you’ll feel more in control of your home sale by taking affirmative action now.

4. Shortlist alternative estate agents

If you’re ready to switch estate agents, ask your friends and family which agents they would recommend in the local area and why. Then check out these agents’ portfolios. Are they currently listing and selling homes like yours? Would you be the most expensive, or the cheapest, house in their portfolio? Check out their reviews on Google and Facebook and what their standards of photography and marketing are like.

When you have one or two agents you think would be worth chatting to, call and arrange a meeting at your home.

5. Ask the right questions

Asking the right questions of a prospective new estate agent will furnish you with the right information so you can make an informed decision, and potentially improve your chance of selling and moving on.

Use this list of questions as a checklist to start an open dialogue with the agent:

• Why do you think our home hasn’t sold? Is it the price, the marketing, the presentation…?
• Is there anything you think we need to do or change about the presentation and styling of our home to achieve the best price?
• What will you do differently to our previous agent? This is a really important question, because you don’t want the same challenges you’ve already faced to reappear with a new agent.
• How do you plan to market our home? This should give you an insight into how proactive they are in finding and matching potential buyers, how creative their marketing is and what gives them the edge over other agents.
• How often will you communicate with us, and will it be by call, email or text? For instance, will they phone you with feedback after each viewing? In our experience, when clients aren’t happy with their agent, it’s often because of a lack of communication – and that can be a challenge regardless of whether you’ve been on the market for a week or several months – so get a commitment from them on staying in touch and keeping you informed.
• What kind of agency agreement do you offer and what is the minimum term? If you weren’t happy being tied into your previous agent’s services for several months, you may be able to negotiate more flexible terms this time.

During the valuation meeting, notice whether the agent is also asking you questions. You want an agent to be interested in understanding your situation, as well as your motivation for moving home, so they can tailor their approach to give you the selling experience you deserve!

6. Seal the deal

Choosing an estate agent is like dating – do you like them enough to want to see them again?? When it works best, the relationship between you the client and your estate agent is a partnership – one that will last at least for months, and sometimes, years. You need to feel that your agent has your back and will be your biggest supporter when times get tough down the line, especially in challenging negotiations with a buyer.

Whilst our advice is not to jump straight into a relationship with a new estate agent straight away, if you really feel you’ve exhausted the will, patience and skill of your current agent, then moving to a new agent could be just what you and your home needs.

We’d love to have a confidential chat with you about your options, and we’ll tell you frankly and openly why we think your home has not yet sold and what we think the answer might be. We rarely suggest a price reduction and prefer to use our marketing and styling skills as a first approach, but let us tell you more about those in person!

You can reach us on 01684 561411 or at malvern@allan-morris.co.uk – we’re really looking forward to hearing from you.