Top tips from the experts on how to get lots of people looking at your property online
In the last 12 months, a slew of online portals have opened up to help you sell or lease your property online. These websites are certainly cheaper than enlisting an estate agent, but they also involve more legwork. Here are some fool-proof ways to get your property noticed online, whether you’re selling up on PurpleBricks.com or simply looking to pimp out your spare room on Airbnb.
Photos
Sarah Arbuthnot, director of property search specialists World Archipelago
When I sold my house online, I paid a wedding photographer to take photos. It’s just a couple of hundred pounds and, in the grand scheme of things when you’re moving house, it’s not that much and it’s not something you can afford to get wrong.
James Taylor, marketing director at Hadley Property Group
Make your home clutter-free and spotlessly clean. The best time to take a perfect photo is on a late afternoon in spring, this will provide the right amount of light, with a softer touch to it. You need at least three prominent photos for your hero shots.
Floorplans
Jo Eccles, managing director at Sourcing Property
Most people are savvy enough to be able to read a floor plan and they now expect it. People searching online are also quite fickle. If it doesn’t have a floorplan or several photos, your audience will assume something is wrong or you’re trying to hide something, and they’ll move on to view pages of other properties which do have the information they’re looking for.
James Taylor, Hadley Property Group
Floorplans are an absolute must, and furnished floor plans are an even better way of demonstrating the property’s full potential. Don’t be afraid to shake it up – the furniture can be different to how you furnish your own home. For example, if your dining room can take a table for ten and you only have a table for four, show a table for ten. If you have a single bed in a double bedroom, ensure the floor plans show a double bed.
Description
Sarah Arbuthnot, World Archipelago
A short description works better than a long one. People want to know how many bedrooms it’s got, how many bathrooms it’s got, back or front garden and parking arrangements.
Nobody ever puts council tax or super fast broadband capabilities on, but people want to know that. Remember you want them to visit your house over someone down the road.
Read it through for spelling and grammar mistakes, too, it should be 100 per cent perfect.
Otherwise you look shoddy, especially when you’re asking someone for hundreds of thousands of pounds.
James Taylor, Hadley Property Group
Keep them short and sweet. Eight to 10 concise bullet points followed by a few sentences that add colour and bring the property to life is plenty – most people tend to skip over the long descriptions.
Multimedia
Graham Lock, CEO at House Network
Gone are the days of taking a single exterior photo and sticking it in the local paper. We are living in the technology age and people want to see galleries with beautiful wide-angled photography, floor plans, virtual tours and online printable brochures. Without all of this, your property will fall behind others listed and harm your chances of selling.