BULLS EYE
Anthony Wood of Samuel Wood & Co takes a look at what it takes to sell property today and learns a lesson from history.
In 1415 the English archers were a formidable force at the battle of Agincourt - the 600th anniversary of which we commemorate on 25th October, St Crispin’s Day. It is said that each archer was so fast that at any one time he had two arrows in the air and one in the bow. From five thousand archers, that made a lethal hailstorm of missiles. But none was tightly aimed at one target. It was the mass that did the overall damage.
Putting a property on the internet is a bit like a cloud of arrows. There are tens of thousands of properties for sale out there. All one can hope for is that yours will somehow hit the mark. But most sellers want a little more from their estate agent than simply putting their property on the internet. After all anyone can do that. Most knowledgeable sellers demand targeted marketing as well. They want their agent to know the buyers and have a strong idea who will buy and for how much.
Sellers want their estate agent to have a clear idea about value – not because they have used a website algorithm but because they are so knowledgable about the local market that they have their finger on the pulse.
Nor are websites very good at negotiating deals and seeing through transactions – in fact they can do neither. People need to do that. And the better the people the better it is for a seller.
So don’t let your home become one of a crowd. Make it one on its own – an arrow perfectly aimed by a supreme marksman at a well-selected target. That way you will hit gold in the centre of the target. Bull’s-eye.