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When it comes to groundbreaking stuff in estate agency we are usually at the forefront! Becuase of this, we get picked up by the press in a number of areas, and we work hard to stay noticed.
One third (34%) of properties currently for sale have been reduced in price since first coming on to the market, says property portal Zoopla. But the proportion is down from 37% in February.
The average discount is £19,012, or 7.5% of the original asking price – £500 less than in February.
The portal estimates that £2.9bn has been knocked off current asking prices in total, with £1.3bn in reductions in London alone.
Newcastle tops the list of places where the biggest discounts are currently being offered by sellers with average reductions of 11.1% (£22,151). Sellers in Liverpool have also made large concessions, knocking 9.2% (£14,031) off their original asking prices on average.
Rotherham has the highest proportion of discounted properties for sale, with 43.9% of sellers having cut their asking prices at least once. Other areas with a high proportion of asking price reductions include Swansea (42.5%) and Barnsley (41.6%).
* Yesterday, Zoopla announced it has acquired UpMyStreet, one of the longest-standing property information websites, for an undisclosed sum. Launched in 1998, UpMyStreet was one of the first property websites in the UK, carrying local information about places to live.
With immediate effect, users of UpMyStreet will be re-directed to Zoopla. The acquisition will be added into the mix when Zoopla’s own merger with the Digital Property Group completes – expected within the next few weeks.
See the story here - Estate Agent Today
Another amazing month in April. I won't bore you too much with figures though as conversion rates were pretty much the same as March 2012. But suffice to say, we increased amount of houses on the market and therefore sales also increased, meaning we broke all of March's records! So that's 3 records in the last 3 months! And they are still telling us the market is not very good...
One thing we have been asked about is when we are selling so many houses, why are some properties still sticking on the market.
So, I am going to try and address that now.
It's a difficult one to be honest. I suppose the best way to look at it, is that houses are products at the end of the day. It is always very difficult for owners to look at their property like this, as a house has many memories and emotional ties. But it is a product and MUST be viewed in this way to be able to start looking at why your property isn't selling.
So, let's look at some other products; a car, a TV and a Mars Bar...
What is needed to sell these items?
Well. Firstly, the most important thing is coverage. What I mean by that is making sure you have the product advertised to as big a market as you can. So, take Sony, Panasonic & Samsung - you will all have heard of these brands - and these are (probably) the most sold TV's out there. But have you ever heard of Teknika? Probably not. But there is a TV brand that goes by this name, but from what I can see, they only sell these TVs in Tesco. Therefore, the amount of these TV's sold is much lower because their coverage is not as great as Samsung, etc.
Secondly, let's take the car. If you were to sell your car, then you wouldn't allow someone to view your car with crisp wrappers or other such things lying around. You would make sure it was as presentable as possible. (You would also get the best coverage on a website like 'Autotrader' and therefore the best chance of selling it - if you put it in your local paper, you will either not be able to sell it, or get less than you would have done on Autotrader...)
And thirdly, the Mars Bar. Another product which needs coverage and good presentation to sell. However, what if a Mars Bar was priced at £3? How many do you think would sell when they are on the shelf alongside a Twix, a Galaxy bar or a Kit Kat? I would be surprised if any were to sell. This is simply because when people have a choice and they are going to get a similar result/outcome/product for a significant amount less, they will go for the lower priced option. If a Mars Bar was 60p and all the other above chocolate bars were 50p, then, me personally, I would go for the Mars Bar, because for me, a Mars Bar is worth the extra money.
The same goes for houses. You have to offer good value for money compared to your competition.
So, if you have the coverage and the presentation right, but you aren't getting interest in your product, then it must be the pricing that is wrong.
If you are happy with the presentation of your property, then that is the first hurdle jumped.
Secondly, you have to look at your coverage - if you are on Rightmove, then we would suggest that your coverage is sufficient. However, we are fully aware, and we must make customers and potential customers aware, that we do not advertise in the newspaper or have a window display, so there is an argument that, as online estate agents, we don't have full coverage. (Although, anyone who is serious about looking for properties would surely be looking on Rightmove!)
So, if you are happy with the above 2, then there is a strong possibility that the price of your property needs to change to start attracting interest and secure a sale.
As mentioned at the start, we are breaking all kinds of records with regards to selling properties over the last few months. So, with this in mind, if you are not getting interest in your property with all these buyers out there, then the price must be too high.
We would encourage all homeowners to look objectively at their property. And make sure your property offers the very best value for money compared to everything else on the market. If you feel it does offer the very best value, and it is still isn't selling, and none of the other properties are selling, then we would suggest that everything is overpriced in that area and you have to be the one to take the lead and bring the price down.
Remember, if the coverage and presentation boxes are ticked, then the only thing remaining is the price.
If you're thinking of selling, or trying to sell your property with us, or another agent, then get in touch and we would be happy to discuss the pricing with you.
You can reach us on 0800 840 9565 or enquiries@hatched.co.uk.
Every year is the same. In fact, ever since my days as a young estate agent in the late 90's...
Dozens and dozens of customers who are trying to sell their house, think that Easter is a busy weekend and busy period for buyers looking.
However, it is actually one of the slowest periods of the year for buyers out viewing. I would say, apart from late November and December, it is the quietest weekend for viewings of the year...
Some stats to back this up:
2011. The Easter weeked in 2011 saw just 36 viewings being made by Hatched (and that includes the Friday & Monday). Two weekends before this, saw 114 viewings made and 2 weekends after Easter 2011, saw 99 made (and these were the viewings on just the Saturday and Sunday!)
This year, we have 54 viewings booked for this weekend (and that includes Good Friday & Bank Holiday Monday). Last weekend, on just the Saturday and Sunday, Hatched booked 76 viewings, while the previous weekend saw 102 viewings booked.
So, as you can see, Easter weekend, and the weekends either side, aren't that great for finding a buyer.
So if your house doesn't get any interest over these weekends, then don't panic too much. Give it a bit of time and the viewings will start to flood in again in over the weekend of the 21st April...
In the meantime, have a great Easter!
April already! Where does the year go...?
March was a brilliant month and records were broken all over the place.
We sold more houses than we have ever sold before. We put more houses on the market than we ever have before and we made more viewings in the last quarter than any quarter previously.
In total, we put 121 properties on to the market in March and agreed sales on 68 properties. And we made over 2,200 viewings in the 1st quarter of the year.
Those are stunning figures and in total this year we have agreed sales on well over 60% of properties. Conversion of 'instructions' to sales is one of the most important stats for the general market as it gives a really good indication of what the level of activity is within the housing market. A good conversion rate, would be considered as anything over 50%, so this shows that the market seems to be flying at the moment, regardless of what the media says!
As a comparison, in late 2008 (the bottom of the market), conversion rates were as low as 15%-20% on average and as low as 2% or 3% in some areas of the country.
The lettings market is also busy as well, which is unusual, because if sales is busy, then lettings is normally quiet and vice versa. We're not complaining though...!
And to top it all, we have been shortlisted for the ESTA's (Estate Agent of the Year Awards). The grand final is towards the end of April, so we will let you all know how we get on...
It's been another great start to a year for Hatched.co.uk and the rising popularity of online estate agency continues to grow.
February stats are in and they look really good again. Do not believe everything you read in the papers (apart from the good stuff!).
At Hatched, instruction levels are up by just a smidge, but sales are up a whopping 85% compared to last year. In fact, February 2012 was our best ever month for volume of sales agreed!
Our conversion rate is up at a huge 68% - that is sales agreed compared to new instructions and average sale agreed price is 96.76% of asking price, which is also very pleasing for both us and our customers.
Viewings compared to last year were up 32%, which is strange. You would expect viewings to be up by the same amount that sales are up by, but maybe this shows that last year, people were much more cautious about buying a property. We get the impression from many people that we speak to, that they are just fed up with waiting for the market to settle and have decided that this year, they are just going to get on with living their lives and buy and sell their house.
You can also see above that instructions are a little down. We would expect a 30% rise in levels of new properties coming on to the market, but maybe this is also fueling a bit of a recovery.
Remember, we sell properties online all over England & Wales, so these are not figures relating to just a small section of the country - we are experiencing high demand in every part of the country.
It is still price sensitive though and those that pitch their price too high, will not sell. There are still pockets of the country with an awful conversion rate of less than 5%, but owners of houses in these areas seem unwilling to bring their prices down in line with what the market has done. Either that, or the local estate agents aren't advising their customers correctly.
In any case, if it wasn't for that extra day, we wouln't have beaten our previous record, so it was well worth it!
It is something we should have done years ago, but better late than never we say. We have finally got round to creating a blog and we will be updating it on a regular basis, so watch this space!
We have just launched our new company video:
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