Here Is Why Your Home Is The Only One Still Unsold In Ireland
You probably noticed that the media keep talking about how the Irish property market is booming and how easy it is today for homeowners to sell their property…
But that is not what’s happening to you, right? Keep reading and find here the real reasons why YOU are struggling to sell. And what you can do to resolve the situation.
PROBLEM 1: LOCATION – NO CITY? NO PARTY!
The first problem is the most obvious of all. The house you’re trying to sell is not located in close proximity to a major city or town.
“The TV keeps talking about Dublin but that is a different market, another country altogether” – commented Mr David W., a vendor we recently met in Lismore, Co. Waterford, whose home has been for sale for almost a year. “Down here there is no boom at all” – he told us the day we were at his property to produce a 3D Tour.
Maybe your property is not that close to Dublin either nor to any other Irish city. But it’s still located at a reasonable commuting distance (30 mins to 1hr)… yet, not many viewings nor offers received.
Why is that?
The easy answer is that there is low demand, as most buyers have jobs in urban areas and aim to buy as near as possible to their workplace.
On the other hand, unfortunately for you, those who may consider buying further away, have to face 3 more serious obstacles:
– It can be tricky for buyers to find your property Online in the first place
– Many Real Estate agents present properties poorly and make buyers’ life difficult
– For buyers working in town, it can be challenging to reach remote areas for a viewing, unless taking time off work.
PROBLEM 2: POTENTIAL BUYERS WON’T EASILY FIND THE AD FOR YOUR HOME AS DAFT & MYHOME ARE DUMB
(NO OFFENCE, THEY’RE JUST MACHINES)
Let’s see how the Online house-hunting research (doesn’t) work. 92 % of people start their property hunt on the Internet. In Ireland, this translates into “people start their search on Daft and/or MyHome”. The two websites are indeed the most important tool that your Estate Agent can use to source potential buyers.
So, how do Daft and MyHome work? Straight answer: like machines… so they’re not made to be flexible.
Let me give you an example of what this lack of “intelligence” could mean for the house you’re trying to sell:
Eg. Paddy is ready to buy a property for his young growing family. He works in Cork City and he’s looking for a 3/4 bed SemiD or Detached house. He’s not very familiar with the surrounding areas and does not have any particular location in mind. He’s happy to commute by car within one hour drive to Cork City and would consider any place within this radius.
On this basis, the first thing Paddy does is going on Daft and start the search:
- He selects Co. Cork —> Cork City Centre + Cork City Suburbs + Cork Commuter Towns
2. As a result, he gets a list of “X” number of properties ALL located in Co. Cork
Now, do you remember Mr David, the owner of the house in Lismore? What has just happened right now to his property?
Lismore is a lovely little village that a young family like Paddy’s may consider as an option since it’s located just under one hour drive from Cork City, the closest city to the village.
The thing is, Lismore is located in Co. Waterford and Daft is not going to show the Ad of Mr David’s house to Paddy. The filter “show results of properties in Co. Cork – Cork City Suburbs&Commuting Towns” works too well indeed and every other option stays out of it (that applies to Lismore as well as all the villages on the Waterford side of the county border).
In fact, every person performing a search like Paddy’s could be a potential buyer gone lost for Mr David. The property may be the most suited place for his budget within one hour of Cork. But still, the fewer people can find and view the Ad in the first place, the fewer chances to sell for Mr David. As simple as that.
The same applies if your house is located, for example, in one of Dublin commuting counties.
This geographical research “restriction” is just an example of many possible technical barriers that could impact the number of viewings that your Ad receives. All the “Classified Ad” websites like Daft and MyHome work in the same way: when an Ad is listed, some filters are applied to it, such as address, features, price etc. The search engine will then show results based on the preferences chosen by the user that match EXACTLY those filters.
An “automated” perfect match is a great tool for users to get a quick list of potential properties. However, it can cut out any alternative (like Mr David’s house) which could be a valid option for the person who made that search, if only that property had come up in the results.
That’s when the “human intelligence” of Estate Agents should come to the rescue: to make sure that, at the very least, they get the most out of all the Views that your online Ad receives.
Here we get to Problem n. 3
PROBLEM 3: POOR PRESENTATION OF YOUR PROPERTY = NO ENQUIRIES
Let’s suppose that a potential buyer has landed on the Ad of your property, despite all the bugs and barriers that websites like Daft and MyHome can present. When this happens, it’s crucial that your Estate Agent follows all the necessary steps to:
1. Turn these “traffic” (people who landed on the Ad) into enquiries (calls or emails) to gather the contacts of potential buyers
2. Turn these enquiries into an appointment at the property with Qualified Buyers who are most likely to make an offer
Unfortunately, it is at this very point of the process that many Estate Agents make the biggest mistakes.
Here is why:
1. The Ads are not properly created with the UNIQUE and MOST IMPORTANT objective of converting “traffic” into enquiries:
The description of the property is often standardized and repetitive (“Tony Estate Agent is proud to present…”), with a boring list of each room’s measurements, written by someone who does not have copywriting skills and with no clear “Call to Action” for the user.
In fact, the description should written as an engaging story that catches the reader’s attention and explains why that property is UNIQUE, why it is worth to enquiry about it and prompts them to do it fast for a specific reason (ever heard of “when it’s gone, it’s really gone” or anything like that?). Even the silliest reason is better than no reason at all…
Everything in the text should focus on making the user click on “call or email NOW” so that the agent can access the contact details of potential buyers (leads) for any following step.
2.The Ads are not effective in making understand potential buyers how the property REALLY is:
Let the “description” aside, they say that one image is worth a thousand words. And that’s very true. If copywriting is not your Agent’s cup of tea, he should at the very least provide the best possible quality pictures.
House hunters are going through an emotional process and what they love doing is dreaming of their new home. And high quality “Visual Contents” are definitely the most important part of a property Listing.
But once again, that’s where lots of agents miserably fail too. Many prefer saving money on professional photos and take a few pics themselves, often with a low-quality device (phone) and with no clue of how proper photos should be actually taken. The end result is that photos don’t show the property the way really is.
The consequence is that low-quality images attract only NON Qualified Buyers: people who don’t have a clear understanding of how the property is. They may end up contacting the agent “to get more info” but then, when viewing the property in person, eventually discover that it’s not at all what they expected. Wasting your time and hopes to sell.
Or even worse, with bad pictures, potential buyers are not persuaded at all to make a call or enquiry by email (remember above? that should be the objective of a properly made Ad!).
And that’s how the formula for self-destruction starts:
The least enquiries are received —> the least appointments are made —> the least offers are placed —> the longest the time to sell —> the lowest the selling price
PROBLEM 4: BUYERS’ FREE TIME CLASHES WITH AGENTS WORKING HOURS
The last big issue is the simplest of all. Most people work 9am-5pm, Mon-Fri, + commuting time to get from A to B. That applies to most Estate Agents as well. Which means that, for buyers, the time span to view a property in person is very limited, unless they take time off work. Nobody likes working evening times or weekends, but at the very least you should choose an agent who does so!
So, to recap:
– Your property is not located in a highly hunted area
– Lots of potential buyers do not find the Ad of your property because Daft and MyHome are as flexible as a titanium bar.
– The ones who eventually land on the Ad of your property do not enquiry because the presentation (description and images) is not attractive.
– Buyers who actually enquiry may end up never visiting your property because logistics for viewings in person can be challenging due to location and clashing working times.
SO, WHAT CAN BE DONE TO SOLVE THESE PROBLEMS AND HOW?
LOW VISIBILITY ON DAFT? “HACK” THE SYSTEM AND GET YOUR PROPERTY ON THE HOMEPAGE!
If traditional Ads can get lost within filters and searches of any sort, resulting into few views and even fewer enquiries, you now have a UNIQUE chance to bump your property straight onto the Homepage of Daft.
In fact, only Ads featuring 3D Tours are now listed into a dedicated area of the website, so-called “Virtual Viewing” page, which is accessible from the menu on the Homepage.
That means that your property has the unrivalled opportunity to appear in front of a much wider audience of potential buyers, who regularly check this popular page to see what properties can be viewed through a 3D Tour. Also, should there be other properties for sale in the same area, only the Ad with a 3D Tour will show here, giving you a strong competitive edge over other Sellers.
POOR PRESENTATION BY YOUR AGENT? WITH A 3D TOUR, GET 4 TIMES THE ENQUIRIES!
Good quality copywriting and photos are seldom found together in the set of skills that Estate Agents put at disposal. That’s why 3D Tours can do the trick: more than any word or still image, only a 3D Tour can tell the full story of your place.
In fact, research done on leading US and Australian websites, where 3D Tours have been around for a while, show that Ads featuring dynamic visual contents like 3D Tours generate 4 times more enquiries than traditional Ads.
REMOTE LOCATION AND CHALLENGING VIEWING TIMES? LET US DO THE MAGIC!
Technology is not (yet!) good enough to physically tele-transport your house into Dublin city centre… But what it does is giving potential buyers a chance to “Visit Your Home Like If They Were Really There”. If the mountain will not come to Muhammad, then Muhammad must go to the mountain. That’s the magic of our 3D Tours. Comfortably sitting on their couch, potential buyers can visit your place with their phone, tablet, PC or – for the most tech-savvy – even through Virtual Reality goggles.
A 3D Tour is the only way to allow local, remote or even overseas buyers to visit your property at any time, wherever they may be.
If your property is competing with many others in the area, which one do you think will have most chances to attract buyers who are not living close by?
If you’re still doubting the power of 3D Tours, the easiest thing to do is trying it yourself. Visit now one of the many properties we helped selling in Ireland!