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Reputation

The Estate Agent Magazine Helping sellers & landlords choose the right estate agent

Tips on ‘Pricing it Right’ How View Agents can help you find an estate agent

MEET Tim Goodwin

What are the qualities of a

successful estate agent?

Estate agent interview

Preparing your home for sale/letting

The role of a seller

Get an insight into the thoughts and views of a successful estate agent

Every home is unique Check out some tips in getting your home ready for viewings

Get some tips of what your role is as a home seller or landlord

Reputation The Estate Agent Magazine - 2022

PRICING IT RIGHT

Do your own research Use a property portal and try and nd some comparable properties on the market or recently sold/ let. However, this is ONLY a guide, as market conditions vary and no two homes are identical. You will also need to take into account that the ‘asking price’ is not the ‘sold/let price’.

Pro Tip Call in an expert This is the best option. Agents sell/let homes for a living. An experienced local estate agent will be able to guide you on a price range & should back that up with comparable sales/lettings.

Priced too high? You may not attract as many buyers/tenant viewings and may stay on the market longer, this may lead to potential buyers/tenants thinking there’s something wrong. On rare occasions, you might nd a buyer or tenant who really wants it. You also have more room to negotiate.

Priced too low? You may sell/let it faster but your goal would be to get as much as you can. Look for a happy medium. There is a misconception that if you receive an asking price offer early on, that you’ve priced it too low. In many cases, it simply means you priced it right. Remember, the right estate has the skills to negotiate the highest price for your home. If you require help choosing an estate agent, you can use our free concierge service, contact us at valuations@viewagents.com and we’ll help you choose an estate agent

2 - Reputation The Estate Agent Magazine - Feb/Mar 22

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Contents 2 Pricing it right 4 Meet Tim Goodwin 6 Preparing your home

Meet

8 Role of a seller 9 Area Spotlight 10 Choosing an estate agent

Tim Goodwin

Preparing your home for sale/letting

From the CEO We are excited to bring you this edition of View Agents Reputation Magazine. We hope we can offer home sellers and landlords some additional information in helping them select their next estate agent.

Domenic Versace

Human VS Technology. Prop Tech expert, Simon Whale, delivers a very insightful perspective on how technology is shaping the real estate industry

The role of a seller

CEO View Agents

What is View Agents? For home sellers & landlords We help sellers and landlords search and choose an estate agent to sell, let or manage their home. Visit viewagents.com For Estate Agents View Agents is a reputation management platform speci cally for estate agents. Helping estate agents Collect, Manage & Promote reviews & reputation. Our goal is to help agents grow their business and improve their online reputation.

CHOOSING the right estate agent

SUPPORTED BY

ARE YOU AN E S TAT E A G E N T ?

kerfuffle.com CONTRIBUTORS

Interested in your own reputation magazine?

Get in touch sales@viewagents.com

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“All

313 High Street, Bangor, Gwynedd, Wales www.tppuk.com 01248 355333 Of ces: Bangor, Caernarfon, Llangefni, Holyhead

How did you get into real estate? Do you remember your rst day? Although it is over 40 years ago I actually do! I spent a summer before going o to do my degree at my father's estate agency and was sent up three ights of stairs to do the printing for the window displays on an old heat printing press. My father had just purchased a Polaroid camera & thought it was revolutionary that he could get an instant colour photograph. How times have changed!

What makes you (as an individual) di erent from your competitors: Estate agency has been my only career so in one phrase it's “A passion for property.”

TIM GOODWIN BANGOR Wa l e s Like most estate agents, being part of the community is important to me. Having just turned 60 I still like to stay active with a little bit of cycling & trying to improve my golf. I gave in to my wife in lockdown & after years of gentle persuasion bought a dog. With all the lovely walks Anglesey has to o er, we spend plenty of time on the beach trying [but failing] to teach him how to come back to a whistle.

Tim Goodwin Director at William & Goodwin tim@tppuk.com 40years + estate agency experience BSc Estate Management, RICS, FNAEA, MARLA, CPEA

you need to have integrity, be honourable & trustworthy

“

What makes you di erent from your competitors? Being selected as the only agent in our area to be Members of The Guild of Property Professionals makes us unique. But we also utilise technology and modern selling tools, whilst still standing by our traditional estate agency values. I believe this is fundamental to us achieving considerable repeat business. The fact that we can o er a full range of services from sales, lettings, new homes or auctions not just for residential properties but also commercial, agricultural and land makes us the ultimate one-stop destination for people's property needs.

What do you recommend to sellers/landlords in preparing their home prior to marketing? Try and look at the property through a prospective tenant/ buyer's eye. Simple jobs can often help its presentation. A cut back of the hedge on the front drive or a lick of paint in the hall can often mean the one chance you get to make a rst impression is greatly improved.

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by working together & helping each other we achieve better results

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What are some important questions a seller or landlord should ask you on a listing presentation? Whilst questions such as ‘how much can I get for my property’ & ‘how long a contract do you need’ are obvious, think of the presentation as an interview. Ask questions like ‘what would you do to market my property that makes you stand out from the rest,’ ‘how much experience have you & the team who will be marketing my property have,’ or ‘what % of the sale price to original asking price have you achieved in the last 12 months.’ Test them on their knowledge of the area and the justi cation they can provide with regards to the gures they are suggesting.

How much of a team e ort is it when selling or letting a home? The answer is completely. Every team member has di erent strengths and a good team knows who is best to deal with a speci c task or client. I know it sounds a little trite but the team I work with really does feel like a family and by working together and helping each other we achieve better results.

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Williams & Goodwin

What is the best way of valuing a home? The area I work in is very diverse and the properties I go to in a day can vary from a 1 bedroomed at below £100,000 to a water-fronted property at over £2M, so it is essential to carry out research before the appointment. A quali cation of what the property has to o er when booking the valuation helps prepare comparable evidence of similar properties we have sold in the area. Obviously, an intimate knowledge of the area comes from experience but trends and popularity of areas can change very quickly. Whilst comparable past sales are useful, valuing is a di cult skill as you need to be able to predict the future based on the past, so I believe you need to be very much involved in the day to day activities of the o ce, to fully understand what type of property is likely to have a demand and re ect this in your valuation.

What constitutes a great marketing campaign and how do you execute it? Anyone who worked in estate agency 30 years or more ago will remember the phrase “Hot Box” which was a simple card index system of able and willing buyers every negotiator had on their desk. Whilst computers and the internet have provided great additional marketing tools, so often these are just reactive devices and a proactive approach can still be used alongside such a campaign. We immediately work our database as soon as we are instructed; picking up the phone and speaking to people we know who are looking for that type of property and generating interest long before a generic mailshot is sent, or the property appears on the internet. If considering a marketing campaign for a property, make it eye-catching, if considering a marketing campaign for a business, make it memorable. Some of the company marketing promotions we did over 10 years ago are still talked about today.

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Listen to the customer

How much emphasis does your agency place on sta training?

It's essential. We make it part of any job o er that new starters have to complete basic training from the induction process when sta start, through to mentoring and o ering nancial incentives to progress to a higher benchmark. When you consider the fact that property is so often an individual's most important asset, it never ceases to amaze me how little quali cation there needs to be for people to enter our industry. I strongly consider estate agency to be a profession and as such, amongst other things, professional quali cations are required to substantiate such a belief. Even after years in the business, hardly a week goes by when I don’t learn something new.

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The team I work with really does feel like a family

“

How important is having a good reputation in this industry? To me, the answer is obvious if you look at the question in reverse. Why would you ever use someone with a bad reputation? I remember coming into the o ce recently to see a bunch of owers on the front desk. When I asked who they were from I was told it was a vendor for whom we had completed a sale that day. I then asked who the box of wine in the kitchen was from to be told it was the buyer of the same property. When you have both the buyer and seller thinking you have done a good job that’s when you know you are getting a great reputation. What qualities do you need to be a successful estate agent & why? Firstly you need to have integrity and be honourable and trustworthy as this will lead to you being held with respect. Having extensive experience in the area you cover helps provide knowledge, and by being approachable people will feel at ease in asking you questions or for advice. An old director of mine, from a military background, once said to me, time spent in reconnaissance is time seldom wasted and those words still ring true today, so preparing properly for an appointment with comparable evidence and knowledge of clients’ needs is essential. I said earlier that no two days are the same, and likewise, no two clients are the same, so use the precious time to listen to the customer. If you can establish what they really need and deliver that expectation, success will automatically follow.

What are the key aspects when negotiating a house sale/let? With knowledge and experience you start to look at the full picture. If the o er is lower than a vendor expected, see if you can help the seller make up the di erence elsewhere. Enquire if factors such as time scales and ability to substantiate an o er are more important than the nancial sums involved. If the prospective purchaser needs to increase, provide justi cations for them to do so, for instance when an extra £5,000 is broken down to a monthly mortgage re-payment sometimes it does not seem as much.

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letting your property?

CLICK HERE TO BOOK A FREE PROPERTY VALUATION

top tips to 8 prepare your home for selling/letting

Your home needs to be well presented, ideally, look better than the competition, and have a neutral theme to appeal to more buyers/tenants tastes ‘Your goal is to present a tidy house that’s lled with natural light, feel spacious and practical' In fact, in most cases, to make your home appealing, you don’t need to spend loads of money. Some simple changes can make a big difference between your home sitting unsold until you eventually reduce the asking price or your home selling almost immediately for the full asking price.

5. Smells sells! Research suggests that smells in uence buyers, therefore use this to your advantage. Placing fresh owers in the kitchen and/or scented candles such as vanilla or cinnamon and even ‘cake baking’ smells have an impact. However strong or over-powering smells will put off potential buyers such as: pets, bins, cooking & smoking. Remember to air the house before each viewing.

PRO TIP

6. Back to basics Buyers want to visualise your home as their home. The function of some rooms can change; a spare room used for storage can become the of ce or a second TV room. Certain rooms hold a greater perceived value, think about converting rooms back to their original use. Remove furniture that looks too big for the room; clutter that isn’t essential to the function of the room will free up valuable space and help make your house looks bigger. Consistent light ttings, ooring and curtains also help.

Think of it as a business transaction, where you are making business decisions.

1. Deep clean the house Make sure it’s done properly, if you do, then you are already a step ahead of your competition. Include dusting, carpets & garden if you can afford it. Try your best to keep it clean & tidy until sold or let!

2. De-Clutter Have a clear-out. This will make your home look larger and a place that buyers or tenants can imagine themselves living in. Make sure there is a clear ow when walking around your home. Try doing a walk-through, as though you were on the viewing.

3. Complete outstanding DIY Small jobs left undone make a huge difference to the potential buyers/ tenants. When they can see you care and look after your home they may offer you more as they can see additional value.

4. First Impressions DO count!

7. Depersonalise your home Think of your home as a show home. These are effective sales tools as they are always anonymous. Buyers/ tenants want to imagine themselves living there, creating their own story. This can be dif cult if overwhelming evidence of you or family are everywhere. Remove some family pictures, trophies, children’s artwork. Your house needs to look lived-in without looking like anyone actually lives there.

8. Neutral tones

Potential buyers/tenants will be judging your house even before they knock on your door! Make sure that the external appearance

Natural light is great, bright rooms appear more spacious than dim/ dark ones. If necessary, use table lamps in rooms that need

is well-maintained and cared for; the outside needs to look as great as the inside. This includes the garden, driveway etc -a tidy, lawns mowed, litter removed and so on. Walk up & down your street and compare it to your neighbours.

a little lift. Colour is personal, it’s best to go with neutral colours instead of highly individualised interiors. Creating a blank canvas helps buyers imagine how they would live in it and it will appeal to more tastes.

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7 - Reputation The Estate Agent Magazine viewagents.com

IT’S NOT EVERYDAY YOU SELL YOUR HOME. HERE ARE 3 TOP TIPS TO HELP YOU UNDERSTAND YOUR ROLE AS A HOME SELLER

Viewings

Most home buyers will look at several homes before buying one. You will have competition. Ask your estate agent what they think you need to do to your home prior to the rst viewing. Keep it clean and tidy. There may be occasions where the agent will call you at the last minute for a viewing, where possible be exible. As you will be having potential buyers walking through your home, keep all valuables in a safe place and out of view. If you have pets, it would be advisable to keep them outside as there may be buyers who may not feel comfortable around pets, especially if the potential buyers have children with them. If you have kids toys or obstructions around the house, make sure it is safe to walk around.

PRO TIP

Communication

Always keep the agent up to date on any changes. For example, if you go away for the weekend or you go away on a vacation. This will help the agent if there is a last-minute viewing and they’re trying to get a hold of you. In this situation, it may be advisable to leave a spare key with the agent. If you are planning a family event and you do not want the agent to conduct a viewing, try and give the agent plenty of notice. If you make any changes to the property let your agent know. For example, if you install a new boiler or you x a leaking roof. This will help the agent when asked speci c questions by a buyer. The key to any successful sale is open communication

Ask the estate agent whether it’s best you remain in the home whilst they conduct the viewing. If you do remain home, allow the agent to do their job, they are the experts. Unless the agent asks you to, don’t walk around on the viewing with them, it may make buyers uncomfortable.

Negotiating

Most home sellers have an emotional attachment to their homes. Potential buyers won’t have that attachment, to them, your property is seen as a piece of real estate. Therefore, if the agent submits a low offer, don’t take it personally. The negotiation for your home can vary widely. In some cases the negotiation is straight forward or take weeks of back and forth negotiations. Always keep an open mind and remember that an experienced agent will know how to negotiate for you.

The key to any successful sale is open communication 8 - Reputation The Estate Agent Magazine

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Role of a SELLER

AREA SPOTLIGHT

BANGOR WALES Bangor is one of the smallest cities in the UK & one of the oldest in Wales -its ancient roots date back to the 9th century. It’s a university city with around 10,500 students within a population of nearly 19,000.

AVERAGE HOUSE PRICE (SALES)

£264,526 AVERAGE HOUSE PRICE (LETTINGS)

£718 pcm

Bangor has allegedly the longest High Street in Wales & in World War II during the Blitz, parts of the BBC evacuated to Bangor.

Famous people who were born in the area Thomas Ellis - Welsh Actor Aimee Du y - Singer Sasha - DJ/ Record Producer Aled Jones - Singer, Presenter Daniel Jones - YouTube Star

Ian Whyte - Welsh Actor

Choosing an Estate Agent

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For most of us, our home is the most expensive asset we will ever own. Therefore, it’s important to choose the right estate agent and know you’re in safe hands.

1. Not all estate agents are the same Choosing the right estate agent is a very important decision, there are differences between all estate agents. Carry out your due diligence before choosing, here are some examples of how estate agents may vary: • Levels of service • Marketing ability • Knowledge / Experience • Professional bodies & quali cations • Fees • Track record

2. Do your research View Agents has over 17,000 estate agents listed and over 350,000 estate agent reviews. It is a comprehensive estate agent search platform, that helps you compare and choose. We advise you to invite more than one agent so that you can get a good understanding of what makes each agent different. If you have dif culty choosing, email us at valuations@viewagents.com and we can recommend agents to you.

3. Ask questions & feel comfortable In some cases, a home sale can take several months from listing presentation to completion. Therefore your relationship with your chosen estate agent is important. You need to feel comfortable communicating with them and make sure you ask plenty of questions. Remember, if your property is being let and then managed by an agent, then that relationship may last several years.

4. Select an agent to sell or let/manage your home Once you’ve weighed up all your options then you will need to select an agent. The agent will then place your property on the market and the marketing process will begin. Good luck!

11 - R e p u t a t i o n T h e E s t a t e A g e n t M a g a z i n e

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We recommend Tim Goodwin from Williams & Goodwin if you’re thinking of selling, letting or require property management Click here to FIND OUT MORE

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