Is Your Home Ready to Compete for Buyers?
Buyers have more homes to choose from, so making the right first impression matters. From pricing and presentation to photography and marketing, here’s how to make sure your home stands out from the competition this autumn.
If you're thinking about selling your home this autumn, try something before you put it on the market.
Search online as though you were a buyer.
Set the location to your area of Reading, choose roughly the same price range and number of bedrooms as your own home, and see what comes up.
Those properties are your competition.
And right now, buyers have plenty to compare.
Zoopla reported in August that there were 5% more homes for sale than a year earlier. At the same time, buyers appear to be returning after the summer break, with Rightmove recording a 5% increase in buyer demand during the first week of September.
That's encouraging news for anyone thinking of selling. But more choice also means buyers can afford to be selective.
So how do you make sure yours is one of the homes they want to see?
Your first viewing happens online
By the time someone walks through your front door, there's a good chance they've already looked at your property several times.
They've studied the photographs, looked at the floorplan, checked the location and compared the asking price with other homes nearby.
That's why presentation matters before your property ever goes live.
This doesn't mean stripping your home of personality or trying to turn it into a show home. It's about helping buyers see the property rather than everything in it.
That spare bedroom currently storing six boxes, the ironing board and everything you haven't found a home for since Christmas?
> Buyers need to be able to see that it's a bedroom.
Likewise, crowded kitchen worktops can make a perfectly good kitchen look short of space, while an overgrown garden can make buyers see work rather than somewhere they'd like to sit.
A few relatively small changes can make a significant difference to those all-important first photographs.
Price matters when buyers have choice
This is where looking at your competition becomes particularly useful.
A buyer doesn't assess your asking price in isolation. They're comparing your home with everything else their budget could buy.
If £425,000 gives them a choice of several similar properties locally, yours needs to make sense alongside them.
Starting high to "see what happens" can be tempting, but the first few weeks of marketing are valuable. That's when your property appears as a brand-new listing to buyers who may already have alerts set up for exactly that type of home.
If they dismiss it because the price feels out of step with the alternatives, reducing it later doesn't necessarily give you that moment back.
Getting the asking price right isn't about selling cheaply. It's about creating enough interest to get buyers through the door.
Give buyers a reason to choose yours
Two properties can have the same number of bedrooms, similar floor space and almost identical asking prices, yet one attracts far more attention.
Why?
Sometimes it's presentation. Sometimes it's a better garden, parking, a useful home office, a great kitchen or a particularly good position.
And sometimes one has simply been marketed better.
Good property marketing shouldn't leave buyers to work out what's special about your home. The photography, description and overall presentation should make those advantages obvious.
That's particularly important in a market where buyers have alternatives.
Autumn buyers are looking
September has already brought a noticeable return of buyers to the market following the summer holidays.
For sellers, that's an opportunity.
But before rushing to get your home online, take a look at what else those buyers will see.
Would your photographs stand out? Does the asking price make sense? Are your home's best features obvious? And, most importantly, would you want to book a viewing?
If the answer isn't quite yes yet, that's where good preparation and good estate agency come in.
Thinking about selling in Reading?
Talk to WhiteKnights before you launch. We'll look at your property, the local competition and current buyer demand to help you position your home for the strongest possible start.
Arrange your free, no-obligation property valuation with our local team.