How to inspire confidence in your customers
With Industry reports and the media all talking about the recent fall in property prices what should you be doing in order to maintain momentum, increase your listings and ensure that your customers are confident?
Brought to you by Owen Burns, Managing Director of The Academy
In the first instance, you should go back to all your live sales who are waiting to exchange and reassure both your buyers and sellers that much of what is reported is based on an average spread across the country so does not necessarily reflect local conditions accurately. Any home that is in demand in any area will sell for a good
price irrespective of market conditions. Equally, if you are trying to sell a home where there are many similar properties for sale, you will have to ensure that your valuation is precise and your marketing is interesting and appropriate for your target buyers. In the vast majority of cases, a well presented property, appropriately priced and
properly marketed will sell.
Reassure your customers that despite the fact that property prices fell 2% on average nationwide, in many areas prices continued to rise, albeit at a slower rate. In Greater London for example, prices actually rose 1.3% and if the property market is looked at as a whole over a year, it is still growing at about 1% per quarter.
Also, this news needs to be looked at in a greater context i.e. the U.K. is still experiencing employment growth, we have low interest rates and the development of new houses is still failing to meet government targets which mean that in greater terms, the market is still buoyant. Identify all the properties that have been sold in your area over the last 2 months. Try and source as many examples of different properties as possible – by showing these to existing and prospective customers you will illustrate that the market locally is still in business.
Go back to any prospects from the last six months, especially those who you know are moving for the third or fourth time. These buyers are the most likely to have benefited from the house price rises over the last 15 years so will view a slower market as a good time to move.
In order to maximise these opportunities and inspire your customers you will need to start implementing them today – another day, another negative report in the media. Don’t wait until your customers have completely lost confidence and start pulling out of sales – communicate, communicate, communicate. You are the property market expert and will have seen difficult times before – use your knowledge and experience to demonstrate to your customers that you have ideas and solutions to make this a great time for them to move home.
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