I know it’s December. I know it’s generally a quiet time for your industry but I have started house hunting. I expect it to take a while but in the meantime, when I’m doing my research, I have to deal with your sales pitches. On the internet, you suck.
If you want me to take you really seriously, there are a few things you need to understand.
1) no photographs are better than lots of photographs of the surrounding scenery but none of the house
2) out of date information sucks. If you’re selling a property in Clongriffin where a DART station is due to open in autumn 2010, I’d like to know whether it opened or not
3) I hate all capitalised sentences that include the words “REDUCED TO SELL”. I don’t believe them for one thing and anyway, a sale gets made when me and some vendor find a price acceptable to both parties. How much it was reduced before I started negotiating is very unimportant to me.
4) the term 2/3 bedrooms is…how shall I put it….sickening. Either it has 3 bedrooms or it has 2 bedrooms. If it in fact has a third room that doesn’t quite fit legal definitions of a bedroom, then it is not a bedroom. The Slash/Extra Bedroom is not something that sells the house to me. For me, a 2/3 bedroomed house is a 2 bedroomed house.
5) misuse of wide angled lenses does not improve your chances of selling the property because the first thing on my list to check with the property when I see it is what size it actually is.
6) Excessive use of the word “stunning” also reduces your chances. Put simply, very, very few properties in this country are in the realm of “stunning” and if it is in fact, a one or two bedroomed apartment, there is no way it’s “stunning”.
7) pixellated photographs. Please. Do you know how bad this makes you look?
Do not use clichés like “Early viewing is advsied” and “Must be seen to be believed”.
Things I think should be clear in ads:
1) BER rating. You cannot sell a property without this.
2) Current management fees for properties where a management fee falls due.
3) Current state of ownership of the management company where there is one in place. In other words, if the original developer still has an interest, I want to know about it so as not to waste your time, my time or your vendors time. If you think I will continue with a sale where I discover this to be the case, you are mistaken. If there are onerous local rules in place regarding – for example – satellite dishes and clothes lines I want to know about it.
4) Nearest public transport options in time walking and accurate times please. I don’t consider a 25 minute walk to be walking distance for a bus stop.
5) Addresses should be accurate. This means not mixing up postcodes and postal areas.
6) list of contents included in sale.
7) floorplans. Is that so hard in this day and age?
I’ve been renting in this country for more than 10 years. You would not believe what I know to look out for.
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