Selling a home is never easy, and it gets even trickier when your house is a little bit different.
Travelling through the Baldock, Hitchin and Letchworth areas, the Leysbrook team encounter many houses that have different quirks and styles.
When it comes to selling these houses, a different approach sometimes has to be taken.
In this blog, we will provide five top tips on how to sell your unusual property.
Before we get there though, let’s look into what characteristics push a house into the unusual bracket.
What Makes a Home Unique?
There are many different ways that a house can become unique. These can be big features such as structural changes that go against the norm, roof gardens and interesting renovations. Alternatively, they can be smaller design features that add a unique touch to a house such as an outside bar or a swimming pool.
The first time someone sees a property plays a huge part in their decision to buy, in fact, over two thirds won’t of viewers won’t consider coming back for a second look after a poor first impression.
Something like painting the brickwork a bright colour can make a home really stand out in a fun, quirky way and provide a boost to your chances of a sale straight from the off, or alternatively, it could put someone off completely.
Extensions and conversions can add interesting additions to a home that is often unusual. But it’s not all about things that are been added to a home, some homes are just different.
Older houses often come packed with quirks that are rare among the average house. Properties that have been renovated, such as old churches and chapels are also often unique and can be very attractive to the right buyer.
If you are living in a home that has some unusual features and the time comes round to sell, you may be panicking that it will take a long time to find a buyer.
With that in mind, here are five tips from Leysbrook on how to market and sell your unique home.
How to Sell an Unusual Home
1. Focus on Who Will Be Buying?
The first thing to think about when marketing your home, is who exactly will be buying it?
All marketing should be tailored to fit the person that it is selling to.
Is your property unique as it is luxurious and modern, or unusual because it is an old, traditional home?
Both of these properties would have very different audiences attracted to them.
Selling a unique home is difficult because the pool of potential buyers is drastically shrunk by the unusual features. With fewer people looking at the home, you must make sure you are really appealing to the ones that do.
Things to look at are where you are marketing your property, and what language are you using?
If the house would appeal more to a younger generation as it has a modern décor, it may be better to focus on social media selling. If it is the opposite, more traditional methods would probably have a bigger effect.
As with selling anything, knowing your market is vital, and this is very true when it comes to selling a unique home.
2. Make Sure the Photos do the House Justice
If your home has some quirky features, you need to show them off.
Every characteristic that is unusual is a huge unique selling point, and these are the things your estate agent will look to take advantage of when selling your property.
If your house is a renovated building that has huge windows and high ceilings, the estate agent will be sure to showcase these in the property listing.
What you must remember is that 60% of a buyer’s time looking at a property listing is spent staring at the photos. This is your big chance to show off the quirkiness of your property so make it count.
If you have a huge garden that is equipped with some outdoor working space, this will be a huge pull for a home worker. Likewise, if your garden is large with plenty of flower beds and trees, a nature lover will find this greatly appealing.
Unusual features have an audience, so making sure every feature is shown in the best light is the perfect way to sift through the many people who search through properties and attract the buyers that will be interested in this exact one.
3. Don’t Forget the Essentials
When it comes to selling an unusual home, it pays to focus on the quirky features, but this doesn’t mean you can forget about some home essentials.
If your home is unusual due to it being centuries old, this may mean it has some structural issues.
No matter how interesting the home may be, issues that arise in the survey are a sure way to put potential buyers off signing on the dotted line.
If you own an unusual house in a city such as London, then there are some common features that may be just as important to a buyer than the unusual ones.
Is there off-street parking? Double-glazing on all the windows? Is there any outside space (or a green roof that can be used as a garden)?
These may not be essentials to everyone, but they are certainly more commonly seen on a buyers wish-list than things such as swimming pools.
4. Let the Professionals Help
When the time comes to sell, you’re going to want some help.
One of the tricky aspects of selling a unique house is deciding on the price. With not many homes around that you can compare to, it is important you seek the help of an experienced estate agent to take a good look at the house and let you know the best price to sell at.
Unusual features can add a lot of value onto a home, so make sure your estate agent tallies it all up and provides you with a price that is fitting, but not so high that it will put buyers off.
Other professionals who are sure to lend a hand are workers in the construction industry. If your house is old, there may be issues that need fixing before the house is put up for sale.
If you have a huge space that you are looking to extend into, can you provide planning permission so that a future buyer knows there won’t be any stumbling blocks along the way?
Unusual features can be problematic, so make sure all issues are ironed out before people start viewing the house and asking questions you can’t answer.
5. Be Patient
Selling any home takes time, but when the home is unusual, it often takes longer.
What a seller needs is patience when it comes to marketing and selling a unique home.
The right buyer will be out there, but it can often take months to find them. What is important is not to panic and rush into decisions such as lowering the price.
If you would like a rough idea of how long a home like yours will take to sell, speak to your estate agent, who will be packed with information and experience in the selling of unusual homes.
It may feel like the right buyer isn’t out there but sticking to the top tips listed above is sure to bring them to your home in the end.
Leysbrook Estate Agents
The areas that Leysbrook Estate Agents cover, such as Letchworth, Baldock and Hitchin, are packed full of many different styles of homes.
From common building styles to unusual builds and designs, we are happy to take your home on and will be sure to market it in the best way to find a seller.
Want to know more? Get in touch today and see what we can do to sell your unique home.