Selling your home can be an exciting and daunting time! We thought it would be helpful to put together some top tips for advertising your property to give you the best chance at getting a strong buyer and a quick sale with Pure Portugal!
Listing with us:
We can add up 24 photos of your home (see how to get the best images below) Photos need to be in jpg format and a minimum size of 640 x 480 pixels, preferably landscape. These can be emailed to us here or sent via WeTransfer
For more information on the specifics of advertising with us see here
Ok now you know how to list with us but how do you make sure the advert is going to grab peoples attention?!
PHOTOS
It is all about presentation. Property is almost certainly the biggest asset we will ever own. We want to be offered a good price by the buyer and in theory it should be easy to get it! If you put your property on with a ‘see what comes our way attitude’ the chances are you won’t achieve the price you hope to get in return. Much like you wouldn’t buy a car that looked grubby and tired, you won’t grab peoples attention if your property looks much the same.
Think about doorstep appeal…(This goes for land and houses!) The front of your property is likely to be the first image a potential buyer sees when they scroll down the adverts…imagine the mindset of a buyer who sees a blur as if the photo was taken from the window of a car which is speeding past at 60km an hour! Or see their potential new farm ‘haven’ with a broken up fence and 6ft of brambles as the main shot. If possible, clear the front of the property of rubbish and weeds, fit as much of the property in the frame of the photo, give the door and windows a clean off and maybe even put some nice potted flowers outside. This is the first chance you’ve got to GRAB a buyer and make them want to click on your advert to find out more! Try and choose a bright sunny day, especially for external photos and if you get a great sunrise or sunset, be sure to include at least one great photo of this too, everybody loves a beautiful sunset!
Make sure the photos show the full space. Great! They’ve clicked onto your main ad!! It is likely the next thing they will do is click on the rest of the images to get a feel for whether this is a property they are interested in reading more about. What they do not want to find are photos of rooms with the lights off and curtains drawn, as if you have set the stage for a dodgy horror movie, or blurry images of an overgrown well or olive tree….throw open the curtains, turn on lights if need be, get a clear shot from the corner or a doorway, stand back from the 30ft deep well, take nice shots through the trees of the olive grove, show the stream you mention in the description. It is tempting yes, but avoid fish eye lenses if possible, they can be helpful in some spaces…but, if you are hoping to make the room or land morph into something bigger than it really looks, sadly it doesn’t work, buyers won’t be fooled if they come for a viewing, be true to what the property is.
If you are selling a house, it is important that the buyer can see the use or potential use for the rooms they might be living in, if there are four bedrooms try and show four bedrooms, if the rooms are not furnished that is okay, what is less okay is showing three bedrooms and a fourth room piled high with boxes and old chairs.
Remove clutter! Put away the piles of plastic crates or rusty machinery from land. People will struggle to see themselves in their new dream life when trying to look past the stack of laundry on the dining room table or the piles of magazines slumped next to the toilet…and speaking of toilets, put the toilet seats down for photos (and viewings) – A popular estate agent in the UK found in a survey a few years ago that over 70% of people said they were less attracted to images they were shown of property in which toilet seats were left up and clutter was dotted around!
If you need a professional help with this, have a look to our recommended Photographer & Film Services on our Marketing and Communication Services Directory.
DESCRIPTION
It isn’t just all in the photo, if a buyer likes what they see they will want to read in detail about their potential new home. This is where you can really sell your property but don’t make the description too wordy, most people switch off after 700 or so words. Get the important parts in, if you have a well that has water all year around say so! If you’ve just replaced the batteries on the solar system of your ‘off grid paradise’ mention it! Most buyers aren’t that interested in specifics such as window and door placement (your brilliant photos will show this sort of thing and they will see when they are so intrigued they have to come and have a look in person anyway) but it is imperative you tell the person reading your advert whether the property is connected to mains water and electricity, or that it is walking distance to a lovely village café. Spend 15 minutes noting the main important points about your property and then ensure all of these are included in the description.
Here at Pure Portugal we ask that people who send us their adverts include important information such as how many bedrooms and bathrooms a property has, details on any outbuildings and the land size with the property (if the land is fenced or walled and has good access, don’t forget to tell us this!) we also ask that you tell us something – just a sentence will do about the location and what is nearby, rough proximity to the nearest town and city services.
Finally make sure you highlight the unique selling points for your property! If it has the best views of the mountains or the sunset can be seen with ease this is definitely something to shout about.
VALUATION
Valuing your property can be hard to do, especially for unusual properties, it is hard to remove the importance and connection you may have with your property, of course it matters that you may have spent years renovating or building your home but this can significantly skew the valuation you put on it. The best way is to look at comparable properties in the same area as yours and see what the going rate is and chancing your luck by hiking up the price only damages the value of local property for all!
EMAIL ENQUIRIES
When you start getting enquiries through from interested buyers please ensure you reply right away to them, buyers quickly go off the boil and will turn attention elsewhere, it is not true to assume that if someone is really interested they will wait, some people are not in a position to wait and others really see a trusted relationship to be one that starts from good communication from the outset, please ensure you copy us in on your initial reply! Ensure you are checking your emails daily so you can reply to people right away. Reply with friendly and open answers, some buyers might ask for more information or details on surrounding areas/schools/services so it is a good idea to have this information to hand so you can easily send it out to people who are interested to know more. Try and be as flexible as possible when it comes to viewings, some sellers might be travelling a long way to come and see your property and often they have to fit many viewings into a short time, so make sure you have a free calendar so you can be sure to get as many interested people through your door as possible!
VIEWINGS
Remember to keep the property in a similar condition to the way it looks in the photos, if views or land changes in some way after you have placed your advert be sure to tell us, if possible send updated photos and absolutely make sure you tell the person who wants to view in your email contact with them well BEFORE they arrive! Many buyers make special trips from overseas to see a property, if in the photos they saw a swimming pool with beautiful tiles and glistening blue waters the chances are they won’t be jumping to buy if they arrive to find the tiles broken and the pool filled with bits of old tree!
If it is a house which is being viewed make sure the curtains are all open and buy better light bulbs if some rooms are more dingy naturally so the potential buyer can clearly see all corners. Make the beds, put some fresh flowers on the table, remember the old tricks of a fresh pot of coffee offering a homely and welcoming smell as they look around! All these little things set the tone and show your potential buyer a glimpse of what life could be like if they move in. Of course with some properties such as renovation projects what you see is what you get, we wouldn’t expect you to ‘dress’ a ruin! But if you have building projects agreed and any architects drawings or habitation licences it is worth having copies of these in a file so you can show the person viewing the very best example of what they could achieve if they buy your property!
So there you have it! Now you should be well on your way to making the perfect house advert and selling your home! Of course we understand that not everybody is a natural writer, we can move around text so it flows for you, be sure to send us the main information and most of all ensure the photos are really doing the property justice…At the end of the day this could be the difference between ensuring a viewing from your perfect buyer and not!
To advertise your property with us please email team@pureportugal.co.uk for more information
Have a look to our recommended Photographer & Film Services on our Marketing and Communication Services Directory, to improve your marketing a get a better chance of a quick sale!
Hello, we are a happy family of 2 adults, our Son of 6 and a dog.
We want to buy a piece of land in Portugal.
Where we can build a small House to live and make An vegetable garden.
We would like to have some water nearby.
Could you help us with what property is best and with An clear contract.
Kind regards, Rogiér
Hello Roger, please have a look at the sales page for properties, we have heaps of places which would suit this! 🙂
Hello
I have a farm and a private house for sale. How to advertise?
Very sorry for not seeing this until now! To advertise with us you can see the link here for all information https://www.pureportugal.co.uk/advertise/