The Times

How to sell your home
What to do when you just can’t find a buyer

November 23, 2007
Fred Redwood

THE present state of the property market recalls the phrase used by the great West Indian fast bowler Joel Garner whenever he found a wicket that had lost its bounce. He would impatiently stamp his foot on it, shouting: “She gone to sleep, man!” Today’s estate agents share exactly Garner’s sense of frustration when they talk of the property market, which is similarly “sleeping”. Yet that doesn’t mean to say that vendors have given up hope.

Take Jane and Will Mulder, pictured with their daughter Bea, who are in a hurry to sell their New England-style house in Pulborough, West Sussex. Jane, a writer, has thrown herself into the task. “We know that the right buyers are out there – it’s just a question of finding them,” says Jane. “They are going to be younger, probably City-based, with enough imagination to appreciate the Marrakesh influences of our interiors.” The house, which has been on the market for eight weeks, isn’t your conventional fourbed detached with shiny white en suites. The bluey-grey clapboard frontage opens into a 30ft-high reception room with huge windows. Highly individual in its decor, there is a fitted oak day bed, the walls are in russets and reds, and everywhere there are plants and books, drapes and heavy furnishings. Upstairs is a hammam-style bathroom with an elevated double bath and lined with Moroccan tiles.

Jane has contacted several property search agents directly and has e-mailed everyone in her contacts address book, offering a £2,500 fee to anyone who introduces her to the viewer who buys the house. “It’s essential to get your estate agents on-side with these kind of initiatives,” she says. “We are treating this sale as fun, like a treasure hunt for the right buyer.”

The Mulders’ home, which is on the market for £825,000, is in the price bracket that is most likely to “stick” at present. “We are selling homes at over £5 million quite easily,” says Crispin Holborrow at Savills. “It’s the homes below £1 million that are proving slower to sell.”

Estate agents, too, are trying to be more inventive. “You have to ‘do a Madonna’ – constantly reinvent the home that is sticking,” says Serena Brown, of Browns. “A house may have a great view – something we may have underplayed in our initial marketing – so we’ll get fresh pictures taken and really stress that aspect of the house for a few weeks.”

Just as rigor mortishas hit the market, so the designers have opened up new services. THis Designs Ltd has a “dress to sell service”. Its game-plan is to give your home a “wow” factor in every room – something to catch the home viewer’s attention, without making the style appear too personalised. Its fees range between £8,000 and £150,000. Isn’t that a trifle excessive for a makeover? “Not when looked at as a proportion of the selling price,” say Robin Knudsen, at THis Designs.

“Buyers are incredibly sensitive of the slightest problem now,” says Tim Lawson, the search agent for Property Pathfinder in Cirencester. “Being too close to a road or near a farm, or simply in the postcode where there has been flooding, are suddenly major issues to buyers.” He has much to say about estate agents.

“Be careful who you instruct,” he says. “Estate agents are short of clients in this market and one way they can secure your business is by valuing your home overoptimistically, which does you no favours at all. Test your agent. How many sales have they made in the last three months? How many hits have they had on the website? Why isn’t your house selling? There must be a reason!”

The Deck House in Pulborough is for sale through Hamptons International, 01403 211766, for £825,000. www.brownsestateagents.com www.propertypathfinder.com www.thisdesigns.co.uk

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PROBLEMS IN THE PROPERTY MARKET: REGION BY REGION

YORKSHIRE & HUMBERSIDE
Prices here will drop, which is no bad thing as it will bring back another raft of first-time buyers. There will not be a total meltdown but it will be a challenging six months. David Pank, Manning Stainton, Leeds

NORTH WEST
We have a real problem with flats. There are partially-built apartment blocks which developers are going to struggle to sell at the prices they hoped. Richard Powell, Ryder & Dutton, Oldham

MIDLANDS
Everyone’s had the wind put up them – people will either do nothing or make low offers until March. Quentin Jackson-Stops, Jackson-Stops & Staff, Northampton

LONDON
The fringe areas of the capital will suffer first and suffer most. These may be the same places that have been labelled “up and coming” in the last few years. Tim Le Blanc-Smith, John D. Wood, London

SOUTH EAST
There is a definite oversupply of flats, with a number of local repossessions occurring and up to 30 per cent falls in value in flats. Peter Constable, Cluttons, Maidstone

SOUTH WEST
The South West will do much better than most other parts of the UK. It will still be less of a sellers’ market and guide prices will come down slightly. William Morrison, Knight Frank, Exeter

SCOTLAND
There will be increasing polarisation: older properties in prime areas will outperform, properties built in unfashionable eras from postwar to 1990 will have a difficult time. Anthony Perriam, Rettie & Co, Edinburgh