Part 2 – from marketing to finding a buyer

If you’ve already read our first blog about how a property is sold – covering instruction through to going on the market – then we now talk you through the next stage. This second blog covers everything around the marketing of your property – both locally and nationally – right through to arranging viewings and finding a buyer for your home. 

We hope it will answer some more of the questions you may have about the sales process, but if you’d like to speak to us about your property sale please get in touch.

Marketing to our database

Our previous blog outlined the steps needed to get your property on to the market, but how do we go about finding you a buyer? This all comes down to effective marketing and we have a number of different strategies that we use to help find the right buyer for your property. The very first thing we do is to contact our database of potential buyers to advise them that a new property has come on board with us. When we write to them we include the key selling points of the property and a link to the full listing on our website. This is a very successful way of generating interest from a market that we know has a genuine interest in buying in the area, and xx% of our property sales come from this targeted approach.

Social Media 

In today’s market, social media is an important part of the overall marketing mix and we have developed a strategy to maximise the reach of our property announcements. We are active each day on Facebook and now have 2.1K followers, while on Instagram we have 933 followers, LinkedIn 116 followers and X with 128 followers. We write and design all of our posts to show the best of each new property and we monitor the number of likes, shares and interest shown for every post.

In addition, we have our own YouTube channel, which now has 2,400 subscribers. Here we feature videos of all of our properties for sale, giving viewers the chance to do a walk-through tour to get a real feel for the property. 

Property Websites

We also maximise our use of the best-known and most respected property websites and list all of our properties on these. The ones we use are Rightmove, Zoopla, OnTheMarket and Primelocation, and we have recently started with UK Land and Farms to promote smallholdings offering three or more acres. In addition, we use local media – websites and printed publications – across West Wales to feature new properties, enabling us to reach the important local market. These listings are very important and we know that around 55% of our monthly online enquiries come from these sources.

Website SEO

Ensuring that our website is informative, up to date and can easily be found by major search engines such as Google is another key element of our marketing activity. We feature every new property prominently on our website, but it’s also important to be regularly updating the site with relevant content that performs well with Google’s algorithms. As a result, we regularly write new blogs on topics ranging from the latest house price index news to changes in property legislation to ensure that our website attracts quality visitors from local and national areas.

Requests to view

With all of the marketing in place, we then start to attract enquiries for viewings. Whenever we get a request to view we always check the details and situation of the potential buyer. This means confirming information such as their home address, contact number and email, as well as understanding what their buying position is – for example, have they already sold a property, making them cash buyers, or are they in a chain or awaiting a mortgage confirmation. If an enquirer won’t give these details then it automatically makes us question why and we will do further research or refuse the viewing.

These checks are predominantly done for security reasons, protecting both the seller and the Cardigan Bay Properties team, and to tease out potential time wasters. We phone and email the enquirer back to verify the information they have given us, providing greater peace of mind. In addition, we always advise our owners not to do a viewing if someone simply knocks at their front door – instead politely ask the enquirer to use the agent, to help ensure a more secure procedure.

Property visits

Once we have verified the potential buyer, we then contact the owner to arrange a convenient time to visit and show the property. A Sales Negotiator from Cardigan Bay Properties is available to accompany the viewings or the owner can show the potential buyer around – it is entirely up to the individual owner. Generally, around 80% of first viewings are accompanied by one of our Sales Negotiators, which allows us to build a relationship and discuss details around the key elements that we know are of interest to the buyer. 

For second viewings, sometimes we accompany the buyer or sometimes the owner is happy to do it – we work with each owner to support them in whatever they feel more comfortable with. The one thing we don’t recommend is us, the owner and the buyer doing a viewing together as it becomes more complicated.

Viewer Feedback

After every viewing, we ask for feedback on the property from the potential buyer. We send an email to each viewer and ask for their thoughts and impressions on the home, its presentation and condition, and the price to help the owner build a clear picture of how their property is being viewed and assessed. While some of the feedback can be picky on occasion, the majority of owners find it extremely useful and some use it to make small changes to help attract a buyer.

Receiving an Offer

The final stage of this part of the sales process is receiving an offer. This is probably the most exciting part for the seller, but it is also quite involved in terms of the work we do to verify the potential buyer and their situation. Read our full overview in Part 3 of our How is a Property Sold? blog – from receiving an offer to completion.