Creative selling : make your house a ".com"

radar0976

I've been trying to sell my house for months now and have had two viewings which have come to nothing despite dropping the price in recent weeks.

I had an idea to do my own website for the house to make it stand out from the 1000's on DAFT and MyHome.

It's easy to register a .com so maybe its something more people should consider. If your estate agent isn't doing much you can have more control yourself about marketing and selling.

This is what I did : http://www.107ardkeale.com

Zamboni

Do you read about Calculus for the craic?

JoeyJJ

The problem is getting your site noticed. Someone looking for a house will not be searching on google they will be looking on myhome and daft. Unless they want to research your area will they see the advertisement imo and even then it may not come up high enough in the search results. Its a good idea however it may need some more work.

My expierence would be as a perspective ftb and someone who has done some web design in the past.

radar0976

Yes getting it noticed is the problem. At the moment I've just tried sending it around to friends and family to pass on and distribute around their workplaces etc. It's a long shot I agree but I suppose any extra exposure I can give it has to help.

am i bovvered

It certainly won't do any harm to the sale. At least you feel like you are doing something to help sell your house.

AARRRGH

Your house is really overpriced. That is the problem.

Seoid

From a buyers perspective I don't think it would make any difference, provided you plenty of information and pictures up somewhere. The more the better. As someone else has pointed out, daft and myhome advertise it for you and I know I personally have spent hours examining any and every house on myhome and daft that might be worth looking at. My partner does the same. We know what we're looking for and if your house was on there and it could potentially suit us we'd know about it.

It probably is a good idea to have something that you can send on to people - but I think a document/brochure would do just as well and might even be better than a website. You could send that on to everyone that you know and ask them to forward it on to anyone who might be interested and that could get you exposure you wouldn't get from daft or myhome. But I wouldn't expect a website to give any extra exposure by itself as it's hard work advertising a website!

I have no idea what you're house is worth but as a ftb my view is that the only way to sell a house these days (unless you have an AMAZING location AND are VERY lucky) is to keep the cost low low low. I expect house prices to fall so I don't want to buy a house at today's going rate - I want to buy a house BELOW today's going rate.

tevion

I googled yer house and saw it on myhome.
To be honest, I found the myhome ad better that your website (even though your website is very nice) but am used to the format of myhome and I can see exactly what I want to see in a couple of seconds, rather than navigating around a site that I am not very familiar with.

radar0976

tevion wrote: »

I googled yer house and saw it on myhome.
To be honest, I found the myhome ad better that your website (even though your website is very nice) but am used to the format of myhome and I can see exactly what I want to see in a couple of seconds, rather than navigating around a site that I am not very familiar with.

Hi tevion,
That's certainly a fair point and well made. My motivation behind this website was just to have a way of getting my message out to people because the estate agent clearly has control over what goes up on DAFT/MyHome and I find it very frustrating dealing with him. I know they are the "experts" in selling property but I felt he wasn't doing enough for my property to sell it well seeing as it is a great property in a great location. I'm just trying to cover every avenue I suppose and get the word out there in the hope that I'll spark some interest! Thanks for your comment.

rolion

nice idea...nice 1 ! but...increase the font size,too small !

good-luck with the sale !

radar0976

rolion wrote: »

nice idea...nice 1 ! but...increase the font size,too small !

good-luck with the sale !

Thanks rolion. I'll change the font as you suggested.

ricman

lHOW much are other 2 bed houses in the area going for?
ITS good to have a website ,but the market is ,house is worth x,if its overpriced its unlikely to find a buyer.I see nice 3 bed houses going in dublin for 220 k private estates.Theres 1000 ,s of houses going on daft.ie.
Price are going down.I,VE seen prices going down by 40 per cent.
IF you have another house ready to buy, you would be better off selling for 210, 220 than being stuck there.IF theres no one coming to view it ,id think its over priced.OR the people in that area, are like if im gonna buy a house here, i may as get a large 3bed house.You could put an ad free on gumtree.ie ,buyand sell.net.IF 3bed houses are going for 240, id advertise it for 3bed-minus 30k,ie 200,or 210. I expect next year houses prices will drop, by between ten and 20 per cent.
If you wait too long it will cost you money.
Most people are looking for 3bed houses , they,d expect a discount for a smaller house.
A great agent can only do so much, if the price is abit high ,its not his fault.
I,D get rid of
quote is all about location. quote.
Make it end of terrace in a cul de sac duplex. ie end of end of ,is not logical.
I DONT think anyone would view the house if they didnt know the location,and like it.
SO IF NEW houses are going for 25k more ,is there any issue there with stamp duty or ftb,
would a first time buyer not save 40k by buying a new house , eg tax credits etc
LOOK up stamp duty rates secondhand homes ,if the threshold is say 250, advertise it for 240 or less.

Zascar

Nice idea, looks well, certainly may help.

Get rid of the blue borders on the nhumbnails. Add border="0" to hide it. Also the photos are too big, resize them down a bit.

ellejay

Hi OP

Personally I wouldn't bother setting up a website, think it's pointless.

From a buyers point of view, I only look at myhome.ie and daft.ie
Also, if it's not a good price, for me, I won't even click in to look at the house.
I also sort by date, as I'm up to speed on all houses, so only want to see new houses on market.

I've noticed that EA's are now advertising very low asking price's to generate interest, then when I put offer in, "someone" has put a bid in for about 50k more!!
If a house has been on the market for a long time, they're re-entering it on the above websites at much greatly reduced rate.

So I would suggest that you could do the same??
Drop the asking price by about 50k maybe, you don't have to accept the offer.
See if that generate's any interest?

Good Luck Selling.

nice1franko

If you sell it yourself and you save on agent fees then maybe it could be alright.

I saw a program on telly a few years ago about how to be "mortgage free within a year" (or something like that...) and that's what one couple did: made a site, made flyers and handed them out in a shopping centre. AFAIR, it worked.

edit - btw selling wasn't their solution to be mortgage free - they traded down

radar0976

Zascar wrote: »

Nice idea, looks well, certainly may help.

Get rid of the blue borders on the nhumbnails. Add border="0" to hide it. Also the photos are too big, resize them down a bit.

Yes you're right the photos are a bit on the big side. Will change those borders too. Thanks for the advice.

radar0976

ricman wrote: »

lHOW much are other 2 bed houses in the area going for?
ITS good to have a website ,but the market is ,house is worth x,if its overpriced its unlikely to find a buyer.I see nice 3 bed houses going in dublin for 220 k private estates.Theres 1000 ,s of houses going on daft.ie.
Price are going down.I,VE seen prices going down by 40 per cent.
IF you have another house ready to buy, you would be better off selling for 210, 220 than being stuck there.IF theres no one coming to view it ,id think its over priced.OR the people in that area, are like if im gonna buy a house here, i may as get a large 3bed house.You could put an ad free on gumtree.ie ,buyand sell.net.IF 3bed houses are going for 240, id advertise it for 3bed-minus 30k,ie 200,or 210. I expect next year houses prices will drop, by between ten and 20 per cent.
If you wait too long it will cost you money.
Most people are looking for 3bed houses , they,d expect a discount for a smaller house.
A great agent can only do so much, if the price is abit high ,its not his fault.
I,D get rid of
quote is all about location. quote.
Make it end of terrace in a cul de sac duplex. ie end of end of ,is not logical.
I DONT think anyone would view the house if they didnt know the location,and like it.
SO IF NEW houses are going for 25k more ,is there any issue there with stamp duty or ftb,
would a first time buyer not save 40k by buying a new house , eg tax credits etc
LOOK up stamp duty rates secondhand homes ,if the threshold is say 250, advertise it for 240 or less.

Hi ricman. Thanks for your reply. Certainly food for thought. Three bed houses in the estate are around the 300k mark so I reckon I'm well priced compared to them. At the height these duplexes were achieving €420k so the asking price is down 40% from the peak which seems to be the average drop across the board.

Of course I would think that FTBs these days are going to come in with bids well below the asking price. Anyone serious about selling like us is going to listen to any half decent offer.

It seems there are alot of FTBs out there ready to strike but the confidence just hasn't come back yet. Is it the whole fallout from NAMA that people are waiting on before they do anything ?

AARRRGH

radar0976 wrote: »

Three bed houses in the estate are around the 300k mark so I reckon I'm well priced compared to them. At the height these duplexes were achieving €420k so the asking price is down 40% from the peak which seems to be the average drop across the board.

I'm sorry to be harping on about this, but you have no chance of selling your property at its current price.

1. You should not be comparing your price to your deluded neighbours' asking prices.
2. You should not be comparing your price to insane property bubble prices.

The reason you are having difficulty getting any views (nevermind selling) is because you want €250k for a 2 bed duplex in the countryside...!

Feel free to dismiss what I am about to say, but in 12 months time you will realise I am correct: your house is about 120k overpriced.

Here's some maths to back up what I'm saying:

Professional investors calculate the value of property based upon its rental potential. This is a simple calculation which is the yearly rent multiplied by 12 or 14. I will be generous and use 14.

Looking on daft I can see 2 beds in your estate want €800 in rent. They won't get this, but I will pretend they will and that they have tenants for a full 12 months of the year.

9,600 x 14 = 134,400.

So your house is worth arounf 135,000.

I understand this is painful because it means you have lost a lot of money, but it is the reality and as soon as you start accepting it the sooner you can sell your property.

As stated already, feel free to dismiss my advice, but in 12 months when you still haven't sold even after drip dropping your price, come back to this thread and reconsider my words.

Shekamu

I like the yellow filter and haze with the dreamy house look in the photos :-) Personally, I only look at properties that have a good number of photos on display on Daft or other websites.

I don't know if creating a website for a house would work though. As others have said, how will people know to look for your site? Is there a link to the site on Myhome and Daft?

I'm creating a restaurant website at the moment, because that's essential these days for people to look at the menu, delivery service info, opening times, parking space info, location... etc. Although all of this can be listed on directories or MenuPages, people usually Google names of restaurants for their websites for more info. But who'd Google a house?

I think you may like the idea of building a website in general, but you should find a better subject.. like maybe a blog about how it's difficult to sell houses these days, so random people can comment when they Google "financial crisis ireland" and then they'd read about your house and tell you what AARRGH said.

nice1franko

I agree that the 250k asking price is the problem here.

I also generally agree about the true value of the property as calculated above... BUT, what something is worth and what it can be sold for are often two different things. The correction is still underway and if the OP is willing/able to accept the movement in prices he could still make the sale; I'd say 180k or a little more. I'd have it up for 210k.

ricman

some agents are just on daft .ie, you should be on myhome .ie too.
THERES been alot of over building in most of the country ,if i was was buying a 2 bed i,d expect a large discount.
You are competing against nice 3bed houses.
The boom is gone, if you wanna sell anything outside the city ,you have to be realistic and ruthless.WHAT are 2bed apartments going 4 in that area.
THE no of ftb buyers is low ,its hard to get a mortgage.
NEXT year your house will be worth 20 per cent less.
IF YOU are intending to buy another house you have to sell at a realistic price.MY friend is selling a 4 bed house in dublin 4 180k private estate.HE,S gonna rent a flat for 3 years and buy another house then.
HE can well afford his mortgage, he wanna take his profit be4 prices go down more.YOU need to reduce to below 250, its on the stamp duty borderline
.3 years ago , his house was worth 290k.
SAY nama gets 2000 houses in area x, they could just reduce the price by 30 per cent to sell em.AND most of the oversupply is in the country,
ie i dont see 1000,s of empty new houses in dublin.

connundrum

When I'm looking at €290 being overpriced for a 3 bed semi-d in a mature, quiet estate, with Beaumount Hospital, DCU, Dublin Airport on it's doorstep and City Centre 10 minutes away...

I can easily say that your house is overpriced.

I'm sorry, but it is.

nice1franko

ricman, it would appear there's a snot or some other sticky matter under your caps lock button.

radar0976

AARRRGH wrote: »

The reason you are having difficulty getting any views (nevermind selling) is because you want €250k for a 2 bed duplex in the countryside...!

Maybe you are right in what you are saying and maybe the price does need to drop. However it is not in "the countryside". It's in the middle of the most exclusive and sought after estate in cork city with *everything* on it's doorstep and is built by O'Flynn construction who are the best regarded builders in Munster.
Maybe we need to go to 'price on application' because we're obviously prepared to listen to any offers which come in.

AARRRGH

radar0976 wrote: »

Maybe you are right in what you are saying and maybe the price does need to drop. However it is not in "the countryside". It's in the middle of the most exclusive and sought after estate in cork city with *everything* on it's doorstep and is built by O'Flynn construction who are the best regarded builders in Munster.
Maybe we need to go to 'price on application' because we're obviously prepared to listen to any offers which come in.

Rochestown is nice alright, and I know Michael O'Flynn has a reputation for making reasonable quality houses, but I still think your property is way overpriced. The market will decide if I'm right or wrong!

My worry for you though is you (like most sellers) won't accept this so you'll end up reducing the price in small drips over the next 24 months and still won't be able to sell. Many people have made this mistake over the past two years.

Duckjob

radar0976 wrote: »

Maybe we need to go to 'price on application' because we're obviously prepared to listen to any offers which come in.

Putting POA on it is the last thing I would do TBH.

Speaking as a potential buyer, POA is one of the biggest turn-offs you came come across.

To me POA suggests the owner has certain delusions of grandeur about the exclusivity of the property they're selling and that they are likely harbouring highly unrealistic price expectations.

Where I come across POA I generally pass straight over it. Unfair maybe, but I doubt that on my own in doing that.

ellejay

radar0976 wrote: »

Maybe you are right in what you are saying and maybe the price does need to drop. However it is not in "the countryside". It's in the middle of the most exclusive and sought after estate in cork city with *everything* on it's doorstep and is built by O'Flynn construction who are the best regarded builders in Munster.
Maybe we need to go to 'price on application' because we're obviously prepared to listen to any offers which come in.

POA is just sellers suicide in my opinion, very few intereted buyers would give it a second look, or click.
i don't understand why you don't just edit your add to asking price 180k and see what happens?
like i said, you don't have to accept, just see if it's the fact that buyers think it's overpriced, or maybe another reason for lack of interest.

at least you'll know and can then decide what to do, you might want to rent it out instead, if you can't accept prices are falling.

niffle

try a facebook site also. you could set up a buy my house site on facebook pretty quickly also and get wide exposure through the network.

radar0976

niffle wrote: »

try a facebook site also. you could set up a buy my house site on facebook pretty quickly also and get wide exposure through the network.

Great idea niffle. I'll do that, thanks.

kennyb3

Zascar wrote: »

Nice idea, looks well, certainly may help.

Get rid of the blue borders on the nhumbnails. Add border="0" to hide it. Also the photos are too big, resize them down a bit.

yeah miles too big, either that or i need a new screen.

radar0976

kennyb3 wrote: »

yeah miles too big, either that or i need a new screen.

Yes they are way too big. I'll sort that out this evening.

kennyb3

radar0976 wrote: »

Great idea niffle. I'll do that, thanks.

i reckon he was being sarcastic myself and also +1 on the POA bit

sodaev

the only thing that will sell your house is the price. websites and fonts are only shuffling the deckchairs whislt the price sinks.

What's the minimum you can afford to sell for. That should be your starting point.

Sold my house late last year, looked at similar houses in the estate, none of which were selling, priced mine at what I would be willing to sell which was approximately 40k less than anything else on the market and sold within 8 weeks. Some of those same houses are still on the market except they are now 40k less than the price I sold for. Dropped about 80k in 6 months.

Price, price, price.

radar0976

Well based mainly on what I've read here I have knocked 15K off the price today which makes it the most competitively priced property in the most sought after suburb of Cork. Fingers crossed! :rolleyes:

iguana

You have to go about halway down the page before you find out the house is in Cork. That should be right up at the top.

radar0976

iguana wrote: »

You have to go about halway down the page before you find out the house is in Cork. That should be right up at the top.

Good point, just changed it there!

stepbar

@ 220k your house is GROSSLY overpriced.

It doesn't matter what marketing tools you use to try and sell the house, your house is still GROSSLY overpriced. By about probably 80-100k.

BTW..... POA.... seller suicide. I NEVER look at an ad with POA in it. Anyone who puts POA on and ad is definitely looking for a crazy price.

Theboinkmaster

radar0976 wrote: »

Well based mainly on what I've read here I have knocked 15K off the price today which makes it the most competitively priced property in the most sought after suburb of Cork. Fingers crossed! :rolleyes:

I'm sorry but you're completely deluding yourself - listen to AAARRRGGHH.

Setting up websites, facebook etc won't help you - dropping the price SIGNIFICANTLY is the only thing which will sell it.

You're completely wasting your time.

Drop it by €50k and see what happens. If nothing - drop it another €50k.

IMO you'll only get what it's worth - €100k-€120k

radar0976

Theboinkmaster wrote: »

I'm sorry but you're completely deluding yourself - listen to AAARRRGGHH.

Setting up websites, facebook etc won't help you - dropping the price SIGNIFICANTLY is the only thing which will sell it.

You're completely wasting your time.

Drop it by €50k and see what happens. If nothing - drop it another €50k.

IMO you'll only get what it's worth - €100k-€120k

Things may be bad but I don't think they're quite that bad! There are propeties in this area achieving sales at decent prices BECAUSE it is the best location in Cork. Why do you think half the Munster rugby team live in this estate and my neighbour two doors down owns a Ferrari! This is not just some estate in the middle of nowhere. Properties inferior to this area achieving over 200K at the moment.

nice1franko

Remember too, if someone does google your property (or even your site) this thread is likely to be one of the first results.

Ricky91t

Well strictly from a website point of view( And viewing this onmy iPod touch) I feel the site is very Dark and gloomy, You really want a bright colour like the daft site.. Cause that black just really doesn't suit it IMO

run_Forrest_run

Ricky91t wrote: »

Well strictly from a website point of view( And viewing this onmy iPod touch) I feel the site is very Dark and gloomy, You really want a bright colour like the daft site.. Cause that black just really doesn't suit it IMO

hey, I took the interior pics for the website, please don't say the pics are looking dark!!

johnnyjb

radar0976 wrote: »

Maybe you are right in what you are saying and maybe the price does need to drop. However it is not in "the countryside". It's in the middle of the most exclusive and sought after estate in cork city with *everything* on it's doorstep and is built by O'Flynn construction who are the best regarded builders in Munster.
Maybe we need to go to 'price on application' because we're obviously prepared to listen to any offers which come in.

Im sorry now but mount oval is not that desirable.People bought these overpriced properties and thought they would go up in price even more.Its the case of i told ya so. Lots of "professionals" are feeling the pinch trying to live the millionaires lifestyle on borrowed money

Im not having a go but your not gonna sell any quicker because its in mount oval IMHO .If i had my choice i would pick a council estate over a duplex "batchelor pad" , its cheaper too