Are you sabotaging your income and slowing down your property sales following bad agent advice? These are the most common things we've heard on viewings that can negatively impact how quickly your property rents or sells and we're here to bust these property myths...
"We'll deal with the tenants, you don't need to know them"
We know many landlords prefer to be hands off, but do you really know who your ideal buyer is? What is it about your property that will grab their attention? Each demographic will have different things that they’re looking for in a property (or even better maybe they don’t even know they need it until they’ve seen it in your property!). Getting to know them really well and speaking directly to their wants and needs will create a standout property.
Cutting corners on features may improve your bottom line short term, but can be detrimental long term. If you’re not providing them, someone down the road will.
But what sort of features are we talking about here? And do they need to be expensive?
Examples:
Student HMO - Epic communal spaces, games space, bar area
Young Professionals - Co-working spaces away from bedrooms, cinema rooms to unwind in
Families - LOTS of storage, luxuries like walk-in wardrobes, upgraded kitchen
Holiday Makers - Design-led (the one exception where experience beats practicality!), little luxuries
"Just a lick of paint and it's good to go!"
Before a paintbrush is lifted, really sweat over your floorplans, or employ somebody who can take those and create functioning and future proof layouts and designs. For example, seeing that an HMO bedroom is 12m2 and thinking job done, without considering the functionality of the room for the person living there. This means a potentially frustrated tenant that won't recommend your property to their friends next year.
All this upfront work will maximise your saleable space, improve your exit strategy and can even be used as a selling tool when the property is nearly complete!
Branded floorplan for The Best Nests used to sell rooms to students from abroad “off plan”. Prospective tenants can see exactly what’s in their room, as well as where other tenants will be in the house.
"You're not living there"
Little extra touches go a long way for a prospective buyer to see themselves in your property, whether renting or buying, it may not be your home, but it's potentially theirs. Staging the property as a home can create a real emotional connection that gives buyers no other option but to sign.
Think: cushions, contemporary artwork, mirrors, candles - these don’t have to be expensive and can be easily removed/reused.
It also comes through in the little gestures that you can do for your customers: welcome packs, birthday cards or social events. These things don't cost a lot but can make a huge difference to a tenant experience and a happy tenant, stays for longer.
"It just needs an update here and there"
It’s easy to get caught up designing room-by-room but this can make the house feel disjointed. Looking at the house as a whole will not only make the space feel better overall, it’ll be easier to design, execute and much more cost effective as you can plan where you can share materials across different rooms.
“Neutral sells”
As much as this is the go-to advice and we love a good neutral, a magnolia box with brown carpet on Rightmove could be any rental property in any given area. Having something different about your property instantly creates intrigue on listing platforms and will have prospective buyers queuing out the door. A little bit of design thought goes a long way in today’s market, buyers are savvier than ever and they’ll all have their own Pinterest boards! You don’t need to go mad with colour, but timeless doesn’t have to be boring.
"Tenants won't appreciate it"
Outsourcing areas of your business frees up your time to spend on your most high-value tasks. We often see investors leaving decisions up to their contractors because they’ve run out of time, which then leads to a sub-par product. In a competitive market, design is one of the most cost effective ways to increase the value of your property as modern buyers expect more and more from their homes. We regularly see an uplift of 20-30% for well-designed properties and the standard's only getting higher!
"Branding is only for the big guys"
According to research from property giant Grosvenor Britain & Ireland, 98% of the public don’t trust developers. We’ll let that sink in...
Being trusted to provide a level of service is why people choose to stay at or eat in chains over something unknown. Having an online presence and brand standard to everything you do builds that trust and will give you a huge competitive advantage over other investors in your area. This is especially important for larger developments and SAs but equally raises the bar for those doing HMOs.
If this sparks excitement in you - we're offering free 30 minute (no obligation) design consultations where we'll identify:
The key things that are keeping you stuck, and together design a bespoke step-by-step plan to help you move forward.
The costly mistakes to avoid overpaying for your refurb
How to create the Pinterest-worthy home buyers want
I'm excited to hear about your latest project!
Charlotte