For Sale Board

Always advisable they are responsible for approximately 30% of all our enquiries. They generate viewings from local people and people driving through the area who prefer not to visit the offices of estate agents.

Local Press Advertising

We believe press advertising generates few sales, serious buyers visit the web and call in the office they don’t wait for a paper to drop on their doorstep. Our adverts are clean cut and professional and visually striking so they stand out to get your property noticed.

Property Details and Displays

Your property details should be well presented and enticing. We believe this means quality photography i.e. a picture of the room (not a bed, television or half a window – (look on rightmove.co.uk for examples of this)

If a buyer sees quality pictures of your house with clear room sizes and descriptive text, not jargon this creates more chance of generating viewings.

Your property will be displayed in our offices in Marple Bridge, Marple, Romiley and Glossop where we are linked by state of the art technology. This means each office can access all property details, giving you maximum exposure and wider coverage.

We believe details should be minimalist professional and factual. Many of our viewers say they rarely read “the Blurb” on estate agents details but look at the pictures, room sizes and garden before they decide to view.

Virtual tours and floorplans

Our experience has shown us the above can work against selling houses. Too much information can lead to people being discouraged to view a property. We all know you have to view a property to get a feel for it.

For example if someone does not like the layout of the property they decide not to view it, however, if they did view and were shown that the layout could be changed for minimal cost, it could be the solution to get their dream home. Why give people reasons not to view a property?

Website

Bridge Holmes has its own website but recognises buyers are National as well as local. We believe the very best way to deliver your property to as many potential buyers is to subscribe to the two top websites rightmove.co.uk and propertyfinder.co.uk. We are on a total of nine websites to give maximum web exposure. Presentation is as important on the web as on property details, look at our photography and web presentation we believe we outrival all our competition.

Dedicated sales Staff

We expect high standards from our staff and we will out line what you can expect in the way of service. Each office only takes a number of 60 properties so each staff member has 20 properties to manage. This approach gives consistency for both vendor and purchaser from start to finish. We use a state of the art technology system called Encore to manage the sales process through to completion.

Our database is populated by each office. Our staff make a maximum effort to keep all our potential buyers up to date with new properties coming to market by ringing with your property details to generate viewings.

The member of staff personally responsible for selling your house will also visit you to ensure they know your property and more importantly meet you the client. They will keep you informed of potential viewings and feedback from viewing as soon as possible after the event.

Viewings

At Bridge Holmes where possible we prefer to do the viewings but when this is not possible, we ask our Vendors to carry out the viewings. Viewings are the start of the sales process and we believe in agreeing a strategy with our clients on how to view a property which we will discuss when we do the photos and measure up. A flexible approach to viewings is best practice as some can be at very short notice if someone is only here for the day.

We will endeavour to ensure viewers are in a position to proceed, i.e. their house is on the market and they are serious about moving. If a house is on the market we would always encourage you to accept viewers as it may sell tomorrow or in a few months.

Market reviews

When a house goes on the market the price is a guide price and the job of the agent is to achieve as much as possible for the client. Generally after the first four to six weeks of marketing we will have gathered enough information to review the markets reaction to your property. This will include analysis of viewer’s feedback and potential viewer’s comments that have not viewed but considered your property.

Vendors are sometimes disappointed if a sale is not imminent when the house goes to market however it is necessary to get viewers feedback. If we are not getting viewers we need to discuss why and this may involve remarketing the property taking new photos or reducing the price.

Price reductions

We would like to believe people will still view houses even if they think they are too expensive, but as a general rule this is not the case. A price reduction has little to do with the time a property has been on the market but has more to do with viewers or lack of them. Viewers will buy the home that offers the best value for money so we must ensure we get your property price in its correct band. We can try a higher price to suit you initially but we must have a strategy with time constraints if we are not getting the required results. Our target is to agree a sale within three months and from recent experience if a house is priced right it will sell for within 5% of the asking price.

Hints and tips on selling your home

A clean and tidy house free from clutter looks a bigger house. Rooms should be bright and airy the house should be warm low level lighting is appealing and homely.

Every effort you make to sell your house will pay dividends in making it easier to sell and to achieve the best price so try and finish small jobs that need doing and ensure a tidy garden and a welcome entrance to your home.

Conclusion

Bridge Holmes is a family business and we try to satisfy all our customers needs. We go out of our way to make the sale process as simple as possible without the pushy corporate sales mentality that loads the process with pressure. It doesn’t have to be that way. Selling your house is stressful enough without being pressured to buy insurance products and mortgages. We believe if you want help here you will ask.

We try to offer value for money. We will also help you buy your next house as well. We can research the property for you, talk to the sales agent on your behalf and negotiate the sale for you on the property you wish to purchase. If you have reduced your price to sell your house we will endeavour to get a reduction on the one you want to buy.

Our complaints procedure is simple. If we are in the wrong we will rectify the problem and compensate you if necessary, we don’t have a large chain of command but a Managing Director that will make a decision there and then so all parties arrive at an acceptable outcome.