Welcome to Glover Real Estate

Isuue 66 - Home Truths – Common misconceptions - September 2010

It is interesting sometimes, to hear about how people think things are and then compare that with the way they actually are.

Take, for instance, our Trust Accounts.

There is a widely held misconception that Real Estate agencies are able to benefit from interest on Trust monies lodged in an agency’s Trust bank account. Nothing could be further from the truth. Because the deposits are held in what is known as a ‘global’ account (a generic term meaning that all the deposits are placed in one common account), interest isn’t payable by the banks.

Another area where there are sometimes misconceptions is the point in the buying/selling process, where an agreement has been declared to be unconditional and the buyers then settle with their solicitor, for the property.
Many think that at that point, they should receive the keys when in fact it is not until the sellers or their solicitor have received payment from the buyers that the keys can be handed over.

There is also some misunderstanding about the role of advertising, especially on the internet. In this new IT obsessed world, where the internet and websites rule supreme, it seems to be the fashion to have a myriad of photographs to accompany any listed property. Because of another phenomenon of our age, the digital camera, it is really cheap and easy to accomplish. Salespeople emphasise the number of photographs people will be able to have on the internet.

But is more necessarily better? Let us go back to basics. The prime reason for advertising is to make the phone ring. When that ring comes, if it is from a real buyer and is handled by a sales professional then a sale is a distinct possibility, albeit not necessarily the property that drew the enquiry in the first place.

I would contend, however, that to tell possible purchasers everything about a property in the advertising means that they have no reason whatsoever to call. It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words. If that is the case, then surely, say, twenty pictures are worth twenty thousand words. Does any property need that amount of advertising to sell or would we be telling so much of the story that nobody rings?

I think that what is not understood very well is the way people go about the task of buying a major item – and let’s face it – a home is a major item.

While to some extent people select the properties to view by what they require or find attractive in a property, they also ‘de-select’ properties if they perceive something that is unattractive to them. What they cannot do from photographs or even a video, however, is to get the overall ‘feel’ of a property.

To a large extent, buying a property is always going to be a balance between what people require in a property and what they consider to be not-so-likable aspects. Very few properties will be considered as perfect by the buyers. Everything is going to be a compromise. Only by actually going to the property, can buyers really appreciate that balance.

To give buyers a large range of photographs to look at, any one of which may contain something that is considered adversely by a potential buyer, is to increase the chances of that person not ringing.

I therefore believe that there is a real case for limiting the number of photographs. This does not mean no photographs at all – far from it. It does mean however that we should not overdo things in the photography department. Don’t put in photo’s just because we have had them taken!