What makes a home, and gives that home value, is more than the number of bedrooms it contains, whether it has a private driveway, double garage or landscaped gardens. Bricks and mortar specifics are important, but putting an accurate value on a property also takes many other important factors into consideration – like location, amenities, schooling, or historic interest in certain neighbourhoods.
With the rise of online estate agents, which may well work for some, there is a real danger of treating properties like commodities, with a risk of missing the local context entirely, which, importantly, adds to value of a property.
Dangers of missing the local context
As online agents more often than not operate from nationwide call centres, they are likely to have limited local knowledge, so valuing your house is often done using online data alone. This can perhaps give you a rough, ballpark figure, but skipping on that local knowledge will make it difficult to set the right asking price. Even so-called “hybrid agents” that claim to use local property agents can fall short, as the large geographical areas covered usually mean they lack detailed insight on the specifics of your local market.
You can imagine how this might impact on selling a property via an online agent in Glasgow, for example, where neighbouring areas within a 5 mile radius all have their own unique attractions, amenities and ‘community feel’. Due to their close proximity, individual communities can easily be tarred with the same brush by an agent missing that specific local knowledge, impacting on how effectively your property is marketed and perhaps for a less-than-accurate asking price.
Local property experts still know best
It’s this knowledge of the local area that our property experts can draw upon to place a truly accurate value on your home. They know exactly what makes a certain area desirable and to whom, helping to shape your expectations on sale price, how your property is marketed and how quickly you can expect to sell too.
Being able to tailor the marketing of your property to a specific audience with known interest in an area – for example to families in an area known for it’s good schools or young professionals in a hot commuter spot with easily accessible transport links – is, in our view, still vital if you are looking for as easy a sale as possible for the best price.
Showcasing your home’s unique selling points
At Clyde, because we know that local insight can make the difference between a good price and a great price, each of our trained local branch experts has extensive inside knowledge into their own area’s property landscape. Each home we market will have its own unique selling points, and it’s the job of our property experts to showcase this to the right potential buyers and ultimately achieve your property sale hopes, dreams and expectations.
Clyde Property is a leading independent, multiple award winning estate and letting agent with 30 years’ experience in selling and letting property in Scotland. Just call your local Clyde Property branch today, for friendly, impartial advice on finding your next dream home.
