Sunday 19th February 2023

Happy February!

“‘What day is it?’ asked Pooh.
 ‘It’s today,’ squeaked Piglet. 
‘My favourite day,’ said Pooh.”
AA Milne

As I pop the Winnie the Pooh quote in above,
 I reflect that I truly do have the best job in the world.  

As they say, if you love what you do, you never truly have a job, nor go to work. 

Being an agent, here in this part of Hampshire, is a true honour and privilege.  Sam and I love what we do, respect and enjoy our clients, and work hard to ensure that they too believe that selling (and buying) a house doesn’t have to be overly stressful. 

This is what we believe in, wholeheartedly, and is why we believe so many clients have written such glowing testimonials about their experience of working with us.  We don’t set out to work for the reviews, but the reviews follow how we work, and how we make our clients feel.  

And that is our best reward.

And so, to February!

After a pretty quiet December and January, February has definitely picked up. We are seeing far more new buyers out and about looking at houses, and agreeing sales on some stunning properties.  

This could well be due to the good news in the mortgage markets where we are now seeing five and ten year fixed mortgages again, which shows that the lenders have confidence in house prices and investment, and indeed this week we have noted some fixed rate mortgages at 3.89% (and lower), which is a relief after the (thankfully 

temporary) panic and fear in the markets of last autumn when it looked like mortgages were going to rise towards 7%.

Our photographers and we are preparing several properties, in town and villages, for imminent launch, and it is so refreshing to see the crocuses, snow drops, daffodils and hyacinths come back to the gardens.   

So that brings me to my thoughts for this month (and for March too). 

Presentation of homes and gardens for marketing is essential to get the most interaction from buyers to online marketing. Sam and I take great pride in our presentation of properties online (not least with thanks to the amazing Emzo who do our photographs).  

Do take a look at our website, but also our Instagram pages 

@nonyestateagents and @nony_kerrsmiley 

to see the quality of the photographs.  

This is why, across the year (looking at 2021-2022), we have more than double the numbers of buyers looking through Rightmove actually click (detailed view) on our properties than the next agent on the list below us, and up to three times more than some of the leading agents on the high street. 

This is so important.  

If the buyers are not engaging with the photography, they will not engage with the property. 

As we come out of winter, and people start to enjoy the thoughts of gardens again, we would advise potential sellers to take as much time in presenting their outside spaces as the inside.

Local shops and garden centres are selling containers of primroses, or primulas, daffodils and other colourful flowering plants at the moment. These are relatively inexpensive and can add so much colour to your pots, borders and even kitchen windowsills which overlook the garden!

It is probably far too early to mow lawns, but they probably haven’t grown since the winter anyway, but it is a good idea to sweep up any old leaves, and clearaway last year’s dead flowers (not those which come back again this year!).  

Hosing down patio gardens is helpful (oh please believe me, this is what we suggest for marketing, not what Sam and I have done on our patio as yet this year!) and washing down garden tables and chairs.  

These appear small things but make such a difference to the photography when it comes to putting the house on the market.

We have talked about presenting the inside of houses before, and we will address this again in a future blog, but the premise remains: tidy surfaces, put away clutter (the sight of clutter gives impression that there isn’t any storage), make sure top of cupboards and under bed storage is either tidy or popped somewhere else for the photos day (it doesn’t need to be perfect the viewings, but just to encourage people to come and view), and a couple of vases of inexpensive flowers (anyone who knows me knows that I advocate vases of tulips and daffodils as understated, and colourful, and no strong scent!).

In the meantime, The sun is shining, and Sam is on his way to his allotment to prepare, dig, plan, and prepare his potatoes for planting!

I have a couple of viewings to get to shortly, and a set of keys to collect ahead a property photography scheduled for next week.

Have a wonderful (rest of) weekend one and all, 

Sam and Nony