A woman has revealed how she managed to sell her own house in just three weeks without using an estate agent - saving herself £3,000 in fees. Carrie Rose, 30, bought her semi-detached house in a popular village in south Yorkshire six years ago for £154,000.
Carrie, who is the CEO and founder of marketing agency Rise at Seven, wanted to put her three-bed new build property on the market earlier this year to upsize to a bigger family home. But after speaking to estate agents and not being best pleased with their service, she thought she could do a job better herself.
Putting her 10 years of marketing expertise to the test, the homeowner was adamant she could sell her house by herself quicker than the average - and all whilst saving herself money too. She began by researching house prices in her local area, before later turning to TikTok for photography and editing advice.
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"I was looking at houses for myself and found that estate agents who were trying to sell me a home weren't necessarily that convincing about knowing the area or selling the USPs of the property," Carrie told the Manchester Evening News.
"Because of this, I didn't see the value in an estate agent selling my house for me when I knew the area and my house better than they did."
Carrie began by doing to research to find out what houses were selling for in her local area, as well as trying to find her property's unique selling point.
"I own a business and differentiation is the biggest reason we win clients. So I started by doing research, comparing prices, listings, descriptions and finding out what makes my house different and the hidden gems," she said.
"Since the pandemic, emphasis on the garden has been huge. Searches for houses with gardens were up 56 percent according to Rightmove, but more specifically south facing gardens (that get the sun) are even more in demand.
"They sell faster and get a higher asking price and I have a south facing garden, so I made that a big focus."
The next step was to take pictures of her home in order to market it, with Carrie getting top tips from TikTok.
"I took my own photos using TikTok for angle advice. I'm not bad with a camera, but type "house selling photography tips" into TikTok and you'll get some really good advice like corner shots and zoom camera out to 0.7. Oh and brighten your pics," she said.
"I then created a PDF - putting a face and story to the house. In the housing market, the products are so faceless. So I shared my story highlighting the things I like about this house and not what everyone typically does such as crime rate and schools."
The PDF that Carrie created to advertise her house read: "Welcome to my three-bed home, in the quiet village of Roseville. I bought this house five years ago when it was a plot of mud with lots of potential. I have loved every minute of living in this property, from waking up to the sound of roaring lions in the morning from the nearby Zoo & Wildlife Park (yes I hear this often), to the neighbourly gatherings in summer.
"I was very lucky when I reserved this plot as I was told this is the largest Gosford plot on the estate, with a double drive at the side of the house (rather than parking at the front), and a large south west facing garden. It means I get the sun all day up until 8pm. My neighbours are quiet and friendly and he even cuts my grass without asking. I wish you the best in finding your next home."
The next job was for Carrie to work out how to price her home competitively.
"I haven't done any renovation over the years, just bits of décor and gardening but nothing that increases the value," Carrie explained.
"The house has increased in value overtime by itself. I bought it for £154,000 and it's now worth £218,000.
"To get the price I looked at houses on my street that were the same build and valued it based on that. I got three separate valuations too online which were all free."
Carrie then needed to work out how to get the advert for her house out there, but ran into an issue with Rightmove.
"I needed the world to see it. My strategy was two fold: Put this PDF and pictures where my audience spend their time... Rightmove and Facebook communities. But the problem is you cant just put your house on Rightmove, you have to be an agent. This is where I thought I was stuck," Carrie said.
"I then looked into "list your house for free" and Strike came up again and again. They saw the problem I saw, and came up with a solution to help people like me to list on Rightmove without having to pay a penny, so I signed up.
"They're an online estate agents, meaning you can fully control your house sale from start to end and Rightmove see them as an agency so you can use that loophole to get on Rightmove listings. The Strike platform lets me book viewings and see data around house views and searches.
"Once it was up - I started distributing. I found a list of 13 local Facebook communities my audience was engaging with every day. I shared my PDF on there and waited."
Carrie said that competitor houses had been up for sale for eight plus months, but after putting hers up at the end of February, she had requests for viewings within just a few days.
Giving tips for doing the viewings herself, Carrie advised: "Show people round your house throughout the day, there's nothing worse than a dark house.
"Make sure the house smells nice and get rid of your clutter. And tell them your story of why you love the house."
Within three weeks Carrie had three people interested, and accepted a final offer for the asking price of £218,000.
"The process isn't that hard, but house selling seems to be the most difficult time in a life. If you are like me, tuned into taking good pics and understanding how to use social media and not afraid to talk to people coming into your home - then I absolutely recommend you try it," she said.
"Someone needs to revolutionise the housing market, the marketing of homes and property and make it faster and more enjoyable also put the control into the hands of the people."
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