Why Your First Two Weeks on the Market Matter
The opening fortnight can shape your entire sale. From launch price and presentation to buyer readiness and early feedback, getting those first two weeks right can make a significant difference to the result.
When your home first appears online, it enters one of the most important periods of its marketing campaign.
Buyers with alerts set will see it quickly. Those already searching will compare it with homes they have viewed, saved or dismissed. And within a relatively short space of time, the market begins to form an opinion about whether your home represents good value.
That is why we believe the first two weeks should be treated as a planned launch, rather than a trial run.
Buyers Have Plenty To Compare
Today's buyers can compare your home against competing properties, previous listings and sold prices within minutes. While good homes are still attracting serious buyers, there is generally more consideration around what represents value.
That makes getting the asking price right from the outset particularly important.
Your launch price should reflect recent comparable sales, competing homes currently available, the condition and presentation of your property and the type of buyer it is likely to attract.
It shouldn't simply be based on what another home nearby has been advertised for. An asking price doesn't tell you what that property eventually sold for, or indeed whether it has sold at all.
Price For Attention, Not Negotiation Room
It can be tempting to launch higher on the basis that “we can always reduce it later.”
The problem is that you can't completely recreate those valuable first few weeks.
A buyer searching with a maximum budget of £300,000 may never see a property launched at £320,000, even if the seller would ultimately accept an offer within that buyer's range.
And if buyers perceive a home to be significantly overpriced, many won't view it intending to negotiate. They'll simply move on to another.
A competitive asking price doesn't mean underselling. It means positioning your home where it has the best opportunity to attract strong, qualified interest from the outset.
Make Your Launch Count
Price is only one part of the equation.
Photography, presentation, styling, wording, floorplans and even the order of the photographs can influence whether a buyer stops scrolling or moves on.
At Newton & Co, this is why we put so much emphasis on preparing a property properly before it reaches the portals.
We would much rather spend time getting the details right beforehand than rush a home online and try to improve the marketing after its initial launch.
Where appropriate, we can also introduce forthcoming properties to buyers already registered with us before the wider portal launch, helping us identify potential interest from the outset.
Look Beyond The Highest Offer
Receiving an early offer is encouraging, but the highest figure isn't necessarily the strongest offer.
We also want to understand the buyer's position. Do they have a property to sell? Are they already sold subject to contract? How long is their chain? Do they have their mortgage agreed in principle? What timescale are they working towards?
A slightly lower offer from a well-prepared buyer with a short chain may provide a much stronger route to completion than a higher offer from somebody who hasn't yet put their own home on the market.
Price matters, but so does proceedability.
Good negotiation is about understanding both.
Listen To What Buyers Are Telling You
The first fortnight also gives us valuable feedback.
One buyer commenting that a bedroom feels small may simply be personal preference. Several buyers independently raising the same concern tells us something different.
Likewise, plenty of online views but very few viewing requests could suggest the price or marketing isn't converting interest. Lots of physical viewings without an offer may tell us something else.
The answer isn't automatically to reduce the price.
Sometimes changing the lead photograph, highlighting an overlooked feature, adjusting the presentation or refining the marketing can make a difference.
The important thing is to analyse the response rather than simply wait and hope it improves.
Don't Waste Your Freshest Weeks
One of the biggest mistakes sellers can make is allowing a property to sit unchanged for weeks when the market is consistently giving the same message.
The longer a home remains available, the more likely buyers are to notice how long it has been on the market and begin wondering why it hasn't sold.
That is very different from the excitement surrounding a newly launched property.
A successful sale isn't simply about putting a home on Rightmove and waiting. It's about launching well, monitoring the response and making informed decisions throughout the campaign.
Thinking About Selling?
Your first two weeks on the market shouldn't be an experiment.
Getting the pricing, presentation and marketing right from the outset can put you in a much stronger position to attract the right buyers and achieve the best possible result.
If you're considering moving, complete our contact form to arrange a no-obligation valuation with Newton & Co. We'll talk you through the current market, how we would position your home and the strategy we'd recommend from day one.
