Making Tenerife property more sellable

By Alan Nicholson, Director of Clear Blue Skies SL

Q Do you have any advice on how to make a property in Tenerife more sellable?

Yes, lots, where shall we start? First thing is to set the price at an appropriate figure. The bane of most Estate Agents lives are people who listen to pub talk of what certain properties are worth, then set their “must get” figure accordingly. The overall value of property here like in the UK and elsewhere is simply what people are prepared to pay, so the only indicator is what someone has paid locally for a similar property (as opposed to what someone is asking).

Second, remember this is probably your buyer’s biggest purchase of their lives, and your biggest sale so take it seriously! When interviewing people for jobs, it is said the interviewer makes most of his decision in the first 15 to 20 seconds, and a decision to buy a property is similar. You must make the entry point appealing, not appalling! You must tidy up your garden, spend fifty euros on some nice plants or flowers. Get rid of dogs, cats and kids for an hour, and make sure the place doesn’t smell of any of them. Ask someone who doesn’t live in your house (as you may be used to a smell, or an imperfection) is there anything you can do to improve it. Make the house tidy, let the agents do the selling; don’t contradict them unless they are grossly wrong.Be friendly to the agent, he can usually choose from hundreds of properties, so you want him to choose yours.

Finally, if you consider most agents have several hundred properties on their books, and sell a handful each month, statistically you probably have a around 20 to 1 chance of him selling your Tenerife property inside 6 months unless it is outstanding, so do yourself a favour, call at least half a dozen reputable agents and put your property on with them – the more the merrier!

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