Selling your property in Harpenden or St Albans? Remember - less is more

Giving too much away in the property details can put prospective buyers off viewing your home.

When you instruct an estate agent to sell your home, you naturally want them to promote it in its best light. But what does this actually mean?

Many people would expect their agent to produce property particulars which are an accurate and comprehensive guide to the property. However too much detail can actually work against you.

Remember, the purpose of property details is to prompt buyers to view your home. At this stage in their search, buyers are only interested in the major attributes of a property – where it is, how big it is, how much it is, what it looks like and how they can view it?

Almost everything else is superfluous. If you provide this minimal information and it fits their search criteria, they will have to visit the property. They are not interested in the type of boiler, number of power points, style of bathroom suite, make of cooker or whether there is a mat-well in the hall. All these have little bearing on whether they will buy the property, and even less on whether they will view it.

By telling people about things they may not like, some agents’ details can deter buyers from viewing a property they might otherwise have bought, despite the fact that they would have preferred a white bathroom suite to the avocado one!

And if you do have some feature you feel is worth promoting, then keep it up your sleeve for the second viewing – as this is the time when people are looking for reasons not to buy your home - and the low voltage lighting system they didn’t notice the first time round might just offset their feelings about the tiles on which they are not so keen.

In terms of property particulars, less can often be more!