Neighbours are key to best-result home sales

As we enter the Festive Season families, communities and neighbours pause to consider each other in a relaxed spirit of generosity, friendliness and good neighbourliness. Neighbours have always been "ambassadors" for their residential neighbourhoods. They're proud of where they find themselves in the geography of the town or city they live in.

They can make a big difference in the quality of life of the suburb they live in. Above all, they can influence values of properties within it.

That is a home truth. Estate agents and home sellers who over-look, or ignore it, could do so to their disadvantage. Good, full-service, real estate agents will always devote extra time to ensuring that neighbours are fully aware when a home is put up for sale in, or close to, their suburb. They will even invite neighbours to show days - because neighbours can and generally do tend to influence friends and relatives to live closer to them.  

This generally cannot be achieved without a sole mandate, as it demands more focus and more effort. 

Why? Because estate agents who plan and implement awareness campaigns of this nature could well alert up to 300 or 400 existing homeowners to an upcoming sale of a property in their suburb.

Online home selling falls short. That is a crucial factor - and it involves a great deal of work. Therefore, it falls into the basket of real estate agent activities that are not easily replaced by an online marketing solution, if at all.  

Neighbours who are aware of - and, better still, have themselves visited - the property for sale will inevitably spread the word...not least at the neighbourhood dinner party, braai or community grapevine. Chances are they will also inform family members and friends in the hope of persuading them to move closer to them. They are effectively the stakeholders of the area, and their involvement, whether active or passive, can certainly contribute to the achievement of better home values within it. Not least so when the time comes to market their own properties. This is something about which people tend to be short-sighted.

Like-minded buyers

On the face of it, crime and security issues have made South Africans seemingly less neighbourly than we should be. In fact, today's neighbours are more willing than people realise to have like-minded home buyers moving into their neighbourhood. That is why, at Ennik Estates, we often invite neighbours to show days.
The bottom line is that a full-service estate agency, paying proper attention to every detail of the home buy/sell process - is best-placed to deliver a best-price sales outcome.