Leaving sunny, seaside Southwold is hard enough. No more beach walks through the dunes, no more early morning swims. So when the tide turns and the time comes to pack your bags, the last thing you want is a long drawn out sale. With average house prices in the town down 9% on 2013 at an average of £393,759, the tourist honey-pot is proving less sweet than many believe.
Selling up can prove difficult. Southwold’s high footfall does lend itself to successful for-sale board advertising and the Durrant’s estate-agent window in the high-street always clogs the pavement with interested window shoppers. However, Southwold, with a high percentage of second-homers, lends itself better to the multi-geographical cheese board of online property advertising. The large financial investment that it takes to buy property on this stretch of Suffolk shoreline often leaves local buyers priced out, requiring deeper pockets from further afield.
Online property advertising, unlike the poor Suffolk road links, really has made it much easier for people to search for their dream getaway without leaving the comfort of their first home. With more than 96% of property searches starting online, it then becomes a no brainer. So, I need to get my Southwold house online?… You are faced with many options. Selling property on the interweb can be daunting but here is a quick who’s who and what’s what to help you decipher the jargon.
Option one: For Sale By Owner/Private House Sales – you have time and think that you can do a better job than an estate agent, saving you lots of money to buy more Adnams. The personal touch is a massive bonus to any house sale and so as a cheap alternative to traditional methods; this is definitely the way to go for the savvy seaside seller. Websites such as ‘TheHouseShop’ will give you as much help as you want, they will even show people round for you. The downside is that this does take time, leaving less spare hours to coffee shop hop down the high street.
Option two: Online Estate Agents – You’ve changed your mind. You want online coverage, but from the big household name websites for example, Rightmove and Zoopla. An online estate agent is your new best friend. These websites have large audiences, with Rightmove coming in at #20 in a list of the UK’s busiest websites. All you need to do is create your advertisement; pay, and just like property portal bouncers they will get you in.
By Thomas Samuel
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