Has your property been adapted for a wheelchair user and if so, what’s the best strategy for promotion when you put the house on the market?
Traditionally, estate agents have minimised reference to adaptations, or even advised vendors to remove them before the properties advertised for sale! This is NOT our advice! We are aware of cases where major adaptations such as an internal wheelchair lift have been removed on estate agent advice, only to be reinstalled later at considerable and unnecessary expense by the purchaser. So treat adaptations as assets!
Adaptations may be relatively minor, like the addition of grab rails in a bathroom, or they may have required significant structural work and expense, such as the installation of a through-the-ceiling wheelchair lift. Stair lifts are another and increasingly common example of a major adaptation.
This kind of equipment is expensive to install and worth very little when removed, so our message is, give prospective purchasers the opportunity to decide. Only when a sale has been agreed and the purchaser has indicated clearly that they do not need an adaptation should removal be considered.
Promoting adapted properties
The House Shop is one of very few websites where the advertising system allows you to display a list of access features and adaptations with your advert. And you can of course add additional information in the property description. Our system also allows potential purchasers to search property adverts and display only those which include selected features (e.g., a stairlift).
To further increase the chances of someone looking for an adapted property to see your advert, The House Shop also uploads property adverts to specialist website The Accessible Property Register free of charge. Visitors to this site will be looking specifically for wheelchair accessible and adapted property.
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