Rightmove is the UK’s largest property portal. Advertising millions of homes for sale across the country. Rightmove allows you to search for your next home from anywhere in the world at any time through your mobile phone, computer or tablet. It is fair to say that Rightmove has completely revolutionised the way we search for properties.
Before the days of Rightmove you would trot off down to your local estate agents’ shop to browse through the window display and printed brochures for a home that took your fancy. These days you can browse all the houses for sale in your area from the comfort of your own home. It is estimated that 80-90% of buyers begin their property search online, using a tool such as Rightmove.
The rise in popularity of Rightmove has paved the way for a whole new type of estate agency to hit the UK. Online and hybrid estate agents do not usually have a shop front. Jumping on the back of the online revolution, they consider online property portals such as Rightmove to be their shop window. In the last number of years this has shaken up the estate agency world with the traditional high street agency model being challenged.
So, how does Rightmove work? Estate agents pay Rightmove to advertise their properties online. Most estate agents are on Rightmove, to be honest, you couldn’t operate as a modern-day estate agent without being on Rightmove.
With a pool of houses advertised from all your local and national estate agents you can set your search criteria and search these houses for your dream home. Rightmove is easy to use and you can set a basic search or a more advanced search.
A basic search would consist of Location (name or post code), radius and price bracket (minimum to maximum).
If you are looking to pinpoint a specific type of property you can set a more advanced search and include options such as number of bedrooms and type of property (bungalow, detached etc). You can then filter the results using options such as ‘must have’ a garden or parking. You can search from houses added in the last three days to fourteen days or all houses/anytime.
When you have fine tuned your search a list of homes that match your criteria is brought up. This is the fun bit! You can click on any of the houses that you like the look of and virtually browse through the house. The description will tell you more about the property, the floor plan will show you the layout of the house and the property images will show you room by room what the house looks like, inside and out.
When you find a home you like, you can click to find out more and request further details or call the agent to arrange a viewing through the number advertised. All in all, Rightmove really is a fantastic tool for house hunting and advertising your home for sale.
It also has a few other handy uses. You can search the sold section on Rightmove to find out what price houses have sold for in your location. This is a good way to gauge what you could achieve for your own home. It also allows buyers to check the price of a home that they wish to buy. It is a good way to compare sold prices and see if a home is over valued or under the market rate.
You can check market trends in your area through Rightmove . This is a handy way to see house price trends over the last few years in a given area.
After searching through Rightmove and casting your eye over all the homes for sale in your chosen location it is easy to see when selling your home, why it is so important for your home to stand out. To catch the eye of a buyer your home needs to jump off the screen and compel the buyer to want to know more. It is simply not good enough to throw a home on Rightmove and hope for the best. Your agent should spend time and a huge amount of effort in getting your Rightmove listing just right. We find that high quality marketing is the best way to do this.
Through our use of professional photography, home staging, optimised floor plans and poetic descriptions we make sure all our homes are presented to the highest standards. We showcase each house in its own unique way. Interesting, high quality marketing will grab the attention of a buyer. This level of quality and attention to detail means that our homes stand out from the crowd. You and your home deserve the very best marketing to attract the greatest number of buyers to your online listing.
So, if you are considering selling your home, make sure that the agent you choose knows how to attract the right type of buyer for your home. If you want to see our marketing for yourself, give us a ring and we’ll be happy to pop one of our bespoke brochures in the post to you today. Call us on 01423 563077, email talk@alexandergibson.co.uk or visit our website at www.alexandergibson.co.uk.
For more advice on selling your home on Rightmove see our blog
For a guide on choosing the right agent see our checklist