Top tips for selling a canalside home
Some hints and tips on selling a canalside house, and how I can help you.
Are you selling a canalside home? My name is Sheridan, and over the years I have helped many people to buy and sell canalside homes.
As far as I know, I am still the only person in the UK providing comprehensive lists of canalside property in the UK, personally researched by a human.
Get genned up
I suggest you start by learning as much as you can about the selling process. Have you seen this post I wrote? It's a helpful guide to the process in the UK. There is a lot of useful information to think about, especially if you have never sold a property before, or if you haven't done so for many years.
Sheridan Parsons
Should I treat my canalside house differently from other houses?
The vast majority of buyers are looking for property in their local area, or in a specific geographical area, so you don't need to get too focussed on reaching the market nationally, but it certainly helps. The canalside market is a good specialist niche, and always worth exploring, especially if your local marketing is not working.
How does this website help?
Every week I publish a lengthy post full of canalside properties with Rightmove links to each one. My lists are divided into four price brackets, which rotate weekly:
- Week 1 £0 to £300,000,
- Week 2 £300,000 to £500,000,
- Week 3 £500,000 to £700,000, and
- Week 4 £700,000 upwards.
My research is manual, and it cannot be automated, so the hours I put in are a huge time-saver for buyers.
What do buyers see on the website?
Non-subscribers can only see one property in each list - the featured property in the relevant price range.
Paying members can see all the properties in all of my lists (past, present, and future), for as long as they continue as a paying member.
What do buyers get by email?
Free subscribers to my newsletter get
- a general monthly update,
- one-off emails about specific properties for sale,
- occasional emails about canal-related history I have researched.
Paying subscribers also get
- weekly canalside homes lists by email (usually on a Saturday). The featured property is the main photo in this email.
There are three ways to advertise with me:
Free advertising
Listings are completely free for sellers. If your property fits my requirements, I may have found it and included it already. Get in touch, and I'll confirm this for you! If I include your property, it will continue to appear in every relevant list for as long as you're actively on the market. Most paying members are actively looking to buy, so my free listings are a great way to reach this niche audience.
Featured property advertising
As mentioned above, a featured property heads up each canalside homes list. Featured property images appear on the home page in the first few weeks after posting, and indefinitely as one of the images on this page. (Unless you ask me to remove it).
You can purchase a featured property spot in your price range for £15, first come first served. The payment covers one post. You can do it again four weeks later if that spot is available.
Specific property advertising
I sometimes share a one-off post about a specific property. These are published in two ways:
- as an email which is sent to both paying members and free newsletter subscribers
- as a website post which remains online until you ask me to remove it. This is visible to everyone, including the general public. Here's an example.
If you'd like one of these posts, it costs £15. I will use your estate agent's photos and text to create the post. You will need confirmation from your agent that they give me permission to republish the details. I will automatically include the agent's contact details, at no extra charge. If necessary, please reassure them that this is only a marketing service, I do not ask for a commission share.
I am not an estate agent
I used to be an estate agent specialising in canalside homes and I love helping people to sell their property. However, I am no longer insured or registered as an agent, so I can't directly sell or negotiate sales. I can only help you with marketing, enabling you to reach canal enthusiasts directly through this website and my personal contacts.
I am well known for being honest and straight-talking, and I may well bombard you with both solicited and unsolicited advice - starting here!
Choosing an estate agent
Take a look at my post on valuations and choosing an agent. My usual advice is to use an independent solo agent (my group was eXp, but there are others).
Before becoming an agent myself, I thought bigger was better. But that's not true. Ideally I would recommend choosing an agent with only a handful of properties on their books. That way, they will have enough time to devote to your house, and the maximum possible motivation to help you sell, as their income and reputation as an individual agent depends on their success.
Bigger agents don't really care (although they may say they do). They work on the basis that they will sell a good percentage of property on their books. They don't mind which properties sell and which don't, as long as they're getting sales.
Setting the price
Read my post on valuations.
In an unsettled or off-season market there are less active buyers in the marketplace, so selling can take longer than we're used to, and it is especially important not to overprice. The economy always affects the market - if there are fewer first time buyers in the market, chains cannot build. If there is an increase in stamp duty, there may be a last minute rush followed by a lull.
It's a good idea to set the price to one of Rightmove's price brackets, so that your house comes up in the first batch when people are looking in that bracket. At the time of posting, Rightmove's searches are in 10k brackets up to £300k, then in £25k brackets up to £500k, then in £50k brackets up to £700k, then in £100k brackets up to £1 million, then in £250k brackets up to £2 million, and so on.
Working with an estate agent
The estate agent is working for you, not the buyer. They should be advising you on how to sell successfully. They should be providing statistics and feedback on viewings (or lack thereof). They should be proactive.
Ask the agent to use all possible tricks to maximise exposure on Rightmove. They can upgrade your listing to Premium and they can add your property to the Waterside category.
Check the agent's details
Don't assume that the details are perfect. Check them yourself, or get a finicky friend who likes proof-reading to look them over.
- Ensure that they are technically correct, e.g. that they are accurate about mooring rights, that canals don't flow, narrowboats aren't barges, towpaths aren't footpaths, etc.
- Be sure to work in useful key words which someone may be searching for, such as 'mooring', 'Name of Canal', 'canalside', 'waterside', 'views', 'towpath'.
- Many details are AI generated these days, resulting in unnatural language and over-use of certain expressions. 'Serene' is generally a giveaway, as are spellings containing the letter z, eg cozy.
- Watch out for estate agents' cliches.
- Check for copy paste errors, such as duplicate text, unfinished sentences, or stray grammar issues.
Presentation
It's essential to present your house well and keep it clean and tidy. I like Phil and Kirsty's advice to invite a very tidy friend over to help you with some tough, objective advice on decluttering and styling. It can make a world of difference, especially in a difficult or competitive market.
Remove excess photos, pictures, unnecessary items of furniture, ornaments, etc. This will make rooms look bigger, and it will be easier for the potential buyer to imagine themselves and their possessions in your space.
Keep the grass cut, and keep bushes trimmed, especially if your property is vacant.
If there are unused support aids in the house which were used by an elderly person, such as stair lifts, hospital beds, and bath aids, remove them if possible.
Vintage or antique possessions, unless strategically placed with a designer's eye, can make a house look jaded and uncared for. The buyer's perception will immediately be that the house needs a lot of doing up.
Tone down any old-fashioned decor with a coat of neutral or white paint. Pale colours look fresher and make rooms look bigger.
Agent's photography
The estate agent should be including great photos, as well as floorplans, videos, virtual 360 tours, and elevated pole shots, drone photography, or drone video. If they don't have these services in-house, they can easily outsource them to companies like FocalAgent or Viewber.
They should be updating old, stale, or unseasonal photos regularly (quarterly is ideal). If you have a photogenic property, they can use special techniques such as dusk shots with all the lights on to freshen up the look.
Make sure that they move the bins out of every outside shot, and always close the toilet seats!
If your agent does not do virtual 360 tours with their own equipment, they can easily outsource the work. If you are within easy striking distance of my home in Tamworth, I can do a 360 virtual tour for you. Your estate agent can add my tour directly to their Rightmove listing and web page at no extra charge. All of my tours have their own dedicated pages on my website. Contact me for details.
Dropping the price
Normal strategy is to start by pricing realistically, but towards the higher end, and factor in a price drop if things get stale. Anecdotally you will need eight viewings to sell a property. You should get a few viewings in the first couple of weeks, and they should keep flowing gently.
If you drop the price by 2%, Rightmove will include your property as Reduced in an email to registered buyers in your price range (please check for the latest updates to this figure). Rightmove does not allow agents to keep putting the price up and down to take advantage of this mail-out.
Moorings
Don't let your estate agent use the wrong wording when it comes to mooring information. Saying the house has "mooring rights" could be very misleading.
Take a look at this important post if you have an existing mooring or a house with mooring potential. A small investment at the beginning of the selling process could make your property far more attractive to buyers with narrowboats.
Magazine advertising
Magazine advertising is always an option. There will always be a bit of a lead time though, so this is not so good in a fast, competitive market. It can also be expensive, so think carefully about your budget.
You might like to email Waterways World and ask whether they would be interested in featuring your house as the property of the month. (Feel free to name drop me to Andrew Denny if you do this).
You could also advertise in a local canal restoration, volunteering, or enthusiasts magazine, which can be small circulation, but great value for getting the word out.
Social media advertising
Your estate agent should be posting your home sale on a variety of social media channels, especially Facebook, where canal related Facebook Groups are a better bet than Facebook Marketplace.
If your agent is not using social media, that's a concern. Either insist that they do, or do it yourself. If you're leaving it to the agent, tell them to display the price, and avoid AI or estate agent speak. People don't like it otherwise!
Conveyancing
Don't neglect preparing for the legal process. You should speak to a solicitor early in the process and get their advice on navigating any special issues with your property, such as flooding, access roads, rights of way, etc.
If you don't have a solicitor, I'd be happy to recommend mine. I don't get a commission from her - I just trust her to give a great service - and that's priceless! Drop me a line if you'd like her details.
I hope that helps a bit!
Sheridan