How to make your home stand out on Rightmove

January was Rightmove’s busiest month ever, and we’re seeing a record number of buyers looking for their new home with us.

We’ve seen a remarkable increase in the number of sales happening across the country for all types of property.

If you’re selling your home right now it’s important to make sure your property stands out and catches the attention from as many home-movers as possible.

So, what can you do to make sure your property attracts the biggest number of potential buyers? Read on to see our top tips…

Make a great first impression

Did you know that when your property is uploaded to Rightmove it becomes live and visible to millions of home-hunters instantly?

It will also be sent out as a Property Alert email to anyone who’s asked us to help them to find a property like yours.

This means that the first two weeks is usually when your home will get the most visibility and interest, so you’ll want to make sure you start with your best foot forward, and your agent should only upload it once you have everything in place, such as all the photos, floorplan, and a great written description.

Price correctly

A recent study showed that pricing your home accurately doubles your chances of selling successfully.

It will also help you sell quicker – something that is very important to most home-sellers.

No matter how wonderful your house is, and how beautifully presented, if it’s overpriced it’s probably not going to get the attention it deserves.

Most homebuyers have done their research and will be able to quickly if a property’s asking price is excessive, and may not even look at it.

Your agent will be the expert in suggesting how much you should set as an initial asking price.

Also, here’s some helpful advice on how to price your property for a speedy sale.

Fabulous photos

You know how important photos are when you’re browsing Rightmove.

Dark, badly-framed images of untidy spaces can be off-putting, whereas bright well-taken photographs that really capture the space are click magnets.

Your estate agent knows all this already, so work with them so they can help to produce truly impressive photography of your beautiful home.

Here are some tips:

• Have at least five photographs including an external shot of the property
• Include photographs taken on a sunny day, ideally by a professional photographer. Open the windows and curtains and let as much natural light in as possible
• Invest some time in tidying up and decluttering the property. Dress it up and make it look its very best
• Include good photos of features that are in high demand, such as gardens, office space, etc. (more on this later)
• Avoid images that are very specific to a time of year, for example Christmas. A picture of your Christmas tree in Spring is not going to help sell your property
• Don’t include images of just one piece of furniture, as this could be from any property
• Avoid including images of your personal photographs on the mantelpiece
• Put some thought into the order of the photos. The first two should normally be the best ones.

A winning description

A picture may be worth a thousand words, but using the right words in the description of your property can also be a powerful way to ignite interest in your home.

Again, this is something the agent marketing your property will do, but you can help them by giving them plenty to work with.

What do you most love about your home and the area? Is it the large windows in the living room? The bright and spacious kitchen? Sitting on the terrace during spring and summer? Or the local walks?

The more you can paint a picture of the wonderful features and advantages that come with your house, the better.

Since the first lockdown last year, certain items and features have shot up on home-hunters’ wish lists. The following list outlines the most popular features, so if your home has any of them, you might want to make a song and dance of it:

• Garden ​
• Access to parking/garage​
• Home workspace​/office
• Green spaces nearby​

Your estate agent may be able to tell you exactly what’s in high demand in your area.

Keywords

You’ve probably already seen or used our Keyword Sort function on the property listings search pages.

It allows you to type in literally any term you’d like – “garden”, “sea views”, “garage”, “annex”, etc. – and the search results will be reordered to prioritise the listings that contain those terms.

So be sure to include words and terms that you would type in if you were looking for a home like yours.

Summary description

On every property listing on Rightmove there is a box displaying a short summary of the property.

There will usually be quite a few properties to scroll through, so at this point the aim is to grab people’s attention and get them to click on yours.

Agree with your agent what the most attractive selling points of your home are, and make sure those are highlighted in the summary box.

Floorplans

Over 90% of buyers and tenants think that seeing a floorplan is essential. And listings that include floorplans tend to get much more attention than those that don’t.

The vast majority of agents will automatically include this, but it’s worth checking with them beforehand.

Online viewings

In the current lockdown situation, home-movers are being encouraged to view a house virtually before going to see it in person, so working with an agent that offers online viewings could be an advantage.

Rightmove allows a video tour of your property to be included within the description, so if your agent offers you that option you might want to go for it.

Apply all these tips and your lovely home should get all the love and attention it deserves!