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Five ways we differ from other property developer sales channels

A sales strategy targeted at active property investors

Selling your property development before a brick has been laid is no easy task. Selling it when it is no more than a plot of land, a wedge of artist impressions, and perhaps a scale model is even more difficult. And selling a development off-market is another step further. This is what our sales team specialises in: off-plan, off-market sales to investors that gives your property development real step-change impetus at the beginning of its life.

There are five things we do that differentiate us from other sales channels. These strategies help us reach out to investors from around the world, giving you a wider and deeper base of potential buyers.

1.    We provide exceptional customer service

At such an early stage of development, we understand that our job is to provide an excellent service to investors. What we’re really selling is the promise that at some time in the future they will be the owner of a fantastic property that will be in demand from tenants.

We keep in touch with all our investor clients. We provide email newsletters, general research, and enormous amounts of educational resources. We find out what their objectives are, their timescales, and the extent of capital they wish to commit. And we build a very personal relationship.

2.    We sell investment potential, not homes

At this early stage, we concentrate on highlighting investment potential. It’s not a home yet, and nor will it be to our long-term investors. How do we do this?

We promote the developer’s record, of course, but we do much more. We provide investors with comprehensive research that describes the fundamentals that will drive the potential of their investment in the area. We also provide a  detailed projection of potential returns, based upon this extensive research. And we match all this to the investor profile that we have built up during the relationship-building phase.

3.    We never over-promise, but sell reality

We don’t promise what cannot be delivered. We prepare investors for possible delays in delivery, for example. We provide outline schedules and then manage the process of buying for the investor. Our services include strong relationships with the key professionals that the investor will need: mortgage brokers and solicitors, for example. By using well-qualified and recommended partners, investors are given extra confidence.

4.    We reiterate the investment potential of the property

We now concentrate on the rental potential of the property being bought and the potential for capital gains. We consider area demographics and provide evidence of how the property will appeal to the widest audience. We’ll also help the investor decide on the internal specs – the furniture, fixtures and fittings that will solidify tenant appeal and help to maximise rental income.

5.    We monitor and report

Investors want to see progress. Most will not be able to visit the site, so we do this for them. We provide an essential link between you, the investor’s professional network, and the investor. This helps us to manage expectations, while reassuring investors that the development is no longer a scale model, but a full-size reality.

The bottom line is that our investor buyers make excellent buying decisions driven by logical thinking, time after time. Very different to the emotional drivers of selling to homebuyers – and requiring a very different sales strategy.

Our investor clients become long-term holders of property, returning to us to source new property investment opportunities for them as they build and diversify their portfolios – as we help developers sell their early-stage off-plan property off-market, without the need for the developer to pay for largescale and expensive marketing.

Let your property development benefit from the Castlereach advantage. Call us today on 0207 923 5680.

Live with passion

Brett Alegre-Wood

Your off-plan property sales strategy for 2017 and beyond

An off-plan property sales strategy to increase sales

We’ve helped property developers sell over £800m of off-plan property to an investor base from around the world with a substantial number going to UK based investors. We’ve held property investment seminars in six countries, and sold off plan property for over a hundred property developers and several hundred schemes.

Helping property developers get new build developments financed and off the ground we offer property investors off-market and exclusive investment opportunities. Investors from the UK and overseas understand that we work with great developers, with the properties we source benefit from great property fundamentals in highly researched and specific areas.

We can’t and won’t stand still, just as property developers continually evolve and change practices, we are continually growing our investor client base, innovating our off-plan marketing strategies, and forward-planning sales strategies. Here I want to give you a peek into just some of the plans we have to increase your off-market, off-plan sales in 2017.

Review your investor profile

Our clients are UK and overseas property investors who understand property investment. They know that, despite negativity surrounding Brexit, the UK offers a stable environment for long-term investment. Our overseas investors, in particular, have not been surprised to see that post-Brexit London off-plan development sales are holding.

We understand the profile of most active investors changes over time. Regulations, market events, economic cycles and foriegn exchange rates have separate and combined effects. We’re continually researching, analysing and examining who the most active investors are. Our team use this information and insights to determine marketing strategies and focus on developing our investor database.

Understand why the investor buys your property

Our property consultants spend a lot of time getting to know your development, the area, the story behind it and the particular qualities it has as an off-plan property investment opportunity. We spend a lot of time understanding our investors’ objectives, their aims, and the journey they take to get to making the investment.

We take this journey seriously, mapping it out and understanding the conversations we need to have to move from one stage to the next.

Again, this is something we constantly review – and backwards! We start at the end point (exchange of contracts) and move back through each step needed. We iterate, innovate, and evolve off plan property sales strategies to develop a fully rounded sales conversation. We get to understand the strings we need to pull and why, the objections we’ll come across and the true motivations property investors have.

Something we’ve know is that there is no ‘one size fits all’ approach possible – with different developments, completion times and locations – when you consider property investors are from across the UK or overseas, each has their own motivations, cultures and customs which need to be accounted for.

Property investors prefer different contact methods

We communicate with our investors in a variety of ways, including:

• Seminars and events
• Content or inbound marketing
• Email outreach and campaigns
• Promotion and advertising
• Telephone or online chat / instant messaging
• Face to face meetings and catch ups

Different investors prefer their property consultant to use different contact methods. We’re careful about the type of contact we use at each stage. Off-market sales requires discretion and a lot of personal contact and time is invested between the property consultant and client – otherwise, they cease to be off-market.

Our USP or unique selling point

Investors buy through Castlereach because we offer them something different – off-market and off plan property investment opportunities. Our property consultants are personable, dedicated, and highly experienced. With more than five decades of experience between them, they’ve invested in off plan property themselves and they’re international.

We get close to property developers, understand the local market and have some of the best research in the property investment industry available. Our investors benefit from all of this. We understand that our customers know what they want, so we ask them. We find out why they deal with us, which helps us to grow our investor database. By offering what investors want and investment properties they can’t get elsewhere, we have incredible understanding and reach. That how and why we help property developers with their off-plan property sales.

Review of website and marketing materials

We’ll make sure that our website, landing pages, area guides and marketing materials speak to investors in the UK and overseas. We’ll review them in line with investor profiles, changing markets, and evolving technology.

Creating a brand that is synonymous with property investment, consistent throughout, but appropriate for a range of investor personas requires a 360-degree review – website, social media, print, email, etc. We’re continually innovating new ways for all our channels to be effective and materials to be informative, attractive and educational, as well as promotional.

Our Off Plan Property Sales Process

We are continually innovating and evolving all aspects of our sales and marketing. We encourage sharing of best practice, writing engaging materials and introducing new processes into our sales strategies. From initial contact (often by referral) we nurture prospects as we discover what their unique challenges and objectives are. Throughout, we’re building a profile for the property investor that allows us to target specific investors with specific off-plan property investment opportunities and developments. This sales funnel filters down to commitment and almost-certain sales targets for your off-market properties.

Tracking progress, evolving sales strategy

We’ve some stretch sales targets for next year. Individual property consultants here are responsible for hitting them. Every week, we review activity and progress as individuals and as a team. At team meetings we’ll be discussing successes and failures, learning from mistakes, ensuring that everything we do is aligned to meet our objectives: to sell more of your off-plan property off-market.

What are you doing to increase your off-plan property sales in 2017?

When it comes to working with individual developers, we understand all developments and each developer’s objectives are individual. Unique. That’s why we build flexibility into all of our sales and marketing strategies, to allow for flexibility when working with different developers so we dovetail with their expectations not ours.

We’ll work with you to identify the strengths and weaknesses of your development, and use this knowledge to identify investors with the highest and most appropriate need for your off-plan property opportunities. Collaborating closely, we’ll target a list of interested investors without going public. We don’t advertise and we leave all your current sales channels unaffected. You’ll get the early-stage investment you need, while our investors benefit from their investment in great property, in strong locations with all the information they need to hold on to their property for years to come.

Contact us today on + 44 207 923 5680, connect with me on LinkedIn. We will outline how we dovetail with your existing marketing and sales strategies and importantly, how we can help sell your off plan units, fast.

Live with Passion,

Brett Alegre-Wood