Court Circular heard rumours that significant changes had been made to the property sales process. So, we caught up with Estates Director, Nick Chriscoli, to understand more about them.

CC: Hi Nick, we heard the RS team has been busy changing resales strategy over the past few months. How did things go?

NC: Yes, it’s been an eventful few months. When Melanie Gowers joined us as CEO, we began a restructuring process. And each department has seen significant changes. But it’s fair to say that our marketing and resales offering has been completely revamped as we try to maximise value for our vendors.

CC: Are these changes ‘behind the scenes’ or will sellers see a difference in how you market their property?

NC: Both, really. To help the team drive resales, we’ve invested in our back-office systems, including the development our CRM software – Concerto. It’s a multi-faceted tool that enables the team to deal with enquiries, run reports and keep Courts and sellers up-to-date with how their property is faring in the marketplace.

To help the team keep pace with the new processes, we’ve welcomed two new staff members – a sales manager and sales receptionist.

CC: What will vendors notice about the marketing of their property?

NC: Well, for starters we launched a brand-new website in August. It’s designed to emphasise our brand values, the amazing lifestyle available at our developments, and the uniqueness of the RS model – Courts run by owners, for owners! The website also markets the Courts themselves rather than the individual properties.

CC: That certainly is a new direction! What if a vendor wants an individual advertisement?

NC: Yes, we can still do this through Rightmove. There are two levels of individual advertisement to choose from. Our ‘Premium’ service provides a Rightmove advertisement until the property is sold. There’s a small, one-off fee of £450 (plus VAT) to design and host the advert. We also have our ‘Premium Plus’ service that incorporates a professionally- edited video of the property into the advert. That’s priced at £750 (plus VAT).

CC: What about those properties RS has already placed on Rightmove?

NC: We’ll honour all them at no further charge until the property is sold.

CC: So, anything else you wish to share on resales marketing?

NC: Yes, briefly there are three further areas worth mentioning: part-exchange opportunities, Autumna registration and property intervention.

RS has recently partnered with a part-exchange company called Springmove. If someone finds a Court property and would like a quick move, but need to sell their home first, Springmove can buy it from them. This process brings a whole host of benefits, one being that it saves on estate agency fees. We are in the early stages of training of Court Managers in this service.

CC: You mentioned ‘Autumna’ – what is that?

NC: It’s the UK’s largest and most comprehensive directory for retirement living. We’ve registered all of our Courts with them, upgrading the ones with the most properties for sale to a Premium Listing. As a result, we’ve had a staggering number of referrals across the RS estate – 218 came through between March and June alone!

CC: Finally, what is a ‘property intervention’?

NC: This is where we help someone if their property just will not sell. We’ll negotiate with them to see if they can make physical improvements to the property and make it more marketable (and valuable, in some cases). This initiative is limited to our overall intervention budget and we aren’t obliged to carry out an intervention upon request.

CC: Thank you for your time, Nick.