Every house on this island has a soul. The trouble is that the person selling it has usually forgotten what that soul looks like. Home owners have been living inside it for so long that they can no longer evaluate it from another perspective.
This is not a criticism. It is one of the most human things imaginable. When you wake up to the Atlantic every morning for twenty years, you stop seeing it. The ocean becomes wallpaper, and the levada at the end of the garden is a footpath. The volcanic peaks at sunset become simply the weather.
A home owner who wants to sell his property, sees square metres, proximity to the school, distance from the highway, the leak that was fixed three years ago. They think of history, maintenance, practicality.
Meanwhile, somewhere in another country, a potential buyer is scrolling through photographs of Madeira on a grey Tuesday evening, and when they look at your kitchen window, they feel something shift inside them that they cannot quite name.
The international buyer, on a visit will see how the light moves across the floor in the afternoon. The colour of the sea seen through the window. The feeling that his life could be better here.
So, once you decide to sell your house, walk through your home as if you are seeing it for the first time. Open every window, stand on every terrace, and watch the light at different times of day. Ask someone who has never visited to tell you what they feel when they walk in. What they describe to you is what you are selling.
Too many property listings work like this: The seller says: “It is five minutes from the motorway and close to the supermarket.” The buyer hears: “It is next to a motorway and close to a supermarket.”
Local homeowners have learned to value convenience because they live here, work here, raise children here: A listing description should balance these facts with the emotional truth of the property.
The international buyer is looking for the light, the view, the garden, the terrace, the sound of the wind through the eucalyptus trees.
Tell that story first, and the convenience side second. If you are not sure how to tell it: ask someone who has recently arrived on the island what they felt when they first saw your home. Their answer will write your listing for you.
The listing: You invite three agents to value your home. The first says €280,000. The second says €295,000. The third says €340,000. Of course, you choose the third. You love your home. You have put years of work and care into it. The third agent understood its value.
The property is now listed at €340,000. It attracts some initial interest; buyers come in, look and leave without making offers. In the real estate market, the house acquires a quiet stigma: something must be wrong with it.
After six months the agent suggests a price reduction, then another. A property that began at €340,000 may sell in the end for €275,000, less than the lowest valuation you originally received. It is a story about the gap between optimism and evidence.
A property priced correctly from the first day will almost always achieve a better final outcome than a property priced optimistically and reduced repeatedly. The market rewards confidence, and punishes hesitation.
Let us end where we began — with seeing. You are not sellingsquare metres, not a Via Rápida” junction, and a recently repaired roof. Your house has a soul, a life, a remarkable view. It will be remarkable to the person who buys it and to every visitor for years to come.
A Practical Checklist For Madeiran Sellers
- – Walk through your home as a stranger; open every window, every door.
- – Ask a recent arrival to the island what they feel when they walk in: their answer is your listing description
- – Get at least three independent valuations from different agencies
- – Ask every agent to show you comparable sales evidence (not opinion) to support their recommended price
- – Never sign exclusively for more than six months without a review clause
- – Insist on a clean end date; don’t accept an automatic renewal
- – Ask for the seller penalty clause to be removed or capped
- – Insist on a 50/50 co-agency clause; it turns your agent into an island-wide network
- – Read every clause of the contract in full before signing
- – If the contract is in Portuguese and you are not fully comfortable, have it reviewed by a lawyer first
- Remember: the right price from the start is worth more than an optimistic price followed by reductions
Madeira is one of the most beautiful places on earth. Those of us who came here from elsewhere know this with a clarity that familiarity has not yet softened: each property is extraordinary. Your home deserves to be sold with the pride and confidence that truth deserves; we hope this article helps you do exactly that.
Marie Lippig Singewald
Guest writer
info at madeira-weekly.com
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