It’s a tough housing market out there. House prices are expected to continue falling this year as buyers struggle to stump up the money for homes with mortgage rates climbing and a cost-of-living crisis.
As an estate agent, anything you can do to give your properties an extra push is worth the effort.
So one agent decided that to get ahead of the curve she would add a musical twist to traditional for sale listings.
Claire Cossey, 43, owner and director of Just-Knock estate agency in Bedfordshire, regularly puts her vocal talents to work creating musical walk-through promotional videos of her properties.
Internet singing sensation: Estate agent Claire Cossey makes singing promotional videos to help sell her properties.
And one of her efforts has just gone viral.
‘The Never Ending Property’, a musical tour through The Laurels, a detached five-bedroom, three-bathroom property in Leighton Buzzard, has more than 200,000 views on YouTube after it became a social media sensation.
Claire Cossey, 43, promotes houses for sale with unique musical videos
The estate agent told us there has already been an increase in viewing requests for the property since the video took the internet by storm.
And Cossey has seen a similar uptick in buyer interest when videos for other properties are noticed locally.
In the video, Cossey takes the viewers on a walking tour through the expansive home, singing the praises of its unique features including an in-built dog grooming business, solar panels and a games room.
But this is not the first time she has given homes their own show tunes. With a professional singing career spanning two decades and a part-time job as a singing teacher, Cossey has long been combining her passion of music and real estate to give properties their own musical backing.
‘We are all miserable b*ggers at the moment and it puts a smile on people’s faces,’ she tells This is Money.
‘It’s hilariously fun.’
She was not expecting The Laurels video to go viral.
The Laurels is a five-bedroom property in Leighton Buzzard with five reception rooms and dog grooming facilities on the market for £700,000
The listing has been on property site Rightmove for four months, but came to the attention of the internet when she marked down the price on Wednesday evening.
‘It blew up on Reddit and I had never actually been on Reddit myself,’ she says, before laughing at the news she has been trending on Twitter.
‘You can’t stop me, I’m completely crazy.
‘If it was someone else’s company, they wouldn’t let me, do it, but it’s my company.’
It is also, she says, easy to get owners to agree to the idea. For the featured property the seller is a personal friend of Claire’s, who loved the promotional idea.
‘When they blow up the way this one has it has definitely helps sell the property”
The hardest and most time-consuming part of the process, according to Cossey, is choosing a song and writing new lyrics to fit the property.
‘It is really difficult, I do everything myself,’ she explains.
Once the lyrics are finalised she records the song in her own home studio and loads it on to her phone. It is then played as she shows off the property she’s selling, and lip syncs the words so the music can be added.
As well as a garden and multiple ensuite bedrooms the Laurels currently includes facilities for a dog grooming business currently owned by the sellers
The spacious property has become a viral internet sensation thanks to estate agent Claire Cossey
For The Laurels – now on the market for £700,000 – it was the size of the property that provided the inspiration.
With all double bedrooms and five reception rooms Claire found inspiration in the theme song to the title movie The Never-ending Story (covered recently in an episode of Stranger Things).
Cossey started making the videos after her and her partner started their own agency in the pandemic after losing their jobs.
But she does not think a catchy video alone will sell a property.
However, the videos also have a secondary more sentimental purpose. She says the recordings provide a ‘keepsake’ for the sellers, who have a lasting memento of their home once they leave. But, true to her profession, it is selling the properties ‘all over the town’ that comes first.’
She added: ‘When they blow up the way this one has, it definitely helps sell the property.’
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