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Sell your home fast with our staging tips
Sarah Harley
Exclusive: Singing estate agent says ‘NeverEnding Property’ music video isn’t a gimmick
Watch it here, and see if you would put in an offer.
An enterprising Bedfordshire estate agent has gone the extra mile to sell a five-bedroom property on her books – by creating a music video that literally sings its praises.
Singing estate agent Claire Cossey, who runs Just Knock Estate Agents, is looking for a buyer for the family home and dog-grooming business. In the video – complete with 1980s-style special effects – she pitches “The NeverEnding Property”, explaining, “there’s so much here to see”. She’s not wrong.
An enterprising Bedfordshire estate agent has gone the extra mile to sell a five-bedroom property on her books – by creating a music video that literally sings its praises.
Singing estate agent Claire Cossey, who runs Just Knock Estate Agents, is looking for a buyer for the family home and dog-grooming business. In the video – complete with 1980s-style special effects – she pitches “The NeverEnding Property”, explaining, “there’s so much here to see”. She’s not wrong.
Credit: Rightmove/Just Knock Estate AgentsClaire gives us a grand tour of the five-bedroom home, on the market for offers in excess of £700,000 at Rightmove. She starts in the living room, “all covered with these beams”, then goes on: “there’s so much space and every room’s a dream”, including the “dining room, snug, games room and kitchen”.
“Maybe you’re a family, with growing teenage kids,” Claire continues. “This home has lots of options, to all watch your own Netflix.” Why the mention of Netflix? Because the choice of song was inspired partly by a scene in its hit show Stranger Things, where two characters must sing NeverEnding Story to save the world.
If you’re looking to cut down on heating bills, you’ll be glad to see that there’s an “air source heat pump fitted, and solar panels, too”.
And “With its own small business there’s so much you can do.” That will be the ‘groom room’ located at the back of the house, from where the owners currently run a dog-grooming business.
The property does have one downside, as Claire points out: “The road outside is near.” However, she reasons: “Don’t despair, inside that isn’t clear.”
Besides, “the garden is so pretty, with its flowers all in bloom”.
Credit: Rightmove/Just Knock Estate AgentsDon’t have the voice for your own music video? Elaine Penhaul, Director of Lemon Lime Interiors, has 7 expert tips on staging your home for a quick sale. Our three favourites are:
- Declutter – keep areas that are likely to gather clutter, such as kitchen countertops and hallway floors, free of clutter. Otherwise it coudl raise concerns about a lack of storage space.
- Depersonalise – remove family photos and quirkier decor. Your buyer wants to picture themselves living here, not you, and may otherwise feel like they are intruding.
- Pop a mirror in the hallway so buyers can see themselves – literally – in your home as soon as they enter. It can also make the space feel bigger.
Credit: Rightmove/Just Knock Estate AgentsIf Claire’s face – or voice – seems familiar, it may be because this isn’t the first time she’s sung to sell a home. Great Northern, The Musical pitches a three-bedroom terrace to the tune of A Whole New World from Disney’s Aladdin. And Wing Road, The Musical, is set to Abba’s The Winner Takes It All.
Saga Exceptional spoke exclusively to Claire and she told us: “It’s not a gimmick – it’s just something I wanted to do to promote the house. It’s fun, enjoyable and lighthearted, and I hope people love it.”
So why NeverEnding Story? “Me and my teenage kids watch Stranger Things and love it. And of course, I’m old enough to remember the original film. It just seemed to fit. A never-ending house? NeverEnding Story!”
Credit: Rightmove/Just Knock Estate AgentsClaire also spoke to Radio 2’s Jeremy Vine about the origins of her unusual marketing approach: “It’s quite a novel way of advertising isn’t it? A couple of years ago, we had a property that was struggling to sell, so I just said: ‘I’m going to write a song about it.’”
“I took The Winner Takes it All and changed the lyrics, and [the resulting video] got 15,000 hits in about two days. We were like ‘Wow! This is really cool!’
“It’s not something that everybody wants, I get that. But The NeverEnding Property has taken me by surprise. It’s up to 190,000 views on YouTube so far. I have no idea why it’s done so well. I can only think that because it’s a track from Stranger Things and Stranger things is trending.”
But as Jeremy points out, as a house purchaser, would you start to think ‘wait, if they’re singing about it, they must be having problems selling it?’. “It’s a hit and miss strategy,” Claire admits. “People are wise to the fact that if something’s been reduced in price, then obviously they’ve not sold it. But if it’s got bad marketing, it’s not going to sell.
“But this is just completely different, and just a case of being able to get loads of exposure, and it really does do that. So I don’t think people see it in that way at all.”
“This particular property has five double bedrooms, five reception rooms – it’s got a business on the side. I went in and said to myself, ‘it’s just a NeverEnding Property’, and then it was ‘Oooh, there you go, there’s a song for it!’ It just comes to me.”
“At the end of the day, I want the house sold. It’s as simple as that. We’ve already got more enquiries on this one so I’m really, really pleased with the results. Some people have obviously come back with negative things, and I get that a lot but that’s just life. But the majority has been overwhelmingly supportive. Nothing phases me – no publicity is bad publicity!”
And Claire has had success. Her House Is Made For Living video for a property known as Tamar Walk, and set to the tune of These Boots Are Made For Walking, did sell thanks to her musical efforts.
So would this video tempt you to put in an offer? And more importantly, if you were selling your home, which song would sum it up? Is it a Love Story, or House of the Rising Sun? Answers on a postcard…
Written by Amy Cutmore she/her
Published: Updated:
Amy Cutmore is Editor in Chief for Homes at Saga Exceptional. She’s been writing about interiors for more than 20 years, harking back to the days when glossy red kitchens, toile de Jouy and rag rugs were all the rage, and everyone wanted a Changing Rooms makeover.
You’ll have seen Amy’s work at Britain’s biggest homes titles, including Ideal Home, where she served as Consumer, Technology and Group Digital Editor. She has also edited or written for Homes & Gardens, Livingetc, 25 Beautiful Homes, Real Homes, Gardeningetc, Inside Readers’ Homes, Inspirations for Your Home, Country House & Home, Top Ten Reviews, Trusted Reviews and Country Life. And she’s a winner of the PPA’s Digital Content Leader of the Year.
Amy’s homes knowledge knows no bounds – but her Mastermind-style specialist subjects include kitchen and bathroom design, and technology. For many years, she was Ideal Home’s Girl About Tech, where she spent her days pitting KitchenAid mixers against Kenwoods, attending washing machine launches (in 10 different countries, no less) and ensuring everyone who would listen knew their RPM from their RAM.
Amy rents out three properties, so is always on hand with advice for tenants and landlords alike, and is renovating her own home – a late-Victorian semi in desperate need of a kitchen extension and upstairs bathroom. When it comes to her interior design approach, she is a big fan of teal, can’t resist a statement wallpaper and loves vintage wooden furniture, whether it’s in the form of an old sleigh or a tatty trunk.
