In this episode, we’ll explore some unique ways that you can make the most out of showing property. You’ll learn some tips to prepare properly and make sure your clients remember their dream home properly.
Duration : 0:5:14
“I am planning to market my condo for rent myself. I would like to know how do agents find their contacts and get potential tenants?”
Here’s a good beginning answer from “Newlywed“: The primary way agents locate potential properties is through the MLS. Unfortunately, because you’re not an agent, you don’t have that ability. You can try Craigslist, local newspapers (local ones are generally more effective than big regional ones), fliers, posters, postcards, and notices. Word of mouth is also effective.
To which we would add, in many markets you can list your property on the local MLS for a fee. In our market, that fee is $450. Each MLS runs independently and vary quite considerably.
And then the following social media sites:-
in that order… and then you might use Slideshare to make a moving slide show of your home and post that to various video sides like YouTube and Vimeo.
Lots of options to get the word out, when marketing your property yourself. And then you might offer a commission of some sort to the buyer’s agent… because they will be doing a ton of work for you in terms of getting paperwork processed in a timely manner so that their buyer actually gets the home!
Learn the new rules of real estate marketing!
“So many Realtors get into the real estate business and fail to survive. In today’s fast paced, technology filled society, you need to understand the Internet and online marketing so you can effortlessly develop leads, capture those leads and follow up with folks until they’re loyal customers.”
Property Listings on the major sites like Realtor.com will get the main buyer pool. Listing a property for sale on the MLS will deliver awareness to all professional agents. But those specific buyers, like car collectors who might be interested in your Property for sale with 5 garage bays, are best found via social media – Facebook groups, Yelp, Ning, etc. – where you would seek out folks around the car collecting “niche” in your general area.
Another important aspect of Online Marketing is that while it feels like socializing and chatting with friends, what you are actually doing is creating authority backlinks and pingbacks. All of which raise you page ranking within the search engines. You want a higher rank in the search engines because the closer you are to #1 the more calls you will get from people wanting to do business with you.
“This book is 5 stars, a great read.”
Sincere thanks to my buddy, Joe Ferrara for bringing a new study from Michigan State University into the real estate space for the rest of us to gnaw on. It meshes with an article I wrote over a year ago on tailoring your workstyle to fit Gen and Y when trying to help them buy or sell a house. They – Gen X and Y are quite different from Boomers, and the next generation – the Millennials are different again! For now, let’s take a top-down look at consumers in general.
MSU researchers have identified the 4 most important desires of today’s consumer when making a buying decision.
“Consumers say they want a “total experience” - the totality involves these 4 factors, in this order of importance:
1. Benefit (what’s in it for me?)
2. Convenience (easy and readily available)
3. Price (both the dollar amount and cost in terms of time – time is money).
4. Environment (does the shopping environment – online or offline – stimulate, entertain, motivate a consumer to buy)”
Although the study was done on the hotel industry, there are obvious correlations for other businesses. As a researcher said “Consumers’ desire for the total experience does not change in a recession… although they may modify one or more of the factors”.
When preparing a property for sale sellers (and their realtors) need to keep these factors in mind.
Benefit: Does the home clearly illustrate the opportunity it presents? Does it look like it’s a great value?
Convenience: Can the buyers get in to see the home at a moment’s notice? Is the place easy to show? How much warning do the sellers have to have and what about that dog?
Price: Back to value – does the home look like it’s worth the money it’s asking?
Environment: What is the Walkscore of the property? How much fun is the house to explore? Are there cool things to look at and imagine how they’d fit for you as you walk around the place? How motivated are viewers — i.e. back to value – is it priced well, so well that it apears to be such a great value it won’t last….
Hmmm, back to value, again, do you notice?
Bottom line, today more than ever, is this notion of value. A property for sale must, must, MUST be priced and presented so that the value is OBVIOUS!
We know that most buyers want to “move in on Friday, unpack on Saturday, and go to work on Monday”. This is why new construction always trumps “pre-owned”.
I wrote an article a year ago about competing against new construction. You’re welcome to read the whole thing However, I believe the key points were -
Of all of these, lighting and smell rank the highest for me in terms of what can be done inexpensively for H-U-G-E impact! Smell or scent is so important in the selling of a property – home buying may look like it’s about numbers but when it comes right down to it, it’s the emotional pull that causes a particular property to be the one that’s chosen. When thinking about emotions – the 5 senses come into play. Smell being one of the more obvious ones at play.
There are lots of options to change the various aromas of your house: from cleaning the carpets, the curtains and upholstery to relocating the pets and plugging in an anti-allergen odor diffuser. I love the essential oils that are used in aromatherapy, and they do create a luxurious feel but one needs to be careful that it’s a universally appealing aroma as opposed to something pungent and distinctive. (My husband hates cinnamon for example, whereas my girlfriend, Karen, links orange with strong cleaning products and won’t tolerate it. So be careful!)
As to lighting ~ a brightly lit home feels so much more cheerful and alive than one with no overhead fixtures and a few hardworking dreary 60 watt bulbs on standard lamps on the corners. Gloomy = depressing. I can’t emphasize how important this is.
And do we have to go over the Mint Condition thing again? Want people to back bid during Inspections? Fix stuff so you can go to market with confidence and walk tall!
As you know, the first step to selling property is preparing the thing for sale. (Prep~aration, the 1st of my 3 p’s – where Primp and Promote are the other 2.)
There is a site that will tell you, for your specific zip code, what the ROI – Return on Investment – is for each potential improvement you make to your home. It’s called the Home Gain Maximizer and is brought to you by the creative folks of Home Gain.
Whatever you’re considering, these folks will tell you how much more these types of improvements and upgrades have yielded in past transactions and what you can likely expect.
Sound good?
For me, it was particularly heartening to see that Home Staging services enhanced the property listing’s result by 453%!! Now there’s a % I can live with!!
I own Sid’s book and have long found it extremely useful in the Preparation phase of Property Marketing.
There are lots of simple, straightforward tasks you can execute around the home that will reap huge rewards when it comes to presenting an attractive property for sale. Sid uses helpful inspiring language like
“Revitalize the two most important rooms in the house — the bathroom and the kitchen — by grouting, replacing fixtures, and refinishing cabinets.”
This book is filled with checklists, charts and ideas to help owners prioritize and budget their pre-sale preparations, ‘Home Makeovers That Sell’ is the key to selling a home as quickly and profitably as possible.
While this isn’t really marketing advice, it’s interesting to note that Sid takes advantage of the chance he has your attention to reinforce the critical and sage advice – Work with offers and counter-offers. It’s important and sooo hard to do when one is mortally offended by a low-ball opening offer. I know. I was there in January of 2009 selling a home I had lovingly and tenderly renovated. The need to instantly be a grown-up was intense!
You know that buyers start their search for a new home online.
You know that both buyers and sellers check out realtors online before they meet one.
You know you have to master this online thing… over and above putting your property listings on Realtor.com, Trulia, Zillow and whereever else the Office Manager has organized.
The online piece of property marketing is as much about the listings and properties you have to promote as it is about branding yourself, your service and your expert status in your zipcode (s).
Later posts will go into more detail. Along this journey, it will be important to remember the same 3 words of encouragement Alex Perriello, CEO of Realogy, offered about the ridiculously tough Spring Market of 2009:
Be positive, proactive and persistent!
Keep at it. Small steps, every day, and in a short period of time (way faster than advertising) you will see results.
Keep a positive, open outlook. This stuff works, and it’s how the kids want to do business. If we want to help them we have to come over to their space to do it. You’ve heard the old saying – if you want to fish, go where the fish are?
Building a platform for the social media piece of Property Marketing takes time. Not a lot of money. But time.
Stick with it, and you will reap the rewards!
Property marketing has changed, thanks to the internet. Because anyone can research houses for sale, with or without a realtor, the way properties look becomes of the most important factor. Therefore, to successfully market property, it must be conditioned (prepared), styled (primped) and placed online artfully, copiously, everywhere (promoted.)
In the old days, a property was listened in the local MLS and an ad was placed in the newspaper to announce an open house. If the home was in good condition, the ad said so. If it was not, that fact was silently reflected in the price. Those days have gone.
Now, as soon as a house is for sale, it is posted online… with photos. Those photos are carefully scanned by buyers and agents alike, to assess whether the property is worth taking a look at in real life.
Just as important as the photos is the data fields: all need to be filled out since internet searches all work via criteria. The number of bedrooms, bathrooms, square footage – all vital so that your property comes up in as many search results as possible.
The best way to ace the online promotion piece of marketing property is to get the thing into really good condition. Finish all the little to-dos that have been hanging around. Make sure edges and corners are clean and well-defined. Then style the home that it looks inviting in all of the photos.
This is the case whether you are selling your house by yourself as a For Sale By Owner (FSBO) or whether you’re using an agent. In either case, the home that is presented best wins the buyer and a higher selling price.
It takes more time to prepare a home to sell in this environment, but the rewards are great.
I encourage you to stop by often for tips, timesavers and best information available from someone in the field of property marketing 24-7.
"
Great book for all agents!"
"Best RE book on the market"
The book is full of Davis' surefire methods for managing the sales process. He also reveals how clever use of the Web can provide a competitive edge and how the top producers work smarter not harder. Offering field-proven tools and techniques, Davis shows agents how to progress at their own pace to their own personal Next Level and accelerate their entry into Top Agent status.
