Marketing Your Home

The Multiple Listing Service (MLS) and Agent Marketing

The Multiple Listing Service and its online agent-subscription database is your, and our, primary marketing tool. Most qualified Buyers have an Agent actively watching the MLS for them, assisting them with both search and selection.

We list your home in the MLS with professional-quality interior & exterior photos and recorded virtual tour and marketing comments designed to highlight the special characteristics of your home, yard and locale.

• We put a for-sale sign and flyers out in front of the home, directional arrows on local streets where allowed, and “special feature” cards in the home to lead the touring Buyer and their Agent to notice particular details.
• We host a Broker’s Open House to make sure the agent community is aware of the quality and many positive features of your home. We “bribe” agents with food and giveaways to come to our subsequent Broker’s Opens if needed :-)
• We request feedback from every showing agent as to their Buyer’s interest in the home and solicit their comments and feedback on both the price and the property.

Public Advertising and Marketing

Nearly 90% of all residential real estate buyers start their search on the Internet. Various companies are spending millions of dollars to try to create both a site and a marketing program that will attract lots of viewers. Some of these viewers will be potential buyers, and our objective in each venue is to create an attractive listing ad that will lead the potential buyer to call their agent, or us as Listing Agent, to look at your house.

Our objective in this market is maximum exposure - to reach as many potential buyers as possible, and the Internet is our key medium.

• We have 360 degree/Virtual Tour photos and professional-quality stills taken of the home to use on the MLS and all MLS-derivative sites - RE/MAX, John L. Scott, Windermere, Coldwell Banker, Redfin, etc.
• We produce a color take-away flyer that reflects the quality of the home.
• Glossy cardstock flyers will be available in the home for Buyers, and paper flyers in the outdoor box for the interested driving by.
• We design and place a “fully-loaded” Internet listing on all major Internet sites including interior still photos and a 360 degree “Virtual Tour” where possible - Craig’s List, Google Base, Trulia, etc.
• Hold multiple public open houses - the traditional Sunday afternoons, and sometimes a neighborhood Friday evening too.

Word of Mouth Advertising

When appropriate, and with your permission, we will send a mailing about your property to neighbors. Sometimes one of them has a friend or relative who always wanted to live near them. You never know how far reaching the benefits of word-of-mouth advertising by friends, relatives and neighbors can be.

Showings and Open Houses

To prepare your home for showing to a prospective client and their agent, make it as bright, clean, cheerful and serene as possible. Always look at your home from the buyer's point of view. It is a good idea to be absent while the house is being shown to prospective buyers, because your presence will inhibit their actions and conversations. They won’t feel free to open closets and cabinets, test out the plumbing and discuss their observations objectively as they walk through the house.  And they don't really want to hear what you've don to it - they see it as it is, and think about what they will want to do.  It goes without saying that your children and pets should not be on the premises either.

To prepare for an open house, you may want to notify the neighbors, and assure them that they'll be welcome. They'll jump at the chance to poke around in your house, and sometimes they can turn up a buyer among their friends.

Quick tips for showings and open houses:

• Clean or replace dirty or worn carpets.
• Open all curtains and blinds.
• Replace any burned out light bulbs and turn on all lights.
• Clear all clutter.
• Clear all countertops.
• Wash and put away any dirty dishes.
• Set the dining room or kitchen table if you have particularly nice linen or china.
• Simmer a few drops of vanilla on the stove.
• Put on soft music.
• Burn wood in the fireplace on cold days, otherwise, clean the fireplace.
• Put fresh towels in the bathroom.
• Take any laundry out of the washer and dryer.
• Put pets in cages or, preferably,  take them with you or to a neighbor.

When Marketing Hasn't Worked

If your house has been on the market for quite awhile, and very few people are coming to see it, that is usually not a marketing problem, it is a price problem.  All marketing can do is make potential buyers aware that your house is for sale, and show them its many desirable features that might justify the price.  But buyers will not pay any more than they think they have to, and often won't even visit a property they think is over-priced.  So if you are not getting any traffic, and other listings are, then the market has spoken and your price is too high.  Time for a price reduction.  A true market price is one that brings buyers feet through your door.