When people make the decision to sell their home, there are a number of considerations that need to be kept in mind. Marketing is close to the top of this list, as the tactics a seller employs can mean the difference between selling at a substantially higher price. Focus on utilizing the following five marketing elements to ensure that you maximize the success of your home sale, and sell at the highest price in the shortest period of time.
1. Use Home Staging to Show the Property at its Full Potential
The goal of professional home staging is to create a home that appeals to a broad range of potential buyers, by effectively using both design and décor elements. This process typically involves de-cluttering, de-personalizing, removal and replacement of furniture as a first step. Secondly, the space is reconfigured to maximize space and improve traffic flow. Art and other vignettes are incorporated to create a warm and welcoming feel. Home staging projects are typically completed within a day, with the result being a property that potential buyers emotional connect with, and feel that the property is ready to move into tomorrow. The home staging process provides the foundation for all of the downstream marketing activities that will follow.
2. Use Professional Photography to Create High Impact Marketing Material
Now that the home staging process has been successfully completed, the next step is take photos for the marketing material. It is critical that the photos are high impact and a professional photographer should be used. Considering the magnitude of the impact that photos can have, investing the $75 – $100 on a professional photographer is a good investment. The first place that photos will be used to market your property will be on the MLS website, and likely in a feature sheet. Given that most potential buyers research properties on-line prior to considering a showing, high impact photos create a positive first impression before a buyer even visits your home.
3. Use Video Sites to Reach a Large Audience
Most real estate agents include a virtual tour for their listing, hosted on their website. While this can be helpful, the traffic to most agent sites is somewhat limited. Utilizing video sites, such as YouTube and Vimeo, can be very effective to reaching a much larger audience, very quickly.
4. Use Social Networks to Spread the Word
Social networking is a very powerful marketing tool, especially with the younger buyer demographic. An increasing number of real estate agents have a Facebook Fan Page, where they highlight their listings. In addition, agents effectively use Twitter to promote open houses and provide real time updates on the interest level with their listing. There are also social networks focused on the real estate niche, which can assist in providing increased promotion.
5. Use a Dedicated Website For an Extra Promotional Push
A fifth beneficial marketing tactic that we have seen used is to launch a website dedicated to the home listing. This process involves selecting a domain which is the property’s address, and creating a microsite with the listing details, photos and contact information for the selling agent. Though arguably the incremental benefit from using this tactic is marginal, both the seller and potential buyer often find the microsite to be impressive, and the effort required to establish the site is minimal.
Using these five home marketing tactics can help sellers ensure that their sale is as successful as possible.
Anne Bourne and her team from StagingWorks are professional home stagers for those looking to get the most value from their property when selling in the greater Toronto area. Anne has been featured as an expert home stager in the newspapers the Toronto Star, National Post and the Globe and Mail, and on the television shows CityTV News and On The Money. Her blog is at http://www.stagingworks.ca.