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Your home may not be a five-star resort (or maybe it is), but when it comes to marketing, all of the same principals apply. Let’s face it, no matter what the property information says, photography is your biggest chance to grab a potential buyer’s attention and get them interested. And great photography is what will set your listing apart from every other home on the market. Those images will be placed in high-quality print materials, as well as among more than 40 online advertising outlets to lure in as many eyes as possible.

Marketing to the primary target: other realtors

While you might expect the majority of my marketing efforts to be aimed at homebuyers, that isn’t actually the case. Or, not directly at least. You see, aside from placing a sign in your yard and adding your property to all of the online listings, locating a homebuyer for your property is a bit like searching for a needle in a haystack. That’s because the majority of homebuyers engage with professional Realtors when searching for homes, so those agents are what primarily introduce them to properties. For this reason, Realtors are my primary target.

Multiple Listing Service
The single most effective way to reach other agents is via the Multiple Listing Service (MLS). This Internet-based, electronic database contains information for every listing—whether it’s currently for sale, under contract (and awaiting closing), sold or has otherwise touched but exited the market. MLS is the first place every Realtor turns when searching for a home for their buyers, because every listing ends up in this system along with massive amounts of detail that you won’t find anywhere else. This database is where the listings you locate on Realtor.com are drawn from, but it’s important to note that the info you see isn’t quite as up-to-date or complete as what a Realtor has access to.

Once I’ve added your listing to MLS, it reaches the eyes of literally thousands of Realtors—immediately—including those nationwide who may be looking to relocate their clients. Multiply that number by the number of buyers each agent represents (or is even speaking to) and suddenly we’ve reached every possible buyer in the market.

While adding your listing to MLS is more than enough to get it noticed, there are numerous additional actions that I take for every listing to maximize our results even farther.

First, I’ll produce high quality take-away items, like flyers, information sheets and photos to distribute to key agents—especially those who have a history of selling listings like yours and in your area. These items also serve as reminders for every potential buyer who visits your home, or stops by to retrieve them from a sign bank. I’ll also place your listing on more than 40 online marketing venues.

Your home will also be displayed on all brokerage and agent websites that participate in info data exchanges within the Central Virginia region. I’ll work to ensure that we hit every possible avenue for agents and buyers.

The truth about open houses

One of the more hotly debated topics in the real estate industry includes the “open house.” Nearly every client mentions these to me when I list their home and I always caution them with the following information:

The truth about open houses is this: occasionally, they work, but more often than not they mostly draw tire kickers and primarily benefit the Realtors who host them by drawing in new potential clients. Can they produce buyers? Yes. Do they typically? No, they don’t. Based on statistics, and my own experiences, believe me when I say that open houses are only effective as one small piece of a multi-faceted approach to marketing.

One of the first questions you’ll face when selling your home includes how much it’s worth in today’s market. And if you’re purchasing another home, chances are you’ll need to know this sooner than later, in order to determine how much you can afford to spend.

Another key factor for you to know is: Price has everything to do with success when it comes to selling real estate and it’s absolutely imperative that we get this right the first time. In addition to the scenario I mentioned in an earlier section (selling for too little), you also should be leery of overpricing.

Market data shows that agents and buyers have long-term memories when it comes to listings and especially prices. If your initial price is too high, your property will very quickly become old news, in many cases after just 14 days you’ve lost the attention of most buyers.

Comparative Market Analysis

The most accurate means for determining the value of your home is by having a professional Realtor perform a comparative market analysis (CMA). This is a totally free analysis (or just know that it should be) that compares your home to previous listings that have sold within the same geographic area and with similar characteristics. Ideally, those homes will be nearly identical to yours, but in the event that closely matching homes do not exist, there are proven methods for calculating price by using the data we have on other listings.

I’ll use the most comparable homes available to come up with an appropriate price tag, but I’ll also compile all of the data for each home I use as a comparison and provide you with that information in a free report so you can see how I arrived at that number. In that report, you’ll see where I’ve made adjustments to each home’s sales price to account for how it differs from your home. (Think of this like turning oranges into apples, for the sake of an apples-to-apples comparison.) Once you have that report, just remember that should you wait longer than around 30 days to list your home, that’s fine, but we’ll need to update the information with all of the latest data to see if any new sales warrant price adjustments.

Accurate pricing requires diving deep into the data

The data used to formulate a correct price goes well beyond just the most comparable homes that have sold in your area, along with calculations based on how they differ from your home. I’ll also carefully study previous listings that failed to sell (which we call “expired” or “withdrawn” listings), as well as any that are currently under contract and awaiting final sale. While these don’t give us sales prices to go on (they never sold), they do contain some good and useful information. The competition within the current market is another important factor. I’ll examine homes that are currently listed for sale in your area in order to understand how unique your property may be, as well as how it ranks among other available homes based on its features. But again, it’s important to remember that, while homes that are currently for sale do provide an idea of what you’re up against, those asking prices do not provide an idea of what your home is worth. Remember, those homes are for sale, not sold, and nothing stops other sellers from asking whatever amount they choose. For all that we know, they could be way overpriced—or under priced—so following those numbers is a recipe for disaster. We’ll need to stick to examining properties that have proven their value by selling.

A CMA is also a job application
Obtaining CMAs offers a prime opportunity for you to interview real estate agents. And, I’d like to be your first and only choice, but I absolutely don’t mind being stacked up against the competition. If everyone’s done their best job, then we all should arrive at roughly the same asking price and suggestions. If not, I’d encourage you to look at the data that each agent provides very closely and don’t hesitate to ask each to explain and support their analysis. Also, be sure to interview every agent, carefully examining their sales and marketing strategies. We all do things a little differently, but everyone should be able to explain how their tactics are specifically tailored to your property.

CMA, versus appraisal, versus assessment

While this may be your first time hearing about CMAs, chances are you’ve come across two other forms of home valuation: appraisals (most often ordered by a lender) and assessments (performed by the city or county, for the sake of calculating local real estate taxes). These two other forms of valuation are similar in concept to CMAs, but serve different purposes. For this reason, in all likelihood, none of these figures will be the same.

Tax assessment

An assessed value is what the city, county or other municipality assigns to your property for the purposes of calculating your real estate taxes. These valuations may be done as frequently as biannually, or as infrequently as every few years. I’ve even encountered assessments that were as much as 10 years old.

From time to time, assessed values may be spot on with the current market values arrived at through CMAs, but, more often than not, because assessed values are sometimes dated—plus the tendencies of cities and counties to slightly undervalue properties (most likely for the sake of avoiding kickback or controversy)—assessed values differ from what your home should bring on the open market.

Professional appraisals

Appraisals are most often ordered by mortgage lenders in order to determine how much they can safely lend you based on the value of your home (what they should expect to get for it, should someone default on their mortgage, as well as how much it should be insured for). Appraisals are always performed by licensed professional real estate appraisers and may be the closest thing to a CMA. If a buyer applies for a mortgage when they purchase your home (which, chances are, they will), their lender will require that an independent appraisal be performed. That’s because, while ethics require that every Realtor provide you with an accurate assessment of your home’s value, from the lender’s perspective, those same Realtors have a vested interest in obtaining the highest possible sales price (for your sake). By lending out more money than a property is worth, banks would run the risk of losing in the event of a foreclosure. For this reason, the buyer’s lender will obtain a third party, neutral opinion of value.

It’s important to note that, unlike CMAs, appraisals do cost money—typically between $250 and $500—but those costs go to the buyer of your home. In the meantime, you can use a free CMA to determine an appropriate asking price.

If you’re interested in talking to me about a free CMA, CLICK HERE. I’ll schedule a time to come out to see your property and will be happy to provide you with this information.