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.
