In today's competitive real estate marketplace, or in any market for that matter, sellers must ensure they choose a Realtor who has a strong marketing plan for exposing the seller's property to the market. In the past, with limited marketing avenues, many Realtors got lazy and did the absolute minimum to expose their seller's homes. In the hot seller market of 2000-2005, Realtors really didn't have to do much to get homes sold. Often, an MLS listing was all that was necessary to find a buyer willing to pay top dollar for a property.
Today, in a buyers market, an MLS listing is usually not enough. Sellers need much more broad exposure to the marketplace to find the right buyers. And, with the internet intersecting into the real estate market, it's important that Realtors use the most current internet technologies to maximize property exposure when selling homes and other properties.
In this post, I will provide a few of the necessary marketing tools that sellers must demand of their agents to ensure their properties get the most exposure possible in today's changing market.
In my mind, these are not optional avenues of marketing, but necessities:
- Multiple Listing Service (MLS)
- For Sale sign
- Property flyers (full color, quality flyers - not the cheesy black & white photocopies)
- Customized dedicated property website (ie. www.propertyaddress.com so buyers can get plenty of information about the property. Sample of our sites: www.2504StratfordCircle.com)
- Virtual tours (buyers want to see more than just static photos - video and music enhance the experience and attract more buyers)
- Advertising on Realtor.com and on MANY, MANY other websites (buyers are everywhere, so your property should be advertised where those buyers are looking - and they're looking at lots of websites)
Of course, there are more marketing techniques and tools that I'll cover in Part 2 of this topic.
The bottom line here, of course, is for sellers to ensure prospective agents utilize MULTIPLE MARKETING TOOLS when listing and selling their homes. Ensure your agent is technologically-savvy and experienced in multiple marketing disciplines.
In our business, our sellers benefit from all the above marketing tools and much more, and ultimately we achieve the goal of getting our sellers top dollar and a timely sale.
Click here for What Kind of Marketing Should Sellers Expect from Their Agents? Part 2
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