RISMEDIA, March 9, 2011—You have worked hard to get the listing appointment, beaten out the competition and have secured the listing. During your listing presentation, you demonstrated your knowledge of the market and the neighborhood. You relied on your reputation and sales record as well as your brokerage and brand recognition to speak for your success.
Since most sellers are now keenly aware of the power of the Internet, you lay out your marketing plan to demonstrate how you will use the Internet, social media and social networking to sell their home.
With the property details and pictures in hand, you create the MLS listing and upload your photos. You schedule the open house, prepare newspaper ad copy and send out “Just Listed” announcements to the neighbors and all your buyer prospects and agents.
You are off to a great start. Now, how do you get your listing to stand out from all the others and get your potential buyers interested enough to come see the house, while at the same time “wowing” your sellers with your marketing savvy?
Here are some ideas that real estate professionals often overlook that could make a big difference:
Add More Pictures. Add the most pictures allowed by your MLS and also Realtor.com. Buyers will search by “Number of Photos” and your listing will rise to the top.
Create a Virtual Tour. Realtor.com allows buyers to search by “Featured Tours” and again, your property will rise to the top of the search. And you don’t have to spend a lot of money, you can “do-it-yourself.”
Add Video. YouTube is the second highest search site on the Internet next to Google, and Google owns YouTube, so your listing will show up faster in online searches. And again, it’s easy and free with some virtual tour services.
Add Personal Narration. Nobody will be as excited and emphasize the key features of your listing like you. Get excited, smile when you talk and use your passion to tell your home’s story.
Get Social. Add your virtual tour and listing to Facebook and Twitter. Promote your open house on Craigslist and Backpage and write a blog in Trulia, RealTown and/or ActiveRain.
You want your listing to stand out and grab the attention of the buyer, and your seller for that matter. Anything you can do to differentiate your listing, and move it to the top of the online viewing stack will help sell your listing faster. And you will probably find some new buyers and sellers in the process. We have all heard the saying: “it only takes one buyer to sell a house.” You just have to do the right things to find that one buyer before another listing does.
None of this needs to be difficult or time-consuming. Working with the right tools, all of the above can be done in a matter of minutes, not hours. If your listing could talk, you would want it to say: “Hey, look at me, I’m special.” What does your listing say?
Tim Denbo is president/CEO of VirtualTourCafe, LLC. VirtualTourCafe LLC is based in Dublin, California and was co-founded by Timothy Denbo and Hannele Rinta-Tuuri. The business is operated as a limited liability company and has an advisory board made up of professionals in the real estate, technology, and marketing fields. For more information, visit www.virtualtourcafe.com.
