For Sale by Owner - Realtor Secrets 301 For FSBOs
In "Realtor Secrets 101," we talked about the physical condition of your property when it goes on the market, realistic pricing, and making Internet marketing of your home effective. "Realtor Secrets 201" dealt with making good use of real estate signs, brochures, and enlisting the help of neighbors. Anyone following those suggestions will have the basics of a good multi-media marketing campaign. (Each of those articles can be found on this article site.) Now let's talk about how to integrate your existing marketing and add to it to increase it's effectiveness by borrowing more Realtor secrets.
Integrated Marketing
Realtors who survive tough markets and make sales along the way don't just throw their listings into the local Realtor MLS, and onto the Internet, and stick a sign up in the yard. Not by a long shot. The publicly viewed Internet site will have photos and the address so that people can drive by and see if they like the general look of the home and the neighborhood. It will have the Realtor's phone number for setting up an appointment. It will have the price so that people will know if they can afford it.
The sign may well have the Internet address of that home's web page so that drive-bys can view interior photos. It will have the Realtor's phone number so that a viewing appointment can be made.
Do you see a pattern here?
Each marketing tool gives information, and makes the next step easy. A potential buyer can drive by, see interior photos, know the price before ever talking to a Realtor. It is comfortable and easy to get more information and take the next step. Each marketing tool is linked to, and integrated with, another (or maybe even two or three others). You need to take a leaf from a good Realtor's book and do the same things.
Your FOR SALE sign should have your phone number and your property's web address on it. Your online MLS listing should have the price, number of bedrooms and baths, number of garage spaces, your home's physical address, your phone and email info, and lots of interior and exterior photos, plus a map with the property location shown. You, too, want to use every tool at your disposal in such a way as to make "the next step" easy and comfortable for potential buyers. And when they're ready, you want them to know how to contact you.
Classified Ads
Realtors run classified ads in local papers. You should, too. And if you live in an area where lots of people commute, you might also advertise in the "big city" classified section. Use abbreviations to keep the cost down, but be sure they're understandable. Integrate. Include something like, "Photos @ myproperty.org." Give your phone number. Make it possible to contact you, or to take another step without contacting you.
Open House
If you're in a fairly high population area, Open Houses can be effective. It's usually best if you offer refreshments of some sort. It doesn't have to be elaborate. You can advertise your open house in a newspaper, on your Internet MLS listing, with signs (with balloons attached on the day of the event), with invitations to neighbors to come and bring someone they'd like to have as a neighbor. Make sure people at work, school, church, and clubs you belong to know about your house sale and your open house. Use word of mouth, a note, whatever seems most natural to the circumstances.
Home Phone Answering Machine
Change the message on your answering machine. You might include something like, "If you called for information about buying the house, or to make an appointment to see it, please include that in your message, and you can see interior and exterior photos at myproperty.org." (Substitute your property's web address, of course.)
Miscellaneous
If you get a newsletter and can advertise in that, do. Use any local bulletin boards that you can to place one page ads. Get creative about ways to get out the word that your home is for sale. Good Realtors do. That's how they survive the tough times. Learn from them, and earn the commission they might otherwise earn.