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Selling Your Home - Marketing It Successfully

You're ready to put your home or land (house, townhouse, condo, apartment, farm, ranch, finished lot, raw land, etc.) on the market as a FSBO (for sale by owner).  You've priced your property appropriately and gotten it ready to show.  How are you going to market it so that it gets exposure to enough potential buyers to actually sell?

Signs

In some parts of the county, the real estate market is so hot that you need do little more than buy a "for sale by owner" sign at the nearest hardware store and install it.

In other areas, a great deal more marketing is needed, but a "for sale by owner" sign is a good place to start.  Directional signs ("home for sale" with an arrow) at intersections leading the way to your property are useful, too, if your location lends itself to that.

Classified Ads

A classified ad in your local newspaper is a good idea and is generally not expensive.  A short ad repeated a number of times is apt to be more effective than a long ad run once, or only a few, times.

Bulletin Boards/Posters

Are there bulletin boards where you work?  In neighborhood shops and restaurants?  At your church?  Any place you, or members of your family, frequent which has something like a bulletin board is a good place to post notices of your property's availability.  If you have the use of a digital camera and a computer, you might want to do a one page poster with several photos of your house, some key information, and contact information.  Consider having tear off strips at the bottom with your phone number repeated on each strip.

Magazines & Community Publications

You may want to check the cost of putting an ad in "For Sale By Owner" type magazines. Community publications and newsletters of organizations you belong to may provide free (or cheap) venues for ads for your property.

Brochures

Brochures, or one page flyers, can prove useful.  You can use the same one you made for bulletin boards, or you can expand on it a bit.  Use more photos, have captions under them identifying the rooms, garden areas, tennis court, community club/pool, etc.

There are several things you can do with the brochures. 

You can buy a brochure holder (typically, a plastic box with a hinged lid on a stick which gets "planted" in the ground near the curb in front of your home) from the hardware store at which you bought your signs.  Keep it stocked with your brochures. 

Don't get annoyed when "noisy neighbors" pick up your brochures as, or more often, than strangers driving through the neighborhood.  Your neighbors can afford homes priced similarly to yours. They probably have family and friends whom they'd enjoy as neighbors who can afford this price range, too. Smile when you see a neighbor picking up a brochure; another marketing ambassador is on its way.

Also keep a supply of brochures in your home to give to prospective buyers who come to look at it.  People looking for a new home usually look at a more than one property, and, after they look at several, they get confused.  "Is this the one with the built-in book cases, or was it the one across town?"  The house whose best features go with them via a brochure with color photos and salient information is memorable, and buyers tend to write contract offers on properties they remember well and favorably.

Consider taking your brochures to your peers at work. After all, you find it convenient to live in your home and work there; might your associates know someone who'd find it a similarly pleasant arrangement?  Ask them.

Internet

There are several Internet sites on which FSBOs may list their properties for sale.  Some of these permit sellers to include photos, information about "Open Houses" they're holding, etc. Prices for this service varies. We give you a free month and

then charge $25 a month. Go ahead and try a listing.  

Open Houses

That brings up the notion of "Open Houses."  In many areas, sales frequently take place because of an Open House attended by potential buyers.  If you are in a conducive location, this can be an excellent tool.  You can promote your Open House in any, or all, of the venues we've discussed above.  It's also often effective to install an Open House sign with helium balloons tied on with bright ribbons on the day of the Open House.

Content Ideas for Ads, Brochures, etc.

To the degree possible include key information.  A classified ad will contain less than a poster, which will contain less than a brochure, which may contain less than an Internet listing, etc. 

In general, people want to know what type home is being offered (single family house, townhouse, condo, etc.), how many bedrooms and baths it has, its general location, and the price.  Interested people need to know how to reach you.

In the media which allow you more space, be sure to describe the things that attracted you to your home in the first place.  Was it the location?  A beautiful view?  Neighborhood charm?  A school district you were seeking out?  Lots of storage?  Garage spaces for 3 cars?  High ceilings?  The style of architecture?  Large entertainment areas?  A well established garden?  Don't be shy; mention your home's best features.

A note of caution is called for here. When you mention your home's best features, don't overstate them.  If your potential buyer's first emotion on actually seeing your property is disappointment, there really isn't much potential for a sale to that person. With that in mind, I wouldn't refer to a house with a garden that backed to a small farm pond as "waterfront property," nor would I call a small, city apartment with windows on an air shaft a "spacious city abode with sunny views."

Photos

Include color photos wherever possible. When selling real estate, a picture really can be worth a thousand words.

When taking your photos, take lots of them. Take them from typical angles and from unusual ones, too. Cameras often like odd angles. Photos that show three walls very often seem to reduce the size of the room visually.  It is often better to show only two walls with the corner slightly, or very, off center.  You may want to show the same room from more that one angel.  One photo may include a wall of windows, and another photo show a fireplace in the same room, for example.  

It takes some time, some talent, and access to a few tools, but most FSBOs can put together a successful marketing program once they put their minds to it.

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