There’s no secret to getting a home sold quickly – the more people that view it, the better your chances of a quick sale. Unfortunately, too many real estate agents take a “list and pray” attitude toward their home-selling clients – trying to get away with sticking a sign into the dirt, a lockbox on the door and two or three photos on the MLS listing.
Sure, that might work in a hot sellers’ market, but it may also fail. Are you willing to take that chance? Since you will pay the same amount for the list-and-pray agent as you will for the guerilla marketer, shouldn’t you do your best to find the latter and eschew the former?
The key to getting lots of folks through the front door of your home for sale requires a plan and a robust marketing budget to back up that plan.
Keep this in mind when you’re interviewing listing agents. Don’t be afraid to ask them for a copy of their marketing plans, ask to see examples of past marketing efforts and ensure that the agent has the money to put that plan into action.
Getting the listing price right isn’t rocket science
It’s true that pricing a home too high may cause it to languish on the market and the homeowner may even end up getting less for it than hoped. But overpriced homes are typically the work of homeowners, not real estate agents. Determining the market value of a home isn’t rocket science – it’s something we all learn as beginners. Sure, with practice comes perfection, but coming up with market value isn’t our most important task when we take a listing – marketing most certainly is.
Marketing, in a nutshell, is the megaphone for your listing – it screams to the world that your house is for sale, that it’s worth taking a look at and why it’s better than the competition. While there are many ways to accomplish this, the best includes a combination of several. The most important weapon in the marketing arsenal, however, is photography.
Photographs can make or break the sale of a home
Americans are visual creatures and nothing proves this more than the Internet. Websites such as Pinterest achieved their success through the visual medium. Advertising agencies understand this concept and spend weeks to complete a single, what seems to be simple, photo shoot. Because they were hired to convince us to purchase a service or product, photography takes on a critical role.
The same holds true in the real estate industry. Take a tour of any real estate site that offers a glimpse into the local MLS and you’ll find far too many listings that lack any photos at all or offer up photos of homes that are blurry, off center and just downright curious in many cases. Since most homebuyers take to the Internet to begin their search for a home, these photos are useless to the poor homeowner who is just trying to move on to the next phase in her or his life.
The statistics
Studies prove that homes that are photographed by a professional net the owner more money and sell faster than those that were marketed using photographs snapped by an amateur. In fact, a national real estate conglomerate conducted a study that found that the use of a DSLR camera to photograph homes listed between $200,000 and $1 million netted the homeowner from $3,400 to more than $11,000 more than homes that were photographed by a novice. Another study finds that the sharper the photograph, the more money the seller will net at the close of escrow.
It may sound trite, but for many Americans, their home is their largest financial investment. It only makes sense that they want to get every last penny they can when it comes time to cash in. Approach the sale of your home as a business transaction. Search out the best professionals to assist you and you’ll be successful.
Alex Saenger and the Saenger Group are Top 1% Maryland Real Estate Agents serving the Washington DC Metro area. We are licensed Realtors based in Rockville, MD at Keller Williams Capital Properties.
