Home Marketing Tips

Homebuyers may have many concerns when preparing to sell their home. Whether it's choosing a realtor or determining what marketing strategy to use for the initial listing, selling your home can be daunting. Determining and carrying out the best marketing plan is important for maximizing the sale price.

Continue reading to learn more about how homeowners can exploit a variety of tools for selling their home. You can also learn what you need to know as you start selling your home to potential buyers.

Essential Points about the Listing Process

In any home-selling process, it's important to do the following with the listing:

• Use a multiple listing service, such as Zillow. It's a reputable service and maximizes your home's exposure.
• Examine other property listings to see the standards for real estate listings.
• Use social media marketing. Post listings to social media platforms.
• In any social media marketing campaign, determine the best ways to exploit search engine optimization (SEO). SEO requires comprehensive and clever uses of hashtags and other internet tools.
• In any social media marketing campaign, take advice from a real estate professional. They can help you learn how best to present your home through real estate marketing strategies specifically for online marketing.
• Consider adding “mailers" to your marketing campaign. They are an excellent way to inform prospective buyers of your home.

Choosing the Right Real Estate Professionals

The real estate business can require expertise that you may not have. So, you need to find the right people to help you. Real estate brokers will make the process easier. They can help you create the initial listing. But they can also do a variety of other helpful tasks. These tasks include:

• Providing additional real estate marketing ideas, such as email marketing
• Informing you of local market trends and assisting in a helpful way with exploiting local market trends when deciding on an asking price
• Advising on the quality of the listing photos
• Providing you with access to a variety of marketing tools and demographic information
• Finding services to enhance the aesthetic and other best features of your home, including landscaping services
• Organizing walkthroughs
• Advising you on which real estate websites to use for your own research and listings
• Finding the right professional photographer for the listing photos

When you choose a realtor or real estate agent, you can verify whether they are licensed by checking with the National Association of Realtors (NAR). The NAR keeps active records of realtors' and real estate agents' credentials.

After the Listing Has Been Completed

After the listing has been completed, it's important to do the following as you proceed through the home-selling process. Remember, first impressions are important:

• Keep your kitchen and bathrooms clean.
• Keep the cat box clean and change the litter frequently.
• Be vigilant about sweeping and vacuuming up pet hair.
• Put out nice towels in the bathroom
• Put away your personal items, treasures, and knick-knacks.
• Put fresh flowers on the dining room table. In the dreary days of winter or the rainy season, fragrant blossoms will perk up the room.
• Set up an information station where you can put flyers about your house, articles about how great the neighborhood is, and property-condition disclosure forms.
• Leave out a fancy plate or bowl for the visiting agents' business cards. They'll leave the card when they bring buyers through so that your real-estate agent knows who visited. Some agents may call other agents they know well and ask for objective feedback about how things look.
• When your agent calls to schedule a viewing, arrange to be elsewhere. You'll inhibit the buyers if you're there, and they won't look as carefully.
• Consider nontraditional ways of marketing your home, such as virtual tours.

More Tips on Selling Your Home

You also need to do the following as you proceed further through the process of selling your home:

• Keep your kitchen countertops clear. Find cabinet space for things you normally leave out, like the toaster.
• Don't leave dirty dishes in the sink.
• Decide how you want to handle the pets. The buyers will want to see the whole house, so you may need to plan for your dog to be elsewhere.
• Replace any burned-out light bulbs.
• Make sure nothing is on the stairs for people to trip on.
• Wipe the handles and frequently touched surfaces on the refrigerator, the stove, and the oven.
• Shake out the rugs by the doors.

Additional Resources

To learn more, review the following FindLaw resources:

• Tips for Holding an Open House
• Tips for Preparing Your House for Sale
• How To Sell Your Home

Need More Help? Contact a Lawyer

If any legal issues arise as you're selling your home, contact a licensed real estate attorney near you. Home sellers need to find qualified professionals, sometimes including lawyers, as they sell their homes. Don't do this alone. If you need legal help, contact a lawyer today.