Seller Tip - How Not To Alienate Potential Buyers Over $1

Pretty much all listing sites such as Realtor.com and Homesdatabase.com provide buyers the option to search in 25K, 50K or $100K blocks. Buyers can search "up to $400K" or "up to $425K". The same is the norm for agents who search for properties "less than $400K" or "less than $425K". By being priced directly at or even $1 over a price bracket, you will lose exposure to another pool of potential buyers.

For example, if you are listed at $426,000, you’re losing exposure to all buyers and buyers’ agents searching for properties up to $425,000. Perhaps you have to have that last $1000, but you’ll never realize any money unless you sell your home in the first place. It would make more sense to price your home at something like $424, 900, gain exposure to a greater number of buyers and then do a great job negotiating the price and terms of the offer once you actually have one on the table.

With over 80 percent of today’s buyers searching for homes online, it’s crucial to understand how they go about doing so in order to gain exposure to the greatest number of potential buyers. This is just one of the many ways to do so.

Seller Tip - Do You Have A Personalized Web Site To Boost Exposure and Maximize SEO?

Are you are a seller with a traditional sign up in your front yard with just the name of the brokerage firm, listing agent, their web site and the phone number to the office and the agent’s cell phone? What about the url/web address of your own personalized web site of your home?

With over 80% of buyers going online to get information on homes for sale, utilizing digital marketing, part of which is having your own personalized web site, is key to getting the most exposure for your listing. And it’s key to getting the most amount of information about your property and community to potential buyers.

For example, if you were to search "Birdsnest Place" (one of our listings) in Google, the first result you would find is the listing on Trulia (one of the 25+ sites our listings are marketed on). The second and third search results are the personalized web site we created for that seller/listing.

As you can see, having your own personalized web site is an integral part of getting on top of search engine results. This is due to its’ search engine optimization (SEO) capabilities. This will bring your property to the attention of potential buyers much more so than being buried on a page deep inside your agent’s web site.

As far as providing buyers with the information they need, a personalized web site is great for accomplishing that. Your site can provide features and information that is not always available elsewhere (the MLS, Realtor.com, other listing sites). These features and information include:

• High-resolution digital photos which are able to be enlarged for better viewing
• Neighborhood information/links
• Additional information (this could include a plat, list of renovations/improvements, schools, etc.)
• Map/Directions (aerial maps including satellite views along with directions)
• Contact information for your listing agent (not some random agent who paid the most amount of money to have their information advertised on the listing as is the case with many listing sites)

And many of today’s buyers are getting tired of being "sold" by the listing agent/broker when they call so they would rather get the information online on their own. Having your own personalized web site for your property will appeal greatly to those buyers because they get most of the information they need right there on the spot.

Another thing to consider is how quickly you can get the information about your property to a potential buyer who sees the sign up in your front yard while driving by.

Rather than having to to call the listing or search through the various listing sites to find the property listing, buyers driving by your property can quickly jot down the url and find your property immediately when they get back to their computer. In a perfect world, the buyer would be able to access the information immediately.

Well, if you have the url listed on your yard sign, the buyer can pull up your site on their phone’s browser right there on the spot while still in front of your home.

So sellers…don’t sell yourself short by not embracing digital marketing, a part of which is having a personalized web site for your property/listing. Maximum marketing exposure is more important in today’s real estate market than ever before.

Breaking News: Internet Crashes-Loudoun Real Estate In Turmoil-Print Media and Paper Product Company Stocks Rebound.

Thank you to Kevin Boer of 3 Oceans Real Estate for helping break this latest news story and it’s effect on real estate…

Breaking News: All Online Data Lost After Internet Crash

Check out Kevin’s post regarding the impact on real estate in Palo Alto, CA, which is very similar to the effect it’s having here in Loudoun County, Virginia.

On a related note, print media, paper product and tree cutting company stocks were up almost 7 percent in after hours trading. It seems that with the Internet down, agents, brokers and consumers are turning to print media for the first time in several years as a source of marketing and searching for properties for sale. With real estate advertising money shifting over to online mediums, the infusion of advertising revenue is a (brief) ray of hope for shareholders of print media, paper product and tree cutting companies.

Sellers - How Do Buyers Search For And Find YOUR Home?

Most sellers in Loudoun County, as well as neighboring counties and everywhere else in the world, wonder how and where today’s buyers search for and find their new home. Why? Because they want to know how today’s buyers will find their home (and buy it, of course). If you do not market in the places where today’s buyers search for homes, you will lose very valuable exposure and have a very tough time selling your home. Savvy sellers and real estate agents will know the answer to this million-dollar question and will focus their marketing so that it’s appropriate to today’s buyer’s search methodology.

So how and where do today’s buyers, in general and specifically in Loudoun County, Virginia, search for and find their new home? Here are some stats based on our research and that from other sources:

• 85% of home buyers used a real estate agent to search for a home
• 80% used the Internet to search for a home (up from 77% in 2005 and steadily growing)
• 22% used the Internet to get neighborhood information (a key component in a home search)
• 47% found the home they purchased through a real estate agent (we still have some value)
• 25% found the home they purchased through the Internet (and rising)
• Two of the most important features while browsing for homes on the Internet are photos and property information (why it baffles me that some listings still have no pictures or incorrect/incomplete information)
• 72% actually drove by or looked at a home they found online (they weren’t stalkers after all)
• 46% walked through a home they found online (Internet marketing actually works)
• Only 47% of buyers found a virtual tour helpful (mental note - "make virtual tours better")
• Less than 15% found their home through a sign in the yard (and the number is declining)
• Less than 5% found their home in print media (and the number is declining as well)

(Check out "Related Articles" at the end of the post for the full set of stats)

As you can see, the majority of today’s buyers utilize the Internet to search for and find information on properties as well as to research neighborhoods.  And a growing number found the home they ultimately purchased online. If your home does not have adequate Internet/web exposure, you may lose potential buyers to your competition.

And just placing your home on the local MLS, Realtor.com and Homesdatabase.com no longer works. There are a growing number of listing sites such as Trulia, Zillow, Google Base and others that buyers are using to search for homes. If you’ve never heard of these names, you should start checking around. Trulia already has over 1 million listings, Zillow’s listings are growing daily and Google Base has tons of listings and is expected to release their Google Real Estate beta site shortly.

And if you think that just listing you property on those sites will do the trick, think again. Make sure that you and/or your agent focus on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for your/their personal real estate site/blog as well as their listings. Where your property comes up in a search for homes with your county, city, zip code, community, street and actual address as a key word makes a huge difference. There are many ways to achieve SEO, but that’s a lengthy discussion for another day. 

Now let’s not forget the stats about how only 47% of buyers are happy with the virtual tours and that the top two things that make a difference to them are photos and property information. Make sure that you have as many pictures up as allowed by each site, that the pictures are of decent quality, that the information on the property is complete and accurate (buyers hate sellers and agents who lie or stretch the truth) and that you have a good virtual tour and/or video tour of your property. There’s nothing worse for a seller than having a buyer find their home online, but click right past it because some or all of these things are lacking.

So now that you know how today’s buyers are searching for and finding their new home, analyze what you’re doing to get in front of them and get their attention.

1. How does your marketing plan stack up against that of other properties/your competition?
2. If you’re using an agent, what are they doing to get maximum Internet/web exposure for your property?
3. Does your agent have your home uploaded on all the currently available sites such as Trulia, Zillow, Google Base and the twenty-some others?
4. Does their site/blog rank anywhere on the first page of results if not the very top 3 to 5 results for real estate property searches in your area/community?
5. How do your pictures, information and virtual tour stack up against your competition?

If you’re a seller with a home currently on the market, you’ll either be patting yourself on the back and/or applauding your real estate agent for being on top of all these items or your scrambling around to do them or you’ll be calling your agent as soon as you finish reading this sentence. Hopefully, it’s the former…

For the full set of buyer and seller statistics, check out - Statistics About Home Buyers, Sellers, Blog Readers and Bloggers

Related Articles: Just How Important Are Property Pictures