How Effective Real Estate Marketing Attracts Buyers
22 Essential Steps for a Strong Real Estate Marketing Plan When Selling a Home in Michigan
“Buyers decide in the first eight seconds seeing a home if they’re interested in buying. Get out of your car, walk in their
shoes and see what they see in the first eight seconds.”
Why Does an Effective Marketing Plan Matter?
• The marketing plan is one of the primary ways to bring value to the listing process.
• A recent study by Inman reviewed 25,000 listings across Zillow and Realtor. com found the vast majority lacked good visuals.
• Only 10% of single family home listings included a floor plan.
• Only 30% of the photos in the listings met best practices.
• 94% had no video or virtual home tour.
• You want to give the listing every opportunity to stand out and be the one that buyer’s want to check out right away.
What Are the Steps to an Effective Marketing Plan?
1. Identify the Home’s Unique Selling Features
This includes the lifestyle offered by the home and neighborhood, location and property’s history.
2. Pricing Strategy
Your basic choices are pricing slightly above market to allow for some negotiation or slightly below market to drive buyer interest and potentially multiple offers.
A real estate professional should know values for the area to reflect any improvements to the property or changing market conditions.
3. Staging Consultation with a Professional
The value of an experienced home stager cannot be understated and will help your property sell faster and likely for more money.
They can give you guidance on needed repairs, colors and adjustments to furnishings and decor.
4. Repairs and Getting the Home Ready to Sell
Decide which repairs or improvements need to be done and do them yourself or arrange to have them done by a contractor.
5. Professional Photography
It is critical to have the home ready and staged for a professional photographer to take excellent photos with the right lighting.
After price, photos are the first thing buyers see when looking at the property listing.
6. 3D Tours and Floor Plans
Buyers begin their search online and offering a 3D tour and floor plan allows them to experience the property before and after seeing it in person.
For an out of town buyer, this may be one of their primary ways of experiencing the property.
More and more listings are offering 3D tours and floor plans, and buyers are coming to expect that.
Virtual staging is even a thing where you can digitally stage the home. Just be sure to include actual pictures of the home as well.
7. Video and Virtual Tours Can be Done
Offering a video walk through or virtual tour that is narrated can highlight property details that a 3D tour or floor plan cannot fully highlight.
8. Drone Photography and Video
Similar to a video or virtual tour, aerial photographs and video show the home and the neighborhood in a way that only a drone can.
This is especially useful if there are nearby features like a park, or water or the home’s property is particularly unique.
9. Putting the Property on the MLS (Multiple Listing Service)
This will allow buyers who are looking in your area to find your property easily.
Put as much detail as possible into the description of your property, and consider hiring a freelance writer to write the property description.
10. Share the Listing with all the Other Sites like Realtor.com and Zillow
This is syndicating the listing and it just increases the reach for potential buyers to find your property.
“Stopping advertising to save money is like stopping your watch to save time.”
11. Share the listing on social media/networking websites.
It is good to do this as the seller with your friends and neighbors as well as your real estate professional or through their office.
12. Create a Single Property Website.
This will allow you to put all the property descriptions, floor plans and virtual tours in one place.
13. Retargeting Ad Campaign
Remarketing is using a pixel from Google that captures the IP address of a visitor to your properties that will allow you to follow up with them after they visit the home’s site.
Remarketing is said to increase conversions over 100%.
14. Good Old Fashioned Real Estate Signs in the Yard
Buyers need to know your home is for sale and your neighbors may know friends or family that want to move near them and can help you.
15. Directional Real Estate Signs at the Neighborhood Entrances
This is true any day of the week but especially if holding an open house.
Be aware of local sign ordnances in the community about having directional signs or signs not on your property up for too long.
16. Open Houses
This can be by appointment or for a certain duration of time and they can happen during the week as well — not just on Sunday.
Think about how to make the open house an experience for the potential buyer with home-baked cookies and bottled water, for example.
Elaborate open house experiences can include food trucks, frozen treats, and catered food.
17. Create a Listing Book for your Open House or for Potential Buyers
This could include:
Pictures of the property
A list of unique features or improvements to the property and cost
Seller disclosures
Information on the neighborhood
18. Creating a Listing Flyer or Door Hangers
A listing flyer is great to give buyers that walk through the home something to take with them, and door hangers let your neighbors know your house is for sale so they can help you.
A QR code on these will help people engage digitally with your property.
19. Just Listed Post Cards
These are great to let the entire neighborhood know your house is for sale so they can help you.
A QR code on these will also help people engage digitally with your property.
20. Personal Networking
If you are the seller, tell everyone you know you are selling.
Your real estate professional should do the same, including with other agents in their office and their personal buyer database.
21. Door-Knock the Neighborhood
You or your real estate professional can simply knock on all the doors in the neighborhood and share about the house for sale or an open house.
22. A Good Marketing Plan Should be Updated or Reviewed Weekly
You need to know what is working and follow up with potential buyers.
Your real estate professional should be sharing their marketing progress with you weekly as well.
Benefits of an Effective Marketing Plan
• More prospective buyers interested in your property.
• Less time on market.
• Higher average selling price.
How can a Real Estate Professional Help me with Home Staging?
A real estate professional will have a process to make sure an effective marketing plan is implemented fully, measured and successful.
A real estate professional will have a network of other professionals they work with like a home stager, contractors for repairs, photographer, virtual tour production company, companies for professional printing of marketing materials specific to the real estate industry, as well as other real estate professionals.
A real estate professional should be in communication weekly about the progress of the marketing plan.
Why an Effective Marketing Plan is Essential for Selling a Home in Michigan
Studies show that most homes for sale are not marketed with a highly effective marketing plan or pictures including a floor plan.
There are specific steps that can be taken to market your home for sale like staging, professional photos, virtual tours / floor plans, and getting the word out in print and digitally about your property for sale.
Finally, a real estate professional will have a network of experienced professionals to help you get the results you want from selling your property.
Want to learn more? Contact us.
Disclaimer:
Always speak to your CPA, investment advisor and attorney before making any investment decisions. Past performance does not guarantee future returns. Arbor Advising seeks to educate and does not endorse any specific product, service or investment.
