After deciding on a price and putting your home on the market, it’s time to get the word out. You want everyone to know that your home is ready to sell. But how exactly do you do that? Our team knows that to get your home sold fast for the highest price, we have to market it aggressively right away. Your home needs maximum exposure to its target audience, that is, ready, willing, and able buyers. Let’s review our marketing plan, which includes some commonly used methods of advertising, and some that you may not be too familiar with yet.
The first and perhaps the most traditional method of advertising is the yard sign. A large, easy to read, attention-grabbing sign is placed on a post in your front yard in full-view of all the neighbors and passers-by. This sign notifies everyone who sees it that your home is for sale. It also gives them the name and telephone number of the agent they should contact to arrange a showing, or to get more information. For those prospects that are internet-savvy, we include our website address where they can find information on your home, submit a query, or schedule an appointment. We will place a colorful brochure with photos of your home, and information detailing all of your home’s best features and amenities, along with the same contact information that is on the yard sign, so potential buyers can ask questions, schedule showings, and submit offers. You will also be supplied with a stack of these helpful flyers that you can use to hand out to friends, co-workers, and family members who might know someone looking to buy. If your supply runs out, just let us know, and we will provide you with more.
The next method of advertising that we utilize is the Multiple Listing Service (MLS). This is an online database available only to REALTORS and subscribing members from the real estate industry. Agents enter pictures and detailed information for their clients’ home. The information becomes available to all the other REALTORS in the county, who are searching for homes for their buyers. There is an interesting feature included in this service that you may not be aware of yet, the Internet Data Exchange, or IDX. This is sometimes also referred to as broker reciprocity. What it entails is this: many agents throughout New Jersey, including ourselves, have websites that allow users to search through and browse the available homes that have been listed in the MLS. They are able to do so because only the information that is non-confidential is displayed to the general public through this service, and each broker has the choice to opt-out, or choose not to have his or her company’s listings displayed. Also, in order for a listing to be displayed, the agent entering the listing into the MLS must specifically select yes, they want their listing to be made available for display through the IDX. This service has proven to be very beneficial, making it possible for your home to be displayed on every agent’s website that uses IDX.
Another traditional method of advertising that we use to gain exposure for your property is the newspaper. We place ads in The Town Topics, The Princeton Packet and Trenton Times depending on your market area. Along with a description of your home and the contact information, we also include our website address to give a potential buyer every opportunity to learn about your home, and initiate contact to view the property and submit an offer.
Our website is one of our most vital methods of advertising. Many more people today are using the internet to gather information before making a large purchase, and buying a home is for most people the largest purchase they will make. The majority of home buyers use the internet as their first resource when deciding to buy a home. In our featured listings section, your home will be displayed with multiple pictures for prospects to view, and all the important details for your property. Users are given the option to e-mail a link to your home’s listing to a friend, or print a brochure like the ones on your sign post. In addition, our current listings are displayed individually in rotation on our home page in the featured property box. We also list your home and its picture on Realtor.com, which is the most-visited site by buyers searching for their next home.. You will also be provided with a copy of this flyer to e-mail to your friends and family, or if you prefer, we can send the flyer to a list of e-mail addresses that you give to us.
Direct marketing is another very effective way to get the word out about your new listing. We mail full-color postcards to all of your neighbors, letting them know that your home has just been listed for sale, and how to contact us if they, or someone they know may be interested. We also carry with us a compilation of flyers for all of our available listings to give to anyone we meet that might be in search of a home, or know someone who is in the market. This includes every potential client we meet with, buyers and sellers, colleagues and co-workers, and our own friends, family, neighbors and acquaintances. We tell everyone about our available listings.
By utilizing all of these methods to market your property, we are able to successfully get the word out to a vast number of potential buyers, one of which will ultimately be the one to buy your home.
