realestate | TheInsuranceBill

Random thoughts that are resulting from watching a friend try and sell her home.

Started off good, Realtor helped them buy this home around 8 years ago and kept in touch. Then, when approached gave some solid ideas on little things to improve the home. So you have a homeowner doing the right things and now the house is on the market. Now you also have 5 houses for sale in your neighborhood and yours only shows up when specifically searching for your address.

So your first listing that shows up only has one bad photo, FIX THIS.

Your Realtor has no on-line presence or contacts outside of his/her office. If she does she seems to only want to invite Realtors from his/her office. FIX THIS

**Folks, whether you like it or not you are always competing. Why would you hire a Realtor with no digital plan. Why would you hire someone who is unwilling to spend $200 to make $3000.

Pardon what some would think is a lack of knowledge; Aren’t open houses all about getting people to see your home? I would say yes. Now a Realtor would argue you want qualified buyers. That Realtor also likely bought themselves a home in fantasy land. Most Realtors realize an open house can be a heck of a two pronged marketing approach; promote the listing and promote the agent. So if most of them realize this why wouldn’t they do more to make these awesome?

So a few nights back the friend I mentioned above and I were talking in front of the computer. We looked at all the listings near her and just thought out loud here is some of our “brainstorm” and some from a great cup of coffee I am drinking as I write this;

Would there be an open house? Well the homeowner wants one so we said why wouldn’t the five homes for sale within a short walk of each other all have an open house and create some sort of a caravan/prize if you see all the homes?
Why wouldn’t she run a garage sale the day before to draw more traffic and hand out flyers?
Maybe she would have her driveway sealed by a company that does a good job promoting there work?
Why wouldn’t she bring in a Home Stager for a quick consult, maybe there is a little something she can do to help?
Bring in the landscaper to blow out the property, mow the lawn, etc. Clean homes sell right?
Bring in a window washer for that extra pop? Can a home be to clean?
Plan an awesome lunch/desert/gimicky food choice and have that person promote it **more local companies than you can imagine;Janes, Brother Bobby’s, Chocolate Mousse, Ice crea, Truck guy, Nilda’s cookies, etc
Get some neighborhood kids to blanket the neighborhood in flyers; stuff them in mailboxes, knock on doors, attach to mailboxes. Maybe your neighbors would like their friends/family to live there. Can these flyers go up on a neighborhood announcement board?
Throw a party for your neighbors, call it a thanks for being good neighbors party. More traffic increases your odds of a sale right
PHOTOS; my gosh this is so easy yet always overlooked. Now if you looked at the 5 listings we mentioned earlier my friends home and one other have solid photos. The other three were awful. Why chance it when you can have this; video 1 or this even better one Here is an awesome recommendation; Vivian Selling Real Estate, like photography, is better when done by a professional
*****1 more thing on Photography; first impressions are always important so maybe you can turn off the T.V., put away the cleaning supplies, make sure you are not in the mirror, put down the toilet seat, avoid photos of the not so good rooms, clean out your collections BEFORE you take the photos. My gosh, take a day and watch HGTV or something. If you apply 1/3 of what you learn you will help more people and therefore earn more money
BE PREPARED; my wife and I will not leave our home unless we feel; really good about a listing. She found one she liked. I said I will go after you call the Realtor and confirm the ceiling height in the unfinished attic and basement. Realtor did not know the height and took two days to call back PATHETIC. Now when I show up, to be a good husband, you are not a Realtor but instead a house sitter who knows nothing about a home you have been trusted to sell. Think ahead about things the buyer may want to know. Maybe you get a home inspection or an appraisal
Oh yeah, not much on the internet in this post because this is already long enough.