Marketing Your Property

The keys to successful marketing of real estate are essential in the sale of every property. Marketing does not happen by simply placing a listing in the MLS and hoping a buyer will show up.  Marketing is the key essential of not just to selling your home, but more importantly selling it at the highest possible price.

The keys to marketing are what are know as the "4 P's" of real estate.

Product:
Placement:
Promotion:
Price:

The Product:

How your home looks, and how will potential purchasers view it when comparing your home to all the others in a similar price range is one of the most important aspect of real estate marketing. This is called Merchandising or Staging.  Most sellers think that this is an expensive proposition costing thousands of dollars. In reality it is not.  It is however, more than a little cleaning and straighten up.  Merchandising requires an experienced "eye" to visualize how a property will appear in photographs.  Those photographs taken by an experienced interior photographer are the keys to success.   We spend hour with the homeowners arranging furniture, de-cluttering, hanging loaned art work, supplying, if necessary decorative elements to enhance the warmth and feel of the home, and re-painting areas of the home.   Invariably, homeowners forget that a  home must be distinguishable from other homes or it will not sell.  Real estate purchasing is a visual process.  Buyers explore the internet and the photos that they see are what attracts them to the property. Look at listings and see how many of them are blurry, dark and out-of-focus photos of homes. These homes will not sell at optimum price or at any price, as the number of people looking at those properties will be drastically reduced.  Every product that sells, whether real estate or not is dependent on Supply and Demand.  The greater the demand the higher the price.  Your Product or Your Home must be perfect to create demand.  We will create what we call the "WOW FACTOR" for your home.  When someone opens your door and enters your home after we have finished staging it, our greatest joy is to hear that buyer say "WOW."   This is one of our greatest feelings of accomplishments and as real estate agent this is one of  the keys to success for the sale of transaction of your home.

Placement:

Where you home appears so it can be viewed by potential buyers is almost as important as how your home looks and appears.  Most buyers no longer look in newspapers, but rather do extensive searching through various websites and micro sites to find homes that may be suitable for their needs.  Micro sites such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The International Herald, The London Times, The Washington Post, The South China Morning Post & Financial Times as well as numerous others are examples of places that the Prominent Property/Sotyeby's International Realty brand utilizes in order to give your property the utmost in world-wide exposure as possible. That coupled with additional luxury real estate print publications such as Aspire Magazine, Country Life and others give unlimited exposure to not only the high end market but to the mid range market as well.  As well the traditional sites such as the local MLS, Trulia, Realtor,com, Zillow, and Homes.com round out the exposure that every listing will receive.

Promotion:

What materials are being prepared to make your homes stand out?   Many agents feel that if an Open House is done the home is being promoted.  But real promotion goes much further than a simple Open House.  We believe strongly, that as agents representing a seller it is essential we be at every possible showing as your personal representative.  This is not usually done in real estate as most agents put a lock box on the door or let the homeowner show the property.   If the listing agent is not there to show the home, than the buyer's agent, who represents the buyer is the only one who is promoting the home.  The buyer's agent has no allegiance to sell your home and worse the buyer's agents responsibility is to get as low a possible price for your home as they represent the buyer.  Imagine that they are the only ones showing your valuable possession.  As your agents our fiduciary responsibility is to be every showing possible to find out everything we can about potential purchasers who come into your home and to point out to the potential purchaser all the features that make your home special.  Taking buyers though the grounds of your home or through the condominium complex to see the gym, the poor area, the grounds are essential in the sale of the home.  It is also a key to negotiating.  Since we have met the potential buyers, we have a fairly clear understanding of how impressed they were with your home.  That understanding lets us be in a better position when and if a negotiation is to take place.  As your agents we believe we have the ability to negotiate at the highest level as we have met the buyer and have an ability to understand their motivation.

Additionally, we prepare the finest promotional literature including the most gorgeous Property Brochures of your home, and the most beautiful Just Listed Cards that are sent to the entire neighborhood or to rental buildings in the area.

Price:

The listing price you place on your property will have a direct impact and influence on its sale.  It is essential that it be priced right from the beginning so it attracts the most attention and excitement. This happens during the first few weeks on the market.  Improper pricing at the initial listing misses out on this peak interest period and more often results in your property languishing on the market. This will lead to a below market value sales price, or even worse, no sale at all.

As has been discussed earlier, price is as fundamental to the marketing process as any other of the 4 P's of real estate.   It is essential that the proper balance between the highest price and the highest possible price be ascertained before a home is put on the market. Every seller, certainly, wants as much as possible for their home.  Yet, determining the right price is a key to success.  Banks appraisers will be making evaluations about your home as to its value.  A home that receives an accepted offer on an above market value home, often is rejected by the bank as they believe the home was sold too high.  This is the worst possible scenario as the property will have been taken off the market and now the property may have to be re-negotiated or the deal falls apart. 

Creating value for a home and creating a realistic selling and listing price should be a collaborative effort between agent and their seller client and is a key to success.  Too many agents accept any price that a seller recommends, even if they know the home will never sell at the seller's price.  They do this just to get the listing, hoping that the seller will eventually lower the price to a more realistic level.  We firmly believe that as much as we are advocates for the sale at the highest possible price, we have to be realistic with the sellers as how to achieve the highest possible price. Each home is special and although many homes have similarities, they are all distinct in their own ways.  Creating Customized Pricing Strategies is essential in every meeting we have as marketing agents.  These strategies take into account the "risk levels" of each seller when putting what might be their most valuable possession on the market.

Pricing at the Highest Level.
Pricing at Market Value.
Pricing Below Market Value.
Pricing High and Reducing.

All are legitimate pricing strategies.  Determining which one works for individual sellers is a key to success.