One Commonly Found Sellers' Tip that can rob you of Listings

With so much information available to today’s home seller, it can be a little scary what advice they might be getting when it comes to hiring a listing agent. If you search tips on how to choose a listing agent for example, you might be surprised at how prominently marketing plans figure on the list. This commonly found sellers’ tip could be robbing you of new listings if you do not have a marketing plan to show off to clients.

Realtor.com

Realtor.com suggests that people seeking an agent to list their homes should always ask: “What is your marketing plan for my home and how many websites will include information about my home?” If you do not have a marketing plan in place, this little tip could be chasing potential listings away.

Remember that the numbers are now overwhelmingly skewed towards those who start the home buying and selling process online. If you do not have a website, virtual tours and even social media pages, it is much harder for potential new clients to find you. That means they won’t even get far enough along in the process to ask these questions.

HGTV.com

HGTV.com also strongly suggests that those putting their homes up for sale should always ask: “How will you market it?” They not only advise people to ask this question, but then proceed to point out what types of advertising won’t cut it. Among the list you might find some of your fall backs such as local paper ads or listing on common real estate sites. HGTV is advising those selling their home that this is not enough. They want their readers to find an agent that can talk about reaching out to people in more ways. Make sure you have some statistics at hand to demonstrate how you reach out to buyers’ agents as well as buyers with things such as virtual tours, eflyers, social media postings and a website of your own that has all of your listings available. The more marketing tools you use, the easier it is to show off your plan. And you don’t have to spend a fortune on it either.

Zillow

Zillow recommends that those about to list should take a close look at their own neighborhood. They ask, “Who are the big hitters on the lawns of properties for sale?” They advise sellers to then find out what marketing is available online for the agents and the properties and make sure they can find them easily. If they can’t find the listing or agent or they do find the agent but they are not presenting a nice professional website, professional real estate photography and well prepared virtual tours they advise this makes the agent a bad choice. They also mention avoiding agents who over embellish on their property descriptions. So in other words if they drive by a not so appealing home and find a very fancy description for it online, the agent might not be so trustworthy.

Trulia

Trulia thinks there are two important questions when it comes to marketing. The first question is, “Do you have a specific marketing plan in mind?” You want to show that your real estate marketing plan will get as much exposure as possible. Having samples such as your current online virtual tours, eflyers and print materials you have mailed out on behalf of other clients can help demonstrate you have a marketing plan that is consistent and that has proven to be successful.

The second question Trulia recommends sellers ask their agents is, “Do you have an internet strategy and how will you market my home online?” As we already covered, most buyers and sellers today are internet savvy and will expect you to be using it effectively. Make sure you have a specific outline of your online strategy such as your own website, an informative blog, and of course virtual tours. A YouTube channel can also do wonders as 51 percent of house hunters start there when looking for virtual tours.

The best way to demonstrate your marketing plan is to a) Make sure you are using a number of marketing tactics including digital, online and print to sell homes and b) Have a clear description of your marketing plan in your listing presentations.

Realtour offers an easy to use, reusable Listing Presentation product designed for customization. It includes a ready-made overview of how Realtour’s Marketing Suite will be used to market the sellers’ property making it a snap to show off your marketing skills and avoid being robbed of new listings.