Omaha Real Estate: Real Estate Marketing for a Fast Sale in Omaha, NE

Real Estate Marketing for a Fast Sale

You've made the big decision to sell your home.  All the hard work to get your house ready has been done.  Now it's up to your Realtor® to make this sale happen.

So what is your Realtor®'s plan for marketing your home?  The time to find out how your Realtor® will sell your home is not when the for sale sign goes up in front of your home but before you even sign the contract to hire the Realtor® as your representative.

Asking a potential Realtor® for a written marketing plan for selling your home is crucial in order to evaluate whether he or she is the right Realtor® for the job.  A good Realtor® will have a solid real estate marketing plan and should be able to tell you exactly what steps will be taken to ensure the quickest possible sale of your home.

What real estate marketing tools make for a solid plan?  Following are four tools which every great real estate marketing plan will include: 

1.   Internet Presence

Today more and more potential home buyers look for prospective homes online.

A successful real estate marketing plan for your internet listing will include a virtual tour and multiple digital photos of your home. These marketing tools will increase your home's visibility and up the odds that the right buyer will find your home quickly. 

Having a strong internet presence is also a smart real estate marketing tool in that buyers can be weeded out before a showing takes place.  Having your home online in a video and/or a wide array of photos will help potential buyers evaluate whether or not your home is what they're looking for before stepping across your threshold.  Getting a good look at your home beforehand will help to eliminate numerous showings to buyers who are looking for something different than your home offers.   

Any good agent should have their own personal website, such as http://www.trummteam.com. Agents that don't are broadcasting their mediocrity.

2.   Home Staging

Showing your home in its best light is the goal of home staging.  Much like the look of a model home, a staged home will take a house's interior and exterior from blah to wow, creating a memorable showing and a more saleable home.

A comprehensive real estate marketing plan will include a home staging service.  This is generally provided free of charge by the Realtor® who will have a professional home stager come to your house and work with you to create an environment that will impress buyers. The stager will also likely give you a list of things which need to be done to make your house stand out. 

3.   Yard Campaign

While shopping for a home on the internet is the rage, there are still a large number of buyers who like to get into their cars and drive to find their dream home.  But what happens when a potential buyer spots your home, loves the exterior and wants to see more? 

A great Realtor®'s marketing plan will include flyers to be kept outside your home for just these types of buyers.  Distinctive flyers will usually include the price, description, and pictures of your home along with information a buyer can use to make an appointment for a showing.

If you drive around and see how many homes are for sale in Omaha, you would find that less than half of agents bother to put up a flyer box. The reason: they are lazy! Once you put up a flyer box, you need to make flyers and keep the box stocked. For many agents this is simply asking too much.

For buyers that want to get more information but do not want the hassle of calling an agent for fear of being pressured, an audio tour is an excellent option. This consist of a toll free phone number on the for sale sign that buyers can call and listen to a pre-recorded message of what your homes has to offer.

4.   Print Advertising

While print advertising is not nearly as effective as online marketing, it can still be useful if done properly. First it needs to be in the right publication. In Omaha The Real Estate Book is the most widely circulated real estate publication. Second the ad needs to give buyers a reason to call while letting them stay in their comfort zone. This can be done by including a phone number to a pre-recorded information line. Not only does it allow buyers to get information without having to talk to an agent, it also allows the agent to offer other information in order to get a buyer to leave a message. Offers such as Your Home Sold within 120 Days or I will Buy It!

Watch out for agents that run image ads. These are ads that they use to promote themselves, not your home. Sure there might be a picture of your home in the ad but it is dwarfed by the agent's picture.

You should now see that it is not enough to simply have your home listed on the Great Plains Multiple Listing Service, which is Omaha's MLS. Your agent needs to have a solid plan for marketing your house and should go over this plan with you in detail before you put your home on the market. If you meet with an agent that does not make mention of their marketing plan, then it means they do not have one.

Troy Trumm

Omaha, NE
http://www.trummteam.com/
Omaha Homes for Sale