Professional Photos
Professional photos is the most important marketing tool in the seller’s marketing toolbox. 95% of all home buyers are online shopping for their home. You get seconds to get their attention. Often buyers ignore a perfectly good home choice because the photos don’t highlight the home’s best features. Bad photos that don’t showcase the home and architectural details drive away buyers.
The three pictures below are photos of the same room with three different listing agents.
The first photo is the listing when my client purchased the home.
The second photo is from an agent who had the listing years before me.
The third photo is from when I listed (and sold) the home. As I mentioned before, I use the seller’s furniture (and this case their art) to create a warm home that online buyers want to see. In this living room, the furniture placement was off before I staged it. We moved the love seat off the 1/2 wall to create the desired conversation group. We moved the screen in the corner to add height and architectural detail. Whereas the first two photos are dark and dreary, the last photo is light, the furniture placement is in proportion to the room.
Professional photos create online interest! Below are photos of the same room from two different agents. The second photo is from my listing. You can see the architectural details. You can see the true colors of the walls and the floors. The red GRABS your interest. This home had 20 showings and multiple offers in three days. It sold $6k above asking price.
Lead pictures are extremely important. Blue sky days are a MUST!!! Shots that are not all driveway are a MUST!!! Trees are a MUST!!! Again the first photo is from a previous listing. The second photo which was my lead shot for this listing shows the COLORFUL blue sky days with less driveway and green trees. The goal is to bring the buyer in with colors that are exciting.
I have one more recent example that highlights the effectiveness of professional photos. My listing and a home with the exact same floor were listed days apart in the same neighborhood. The listing price was the same. The competition had photos taken by the agent. My listing had professional photos. After a month on the market, both agents compared notes. The competition had 1 showing. My listing with the professional photos had 22 showings. Experience matters.
Staging
A staged home sells faster and for more money than a home this is not staged. Good staging is a form of visual merchandising that pulls fundamentals from interior design. Staging adds oversized art, large contrasting accessories, bright trendy pillows and throws for online visual interest.
As mentioned earlier staging is a team effort between the sellers and I. We use the seller’s existing furniture to create rooms that will excite their buyer. As a general room of thumb, we can get away with one dated piece in the living areas. Anything more than that is an online turn off. A room with excess or oversized furniture looks smaller. Furniture placement for the best flow of the living areas is important also. As needed, I bring in artwork, accessories, layers of pillows and throws that will visually appeal to their online audience. In a vacant house, I add art to the wall and accessories to the kitchen and bathrooms.
Exciting Descriptions!!!
“Don’t sell the steak, sell the sizzle”! This marketing phase has been around since the 20’s. The statement urges salespeople to focus on the experience around a product being sold rather than simply on the object itself. It means appealing to the senses and emotions of the buyer.
As a previous Marketing Director, I know that appealing to emotions is very important. Unfortunately, our MLS system only gives us 512 letters to sell the sizzle. The 512 words in the Remarks section feeds to major real estate websites (Realtor.com, Trulia, Zillow, etc). I use phrases that conjure an image of peaceful home life. An example of the Remarks section from a listing is as follows:
“Land, land, land, land!!! Cul-de-sac w/.30 of an acre lot. Let the kiddos run amok in GINORMOUS backyard while parents enjoy the wine sipping covered patio. Great entertaining space with both formals plus family room and nice size breakfast nook. Multiple cook kitchen w/granite counters ready for your next shindig. Split master w/relax-after-a-hard-day garden tub. Ceramic tile in all the right places, new carpet in bedrooms, fresh paint, stainless steel appliances.”
There is another area in the MLS listing that can be used to add to the description. This area is called Agent Remarks. This area does not feed to the real estate websites. I use this area to list the features of the home. An example of the Agent Remarks section from a listing is as follows:
“Buyer Wish List Items Include: hip remodel with gray tones, granite, new cabinets, new wood-like flooring, new carpet, updated light fixtures, remodeled baths including modern shower, large lot, beautiful oaks, let the outdoors in windows, architectural details, vaulted ceiling, dual fireplaces.”
Neighborhood, Community and Special Features
As mentioned, I have 512 letters to sell the your home in MLS. Most buyers don’t just purchase a home. They want a good neighborhood. They want a solid community. They are also looking for any other special features that your home may have. 512 letters is not enough room for this. As needed, I create a PDF file with extra information on the neighborhood and community. Included in this PDF file is extra photos with active links to near-by attractions. This PDF file is loaded in MLS. This can be viewed by agents and their buyers.
Online! Online! Online!
With 95% of home buyers searching for their next home online, then online advertising is the key to selling your home! Your home will be inputted into MLS. MLS feeds to Realtor.com. Allison James Estates & Homes feeds your home to Zillow, Trulia and the rest of the minor real estate websites. Overall you will be on about 30 to 40 different websites. Once your home is online for over two weeks, then Google your address. It is common to have 3 to 4 pages of search results.
A significant online presence with professional photos that highlight staged rooms with a description that EXCITES buyers is the best marketing combination to sell your home!!
Marketing That Doesn’t Work
Although there are many ways to market your home, there are marketing tools that are not effective.
- Broker Caravans and Broker Open House: A broker caravan is a group of office agents that preview your home. A broker open house is held open for other agents to come view your home. The flaw in this logic is that the agents who have clients are too busy to participate in caravans and broker open houses. Those agents who are participating don’t have the clients.
- TV Advertising: Today’s buyer is too busy to watch a two hour TV show for homes that are for sale in ALL of San Antonio. Buyers will instead pull up Realtor.com or Zillow. They will put in their parameters for a home. They will get instant results for the homes they will buy.
- Open Houses: I have never sold the home that is being held open in an open house. A typical open house will have 2 to 3 families in the door. An open house on a gorgeous day on a busy street will have about 6 to 8 families in the door. These families are either nosy neighbors or buyers who have just started the process and don’t have a Realtor (which benefits the Realtor!). These are not pre-qualified buyers ready to purchase a home. It does not make sense to ask sellers to leave their house for three hours on a Sunday when the only person benefiting from the open house is me.
- Print: Print is dead.
