10 Point Marketing Plan
For Your Property
- Yard Sign: May sound a bit old-school, but is still effective at letting the neighborhood that your home is for sale. It will get the neighbours talking about your property.
- Quality Photos: As the old saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. Quality photos are the number one selling point to marketing your home.
- Extensive Internet Marketing: Promote your property on my website www.BernieNault.ca www.Realtor.ca, www.itslisted.ca and Kijiji.
- Social Media: Promote your property on Facebook/Instagram
- Print advertising, Yes, We Still Do It! Leaving nothing to chance we still offer Sell Sheets
- Email Promotion: Your listing will be sent to my email list
- Video Promotion: I will create a video of your property and promote it on our website and on social media
- Open Houses: Will be promoted on the Facebook Events platform reaching thousands of potential buyers. Agent and public open house tours inviting prospective buyers and agents with qualified prospects to view your property.
- Lead Capture Program; I quickly, usually within minutes, respond and contact new inquiries on your property from active buyers and agents.
- Activity Updates: Provide you with bi-weekly updates on the results of the marketing activities
10 Things to do that Will Get Your House Ready to Sell FAST and for the Right Price
- Pick a day to list in the future and work backward from it.
Don’t just list it right away. Don’t feel like you have to get it on the market ASAP. Make a list of what needs to be done (many of the those items are below), and then set a reasonable time that it will take to get them done.
Make that the day you will list. Also – keep in mind that if you think you’re only a week or so away from listing, you can go ahead and get it on the MLS listing and have showings scheduled. Just let the realtor know that there will be no showings before a certain date.
- Ask for outside opinions of things that need to be done in your house.
You know that trim in your kitchen that you planned on painting, but only got the primer on? Oh wait, that’s my kitchen… the point is, I never even notice that trim anymore. Yes I’ll get to it someday, but we have a tendency to overlook imperfections in our own home because we are so used to seeing them.
But prospective buyers will see EVERYTHING. Invite some friends over and have them be brutally honest with how your house looks – inside and out. They will mention things you’ve never even thought of. This will help you compile your to-do list.
- Treat it like a business. Your house is no longer just your home, it’s an asset you are trying to get top dollar for.
I know that your house has so much meaning to you… the way it’s painted, the stuff you have on your walls… none of it matters anymore. Your house is now an asset for sale. It’s an asset that you want to get top dollar for.
This also means that you have to be very accommodating to showings. Yes, it’s always inconvenient to show your house, but you need to work on the schedule of prospective buyers, not the other way around.
Remember, the goal is to have as few showings as possible. You want one of those first ones to make an offer and sell it!
- De-clutter.
Have you seen those pictures of living rooms in the furniture advertisements? They look fantastic, don’t they? There’s a couch, a chair, a couple of end tables, window treatments, and just a couple of decorations on the wall. And that’s it.
Now, look around the room that you’re in right now. It might be your living room or your bedroom… but how much more stuff does your room have in it compared to the picture in the ad? Probably a TON. I’m not saying you have to make it look just like those pictures, but try to get it close.
You are trying to sell your house, not your stuff. So showcase your house. For every piece of furniture, ask yourself if it adds to the overall feeling over your home or not. If it doesn’t, get rid of it.
Think of it as pre-moving. EVERYTHING in your home is coming out anyway, you’re just getting a head start. Use Facebook and Kijiji to sell unwanted items, you could generate some cash to pay for a home staging.
- Do some research on staging.
There’s a good chance that your furniture has been arranged the same way for a decade. And that’s fine – it could be the best way to showcase your home. But there might be a different way to stage your house that you’ve never thought of.
Do a quick google search on home staging and you will find lots of free advice and info to give you some different ideas. I also wrote a post about how to get your house ready to sell without spending too much.
Think of fresh white towels and throw rugs in your bathrooms. Keep them in the closet, and when you have a showing throw your old ones in the hamper and put the new ones out. Consider putting fresh flowers out as well.
- Paint!
Freshly painted rooms look so clean. Every single little mark or scratch that have added up over the years will disappear, and your walls will once again look vibrant and new. Stick to neutral colors.
Oh, and that reminds me… do you have any kids who had their bedrooms painted with bold crazy colors? Yeah, time for those colors to go. Remember point number 3 – this is not just your home anymore, it’s an asset. And your prospective buyers are mentally keeping a tally of jobs that they will need to do when they move in.
- Focus on curb appeal.
There’s still plenty you can do to improve the look of your house without spending a lot of money.
- Give it a good powerwash, especially if you have vinyl siding. Either rent a machine and find a neighbour who has one.
- Fix all the little stuff. Are there any trim pieces on your porch that have rotted and need to be replaced? Are there any broken pieces of siding? Could paint be touched up in a few spots? Now is the time to do it.
- Get fresh mulch. It looks so nice and won’t cost you much at all.
- Keep your lawn mowed, keep the toys out of the front yard all the time. You never know when someone is driving by. In winter keep the walkways and driveways clear of snow and ice.
- Have a plan for when the call for a showing comes.
When that call comes for a showing, it can be both exciting, and dreadful. It seems like the timing is usually terrible, your house is a mess, and you only have an hour and a half to make the house presentable and get the family out. This is why you need to have a plan.
At this point, you’ve already de-cluttered, so you should have nearly as much stuff lying around as you did before. The way things are now, everything should have a place to get it out of site. In addition, furniture and decor should be staged at all times now. So what is left to do?
- Clean all dishes and put them away.
- Make all beds.
- Put all clothes in dressers, on hangers or in covered hampers. Try not to have clothes in the washer or dryer, those strangers in your house are likely to open the washer and dryer.
- Vacuum and sweep everything.
- Wipe down all counters, sinks and appliances.
- Have clean unused linens on hand. Keep them folded up in a chest or dresser, and pull them out to place in the kitchen and bathrooms when you have a showing.
- Light candles.
- Get the heck out of there!
- Discuss the right price with your REALTOR.
When a house is first listed, it will have the highest level of interest during those first few weeks. It’s new on the market, and generating as much buzz and excitement as possible is important. If you follow the steps above you will definitely get that buzz.
Pricing can be tricky, and this is one area that you will need to rely on your realtor for advice. You want to sell it fast… but if it sells too fast, maybe you priced it too low. On the other hand, if you price it too high, then it might sit for longer than you want and that buzz and excitement will wane. Prospective buyers will see that it’s been sitting for a while and will be more likely to come in with lower offers.