Marketing your Home for Sale. How Marketing Fundamentals Apply in Real Estate?
May 17th, 2009 categories: Tips For Buyers
The Marketing Mix
Getting a home sold requires a blend of tactical marketing tools. Knowing them is important because it helps you understand the things you need to do to reach the objective of selling your home at the best price possible in the time you have chosen to. You also have to understand that times have changed in every sense and consumers have much more information at hand than they did before. Everything is public information and it is readily available.
In marketing there is a wide used concept: Marketing Mix (the Four P’s of marketing). Some other P’s have been added over time but if we can manage the basic four we will be in good track. The P’s stand for:
Product=Your Home. The perceived value of a property is very much affected by how it shows. I remember once showing a property in the morning where everything looked “picture perfect”. Background soft music, little spots of light here and there, a couple of lit light smelling candles, everything in its place… All our senses were stimulated. My client fell in love with the place! She decided we should come back in the afternoon and see the house again before making an offer; the kids were back from the school and left there backpack next to the entrance along with their shoes, instead of the music what we heard we two of them fighting while playing a noisy video game, a dog barking, no light were turned on and the house looked dark, the smell of fish being cooked … Even thou it was a lovely family life scene it was not what she was expecting. The house didn’t look as lovely after all and she decided to keep looking even after I tried to convince her that the house was still the same.
Price=Realistic Price. Setting the price in a competitive market is challenging but numbers don’t lie if they are not manipulated. Your home is worth what Buyers are willing to pay for it. Set up realistic expectations up front and be ready for changes; closed sale close to your home can affect the price of your home from one day to the other. Most buyers in this market are looking for a good deal and you have to be ready for that!
Place=Availability. A responsive agent and a property easy to access make a great difference in the marketplace. I told you before that the house should be as picture perfect as possible so while your home is for sale you are in the “show business” .
Promotion=Exposure. A sign in the yard and uploading it in the MLS is not what we call exposure. A mix of media must be used to make sure your property is seen by as many people as possible. On-line advertising, Social Media, Postcards, Ads, Open Houses, Brokers Open all and everything should be done to give your home visibility.
I have to add something…that doesn’t start with a P; Customer Service and Communication must be added to this mix.
Good Luck selling your home!
