Internet Marketing Of Your Property
Over 90% of prospective Buyers now research and view property online. Over the course of recent years this form or searching and viewing has progressed from traditional desktop PC's to smartphones and tablets.
For effective marketing of your property it is essential that the imagery of the property is of the highest standard and can be viewed from either a PC or a smartphone. The photography required needs to be of the best professional standard. Having a listing broker just use their cell phone camera or even their personal camera to take photos and put them in the MLS with the listing is totally unacceptable if you want to compete in today's real estate market and obtain the best price possible.Â
Typically for Buyers in the Breckenridge and Summit County market, of which 70% are second home, investment properties, rental income properties are what they are buying. They fly in on Friday, meet their broker on a Saturday morning and view about 10 properties before they are tired and cannot remember which kitchen was in which house! They meet their broker again on Sunday morning, see a few more or revisit their favorites, then leave Breckenridge in the afternoon to catch their flight back home, so they can be at work on Monday morning. So they are only seeing about 15-17 properties maximum during their visit.
You as a Seller and your broker have to maximize the chance that the Buyer or their broker chooses your home or condo over the dozens of other ones for sale on the market that are competing with you, to be on of those 15-17 properties that they see. Photography goes a long way of enabling that.
When a listing is entered into the MLS, it not only is sent to all the brokers that day, it is also sent to any Buyer who has a saved search in the system. It gets automatically emailed to them. First impressions count if they are going to save that listing as one of their favorites or reject it. If it looks fantastic, they are going to save it and that will be one of those listings that they want to see when they fly out.Â
More showings = more chance of an offer=more chance of a sale, earlier on at a higher price!Â
Putting listings on the internet is only part of the story. How is the listing presented on the internet? Is it being found? So much of the real estate information on the internet is simply wrong. Some brokers and some Sellers say they want the listing plastered everywhere. That is one of the worst things you can do, if the listing is misrepresented or totally wrong.
You would think that Zillow, Trulia, etc. would be great places to put your home for sale. However, consider this, how would you feel if one of those sites gave a robot valuation that stated your home is only worth $650,000 when you and your broker agreed that it is worth $915,000 and you both agreed to list it at $1 million? Would you be happy that the site it is displayed on is telling all Buyers it is only worth $650,000? Is that marketing the home to its true potential?
Would you be upset if the site stated your home only has 2 bedrooms when really it has four bedrooms, or that the price was reduced $100,000 3 months ago but it is still showing up for sale at the old price?
These scenarios happen all the time and especially in our market.Â
Call me and I can discuss how to eliminate these problems and get the best and most accurate exposure with regards to internet marketing strategies.
Andrew Biggin
Broker/Partner
Breckenridge Associates Real Estate
970 547-7751