marketing systems for real estate agents

Presentation:

  1. My Home is just another product
  2. Clear the clutter
  3. Depersonalise
  4. Fix all the little things
  5. Stage your Home
  6. Photography

My Home is just another product

You have to switch from home owner to home marketing guru in order to get top dollar. How do I do that I hear you thinking?

You have change hats. Become the Buyer! Here’s what you do. To make this work at it’s best you follow these steps despite the second step sounding a little silly.

Buyers Report:

  1. Grab a pen and a note pad. Our selling journal.
  1. Hop in your car and drive out of your street then stop, turn around and before you drive back mentally switch yourself to being a buyer.

You have to realise that as you enter your street you are thinking of buying a home in this street and want to see what it’s like.

  1. Pull up to your home and make some notes as if you are inspecting this home for defects.  How does it look? Is it good from the street.
  1. Write this stuff down even if it seems silly you need to go through these notes later.
  1. Enter your home as the buyer/inspector. Is it neat? Does it really sing? Make notes. Earn your money.

Clear the Clutter:

Get a storage shed while you have your home on the market. Book a trailer or sucker a friend into helping move almost half your furniture into storage and keep the nicest pieces at home for presentation.

Buy some storage boxes and just pack all excess items into the boxes and take them to storage as well.

When people look into cupboards and at your kitchen particularly they need space to sell them on your home.

The smaller your living areas and kitchen are the more stuff you need to remove eg. my parents house. A 700m2(69sq) house (McMansion), lived in by two cranky old people, yet you can barely move in the house for clutter. If they ever decide to sell they’ll be renting a warehouse and I’ll be leaving town for a month.

Often you see a formal dining room with a massive dining table making the room look much smaller than it is. Move the table out for the selling period or swap it for a smaller one.

If your table is ugly you can cover it with a white table cloth and leave it made up looking nice with candles and wine glasses etc.

Depersonalize:
All personal photos off the fridge. Even take down little Timmy’s prize artwork because only you think he can really draw.

Remove the majority of photos off walls, benches etc.
Huge wedding shots on walls or glamour photos of someone half dressed hide them fast. The beautiful wall where the kids crappy drawings are stuck has to be cleaned off and tidied up

Unless the nude artwork is extremely modest then it should be replaced with something far more appropriate, some people are very easily upset by nudity and it could cost you a sale.

Not to mention how uncomfortable it can be when people say who’s the good looking sort in the image and when the owner says me they get stared at like they are on drugs because time and gravity have not been kind since the shots were done.

Often religious people are offended by nudity as well.

Photos of pets, stuffed animals and really unusual artwork should also be swapped for more conventional items.

Controversial or bizarre pieces of “Art” just have to be hidden. Anything that can possibly offend someone just has to be placed out of sight.

Fix all the little things:
Fix blown light bulbs – replace dull ones with really, really bright ones and white. My eyes! It burns! These are the ones we want.

Make sure small things all work properly.

Make sure the handles are all perfect on cupboards and doors.

Weed the garden and make sure it’s perfect

Doorbell or Doorknocker? Is it clean? Does it work?

Do the doors in the property open quietly? Do they shut easily?

A rug to wipe your feet on says you are clean and fussy ie. Your home will be good. Cheesy is optional.

Buying a home is a very emotional experience. Buyers are timid creatures. Easily spooked! They spot something faulty and it leads to fear.

The faulty light fitting can mean the electrical system needs replacing.

Leaky taps mean dodgy plumbing.

Bad odours means serial killer with bodies buried under the house.

These small issues lead to big fears and must be stopped before they even start. Our goal here is to look like one of those ultra tidy organised neat freaks even if you are the total opposite. If you are an anal cleaning Nazi you are already well on your way to top dollar. Congratulations.

Stage your Home

It’s time for an embarrassing confession. I love furniture stores. I love how as you move through each little made up area it looks simply beautiful.

For absolute maximum top dollar this should be your goal. Not every room or the entire house if you don’t have the budget but several key areas.

Make each key area look like a show home. Your main living or lounge room and dining room. This isn’t hard to do nor is this expensive.

You possibly have everything you need at home or maybe you call in a property stylist.  Stylists look through your home and set up each room just like a show room.

Friends of our were selling their home and we decided to make the main focus the pool area and BBQ. So we made it all up and set up the Barbie. Next we laid out the table and made sure the yard around it was perfect.

Result: The photos looked amazing and they sold their house for their full asking price. Bingo!

 Photography

Photographers are like gods in human form. When one is at your house you should worship them as the person who can make you thousands of dollars for only several hundred.

Nobody is as important in selling your home as your photographer (maybe you, maybe…) and you need to be ready for their arrival.

After letting them in and bathing their feet show them around and let them know the main areas you want to promote.

Chances are they will already know this if they are experienced but tell them anyway. You want to focus on the areas that made you fall in love with the home. Worst case four or five great photos are better than twelve lousy ones.

I have prepared a checklist for you to make sure you get this right. Download a printable version from the web at home  or if you are lazy just work from the one on the next page.