May 16, 2017 Josh Sprague

Overlooked Home Marketing Ideas

real estate home tips marketing

Real estate marketing is very important when selling a home. If you market your home right, you will sell your home faster and for more money. In these digital times, we have many innovative ways to market real estate. Some methods are simple and others more complex. There are a lot of strategies that can really help market your home to potential buyers that are often missed by most real estate agents. Here are some important marketing ideas that are often overlooked when selling a home.

Neighborhoods

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It is important to have a local map of the neighborhood and the surrounding area. Buyers are interested in learning about the details of the neighborhood, surrounding parks and trails, local demographics, and even planned neighborhood events and parties. They are also going to be interested in the surrounding area. Provide them with information about the nearest grocery stores, restaurants, gas stations, doctor offices, and boutiques. Take a look at any of the neighborhoods on our Edina Neighborhoods Page for an idea on how to market your local area. And don’t miss our #1 visited page for the Edina Country Club Neighborhood.

Schools

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Not only are neighborhoods important, but schools are important for marketing a home. Many homebuyers have children or plan to. Parents always want their kids to have the best education. List the awards, graduation rates, the community schools for all age groups, and student achievement data from each school. Even if the schools in the area are not top tier, you should still provide local school information because buyers need and want it.

Social Media Marketing and Advertising

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Social media plays a crucial role in marketing today. Many agents don’t even utilize social media marketing when marketing a home. Make sure they do and make sure they just don’t create one post about an open house. Create a social media plan for your house. Start off by having your agent create a listing blog post or a beautiful property website. Share the blog post of your listing or the property website on both you and your agent’s social media channels. Create another post with multiple combined photos of your house and provide open house information or key features of the house. You could even create a video tour and share it. Lastly, take it a step further with social advertising. This is a great way to spread awareness and reach your target market with a more intentional advertising budget.

Transportation Options

Many people are interested in the local transportation near their home. Buyers aren’t just interested in local transportation for themselves either. Many have children who would need to take the bus to school. Provide buyers with bus routes, train options, and commuter rails.  Regional trails and local paths that you can bike or walk on will be highly effective, given the lifestyles and habits of the likely demographic for your home.

Videos and Virtual Tours

Videos and virtual tours play a very important role in real estate marketing. Videos are powerful because they can tell the story of your home in an emotional and visually compelling way, like the lifestyle video above for our listing at 3248 Dupont Ave S. Create a video showing off your home and how it “lives” with an upbeat soundtrack in the background. You can also use a very effective and simple aerial drone video to showcase the home, lot and the surrounding area without setting foot in the house. We did this for our Edina Country Club Neighborhood listing at 4800 Sunnyside Rd to highlight its proximity to Minnehaha Creek, and to describe the size of the lot and location more effectively. It sold the first weekend!

Include this on the website where your listing is and then share it on social media channels. You can even take it a step further and create a short video for Instagram. If you have a limited budget, try creating a video on YouTube using the photos of your house and use a nice instrumental track in the background. We did this for 5713 Susan Ave and got a lot of hits. Virtual tours are also an option an give buyers a wider look inside your house. Keep in mind more and more buyers are using video and video sites like YouTube and Vimeo to search for homes and open houses. By creating a virtual or video tour, you can make a big impact on potential buyers. See our recent article on the power of video marketing for more great examples.

Curb Appeal

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First impressions can make or break the sale of your home. Even before walking through your door, buyers have already judged your house from the curb. Your home should be welcoming and set a positive, meticulous tone the moment a buyer sets eyes on your home.  Paint the front door, replace the old storm door with a full glass version, trim the trees, mow the lawn, clean all the windows, add colorful flowers and beautiful perennnial landscaping, and set down a crisp, clean, neutral front doormat.  This is your chance to capture the heart of the buyer, don’t miss it!

Local Service Providers

Influence principles are very powerful. Create a list of local businesses you recommend for different types of services. For example, plumbing, house cleaning, and heating/cooling contractors. Many potential buyers might not be from or familiar with the area. By providing this, you have done them a favor without them asking. People feel obligated to do something for you in return. You also show that you are prepared by knowing trusted professionals in the area.

These are just a few ideas to help boost the marketing exposure for your home. Making use of even a few of them will show dramatic results and increase traffic to your property website!

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