512-743-5434

 

Kris Colquette

REALTOR®

Smart Source Realty

 

Kris Colquette's Guide To:  FOR SALE BY OWNER

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II.  Internet Advertising

A great house only sells if buyers can find it!  USE THE INTERNET

      Make use of craigslist, other blogs, classifieds, & fsbo websites.

      Email a synopsis of your home including a picture and link to your website I made for you (discussed later) to your sphere of influence (friends, family, coworkers, anyone in your email contact list, and all others you can come up with) and request that they assist you by remembering your selling in case they run across someone who may be interested and get them to mention it to at least one of their friends too.  For example if you have 150 contacts and each of them tells one person you’ll have 300 salespeople working for you.  Who cares if they may live out of town or something?  That does not mean they won’t run across someone who wants to live in one of the absolute greatest cities that exists.  Offer a prize or compensation to that individual who finds your buyer. 

CREATE A WEBSITE!

A website has the ability to say everything about your property.  No flier or conversation can relate all there is to know but a website (even the simplest) can relay all your great dialogue, pictures, and descriptive information with no limit on the amount of information that you can share. 

Not everyone wants to speak with you (maybe their timid, short on time, etc).  Some just want to do research first by driving around getting fliers or searching the internet and they’ll likely never call or revisit unless it’s love at first site or they have to speak with you.  This means their likely to miss or not notice many positive attributes your home or neighborhood has to offer.  Why not have a site that can inform, personalize, market, answer questions, and sell your property 24 hours a day 7 days a week so your free to go about your life while your website works for you.

   Remember to include your website url on all advertisements, internet postings, yard sign, etc for maximum exposure

        III.  Open Houses, Direct Mail, & More

  Can Open Houses Sell A House?

Most People Say NO.  Many think (including MANY REALTORS) that open houses are a prospecting tool used by agents that don’t sell homes.  Well, that opinion is mostly TRUE.  I believe it’s because most have lost touch with the art of performing an open house specifically TO SELL THE HOUSE! 

UNLESS AN OPEN HOUSE IS TAILORED TO SELL THE HOUSE IT WILL NEVER BENEFIT THE SELLER!!! For Example…

    TAILOR YOUR MARKETING FOR YOUR INTENDED BUYER!  START TWO WEEKS IN ADVANCE. 

TARGET YOUR AUDIENCE & MAKE THEM AWARE OF THE OPPORTUNITY!

Let’s say you have a $300,000 home for sale.  It’s true than anyone from anywhere could be the buyer but let’s sit down and think of the most obvious.  MOST BUYERS ARE MOVING FROM A VERY SHORT DISTANCE AWAY.  Let’s say it’s a buyers market because there are a lot of homes for sale (high inventory) meaning sellers are competing for the limited number of buyers (lowered sales).  This typically coincides with other things as well.  Buyers might be timid because of harder and more expensive to obtain loans, homes in your price range might not allow buyers to qualify for other incentives such as FHA loans- etc, families may find money is harder to save because gas went up in price or their rent was raised (hundreds of scenarios here), companies may be laying off employees because they need to prepare for lower sales and higher costs in raw material, the American dollar could be losing value in the international market, OK- YOU GET THE IDEA!

NOW LET’S COME UP WITH A TARGET BUYER FOR YOUR HOME

For Starters How About:

All the people that live in that neighborhood down the road which shares the same school district and the average home price is $425,000?

Why?  They could sell the more expensive home and buy yours to save substantial money during these harder times.  It would be a prudent move for many individuals. Maybe the wife or husband just lost a job or there’s a new baby in their lives which could mean less available money for the mortgage.  Babies aren’t cheap.  At least mine isn’tJ  My point is that there’s countless reasons for this strategy in today’s market.  Lot’s of people may also be looking for a larger or nicer home as well so don’t ignore them unless your marketing budget stipulates it.  If you’re budgeting heavily ensure you stick with the most likely buyers and always plan to send multiple solicitations to the same people, thank you cards for visiting the open house, etc to keep your home in their memory.  Create your direct mail plan ahead of time and ensure your budget allows you to finish the campaign meaning not just one postcard but several along with other costs you’ll be enduring from marketing.  Try to also target that subdivision a mile or two away that has an average home price of $200,000

NOW LET’S MARKET YOUR HOME AND OPEN HOUSES TO THAT AUDIENCE!

Remember:  Most open houses don’t work because they’re poorly marketed and typically tailored for REALTOR’s prospecting.  If you want a successful event ENSURE IT’S TAILORED AND MARKETED ONLY TO SELL!

I SELL 20%+ HOMES DURING OPEN HOUSES, THEY'RE WORTH YOUR TIME!

Market your open house AHEAD OF TIME!

If you are using MLS (more info on MLS later) then make sure the open house gets recorded in MLS one week in advance so the event is updated to the many thousands of realty websites that exist.  Many individuals search for open houses just like they search for homes for sale!  Ensure the event is in MLS so they find it easily.

Send postcards to your two target neighborhoods two weeks in advance.  Send postcards again one week in advance.  Persuasively invite them to the open house.  Be creative and have fun with it!

 

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