Leigh Anne Monk: So once your listing agreement is signed and after your home has been prepared through decluttering, staging and perhaps making some cosmetic repairs, the next step is how to market your home. That’s the next step in the process.
Mark Wozniak: Yeah and this certainly is a very busy time because here is where the Realtor® - once your home is in that showing condition - is going to want to come in and photograph your home. There are certainly some things that we always like to make sure we do when photographing a home which is make sure your Realtor® is using professional equipment and not a point-and-shoot camera because the quality of those photos really matter when this eventually gets in the brochures and online. And make sure that the lighting is very well done. That’s something we pay close attention to. You want that home to look bright and cheerful and colorful in the photos.
The next step after that is getting brochures prepared where they describe the home and doing the online marketing. And by that I mean get a website developed that markets your home and gets fed to the search engines so you come up on search engines. And getting all the preparation work done for getting that home listed in the MLS. There are other things like getting perhaps open house announcements prepared if there is going to be an open house soon after your home goes on the market.
So again, it’s quite a busy time getting all these materials prepared and one thing I would advise you to do is to always review that brochure, review the descriptions that are put in about your home because it’s not just the photos that help bring your home alive it’s the verbal description of your home. And far too often I think we’ve seen things like misspellings or just choosing the wrong features of the home to point out to the buyers. You, as the homeowner, take some time look over with your realtor if you need to really bring out the key points and make sure those get into the brochures and get on to the online marketing pieces as well.
Leigh Anne Monk: You know the other point, Mark, that I think is important for people to realize is that there is a lot going on those final days before it will be on the market. We like actually to put together a timeline where people can work backwards. We determine that day “x” we are going to put the house on the market. We have so many days to photograph it, so many days to prepare the brochure, the website, etc. so everyone knows - the homeowners and ourselves as the real estate agent team - how best to time everything so we’re not in a rush because that’s how mistakes happen, right?
Mark Wozniak: Absolutely.
Leigh Anne Monk: And misspellings, no one tries to misspell but in the rush of getting it done, it happens sometimes so having an agreed upon timeline - it really helps.
Mark Wozniak: And also we don’t recommend rushing it on the market where you don’t have photos taken because that first weekend or couple of weekends that it’s on the market are absolutely important and buyers wants to see from day one the photos of your home. So be sure that you have worked with your Realtor® to allow the time for everything to happen up to the staging and getting your home ready, where then the pictures can be taken, materials can be prepared. Okay, that all does lead up to the day the home goes go on the market and by that I mean when it finally get officially entered into the multiple listing service and released for the public to see. It’s also the day that a sign would go in the yard and a lockbox would go on the front door which would allow access to buyer agents. So the marketing certainly doesn’t end there. In fact, there is so much going on after the home has gone on the market from a marketing standpoint.
Leigh Anne Monk: Right, and the first thing we thing we always like to encourage people to do and it isn’t easy, but it so worth it, is once your home has been prepared - you have spent a lot of time and so has your agent working together to have your home perfect showing condition - is to maintain it that way as much as possible throughout the showing period.
Buyers can come at anytime, although you can certainly do things in the MLS like give a showing time, a "please call ahead," "give an hour notice" and things like that to help you have some last minute time for last minute cleaning. We really encourage our homeowners to spend as much time on a daily basis just maintain the home keeping it picked up and clean because the next buyer that come ready to buy your home could come any minute.
Mark Wozniak: Yeah and they’re going to, assuming they saw some nice pictures of the home they are going to hope to see that same thing, to have that experience when they see your house.
Leigh Anne Monk: Exactly. They don’t want to see something radically different than what the picture showed and you’re absolutely right. So in addition to having your home ready throughout the showing period your agent will often do open houses and those usually occur on the weekend. The concept behind an open house is that a buyer can come with or without their agent to preview your home.
There are typically a two or three hour window on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon and it really allows a lot of people to come through. We find them very effective when the house first goes on the market especially. People have gone online, they’ve looked at the houses and they see all the pictures, they’ve been intrigued. The open house is a good way to market your home to expose it to as many buyers as possible.
Mark Wozniak: Yeah and exposing it to as many buyers as possible is really what it is all about during this period. And really, the best Realtors® out there - and certainly what we like to do as well - is to get your home marketed on as many websites as possible because we know that these days that’s where buyers are searching for the homes first. Over 95% of the buyers are at least beginning their home search on the web so we feel it’s really important after a home has gone on the market that we cast the net as far and wide as possible in terms of getting your house out there on all the hundreds, literally hundreds, of websites that buyers go to.
Leigh Anne Monk: We also blog. We also are very active in social media. You will be amazed at how many people we can find though posting information about your home on Facebook. It’s really simple but very effective.
Mark Wozniak: It’s just absolutely crucial these days that your Realtor® is very savvy on how to use the internet and how to use social media because it’s not just a one time event that your home gets put on the market. It’s really a continuous process of keeping the market aware that your home is out there and letting them know about any events coming up, like an open house. You’ve got to have a Realtor® that understands how to do it and how to do it well.
Leigh Anne Monk: And the purpose behind having the open houses and obviously having buyers through is we constantly solicit feedback as well. Your agent should be calling every single buyer that has gone through your house, every single buyer that has gone through on an open house and getting feedback. Was the condition of the home nice? Did you like it? How was the price point based on everything else you’ve seen? All that feedback is very valuable to you as the homeowner because your agent can bring that back to you and adjustments can be made.
Mark Wozniak: That’s right and adjustments to the condition of the home. We’ve heard a comment over and over about this one thing about the home that folks would like to see different. Certainly pricing is a thing that can be adjusted over time. So again it is important to work with a Realtor® that understands that this whole marketing process is an active process. We need to get buyers out there and make adjustments based on what the market and what the buyers are telling us.
Leigh Anne Monk: And the goal, of course, behind all this marketing is to get that offer in. That is the good news. That is the part where we get to sit down and review the offer so in another segment we will be discussing exactly what happens when an offer comes in.