Examine your practices in these six areas to make sure your listing will be successful.
1. Competitive Price
All sellers want to get the most money out of their home, but it’s important to advise them wisely. Use your experience, knowledge and market research to suggest a competitive price, while showing clients how you came to that number and why it makes the most sense.
2. Curb Appeal
If a home looks unappealing on the outside, many prospective buyers won’t even step foot in it. Make sure your sellers take care of the little things – raking the leaves, planting a few flowers, painting an old house – that can make a huge difference.
3. Home Staging
Buyers want to walk into a home they can envision calling their own. If there’s shoddy furniture or worse yet, clutter, they’ll be turned off. If possible, take the seller almost completely out of the picture. That means neutral colors and no family photos or nick-knacks.
If the sellers are already out of the house, encourage them to consider renting furniture. Their old home could have a nice, open layout, but without furniture it might be difficult for some buyers to appreciate the space and envision how it can work for them.
4. Quality Marketing
High-quality photos, videos and utilizing social media are all important. Photos are the first thing people notice on home listings, so make sure they’re professional-level images. If you can’t afford to hire a professional photographer, check out these tips on proper angle and lighting. Also use these images on social media, listing sites and YouTube – there a lot of free tools to take advantage of.
5. Request Feedback
Scheduling showings and helping agents receive feedback is what we do, and we’ve written a lot on the topic – here are six feedback questions every real estate agent should ask and five tips to increase your feedback response. Automatic feedback requests are included for subscribers to ShowingTime for the MLS, ShowingTime Front Desk and ShowingTime Appointment Center.
6. Timing
Veteran agents know timing is everything. Avoid listing a property around the holidays and don’t publish new listings on a Monday – it’s widely accepted that Thursdays and Fridays work best when putting a home on the market, as noted in a 2011 study conducted by Redfin. In addition, here’s one broker/associate’s advice on the best day to list a home for sale.
Do you spend too much of your day scheduling and confirming showing appointments? Learn how the ShowingTime Appointment Center helps free up your time to focus on other tasks to grow your business.
