Selling your house in Charleston? You have 1 shot to get it right
Looking to sell your house on your own, or looking specifically for a Charleston Realtor? Regardless of which path you are going to take, you need to have an exceptional plan in place, in order to sell your house.
- Who are you going to hire?
- What's your timeframe?
- What kind of marketing will be done?
- How are you going to stand above all the house-for-sale "noise"?
What I'm going to write about today is only ONE POINT in marketing your house. And that is, marketing your house online PRIOR to getting the house on the market. Yes- that's the magic pill. The pill not taken certainly by MOST realtors. Why? I honestly don't know. It is such a large mistake. I believe it's an OLD school of thought with big brokerages, that has trickled down from the top since "the old days". Brokers in Charge would tell you to venture out, get an appointment, get the listing, and then get to work. I'm shaking my head right now typing out that last sentence. Such an old-world, archaic, way of thinking.
First of all- everyone knows you need to be listed in the local Charleston MLS. That is literally the best marketing one can do considering EVERY realtor has access to the MLS. And then from there, it gets fed to THOUSANDS of other websites that consumers see. But what about all the marketing that needs to happen PRIOR to going into the MLS? This is the single largest error I see the average real estate agent make, is that they stick a sign in the yard, put it on the MLS, and THEN begin marketing.
I've even seen real estate agents so eager to get a house into the MLS, that they'll take one single photo of the front of the house...from their car out of the window! Such a missed opportunity, and here's why:
When you see promotion for music artists, or a restaurant opening on a specific date, you see such a large marketing budget for the event, leading up to that date. Wave after wave of marketing, promotion, awareness, and hype. Same should go into putting a house on the market. You want THEM to come to YOU. This is a ONE-TIME shot to get it right, so you need to put everything you have into the "Not in the MLS yet!" mindset. People want what's not available yet. They want new. They want what they can't have. You want to build this marketing campaign and gain momentum well before going on the market, which is the "Main Show!".
So that means getting this news out on Instagram, on Facebook, on NextDoor, the prior WEEK before going live. Photos of the house, "Coming Soon". Blogging about it. Getting people to share so that it can go viral. Turning up the interest, emailing realtor friends, post cards mailed to neighbors for the upcoming listing (neighbors talk!! They are sometimes your best salespeople!).
Anything you can do to generate that interest BEFORE going live. Because that will get you buyers competing for your house. And what happens when buyers compete with each other for your house? MULTIPLE OFFERS. So go ahead and ask your realtor, "What are you doing for me before we go on the market?"
Posted by Mike Ciucci on
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