How to sell a home in a slow market.
Every day I hear fellow realtors that the real estate market is slow and they are finding it difficult to find buyers for their listings. Things have changed a bit, but there are plenty of people buying right now. Here are some of the ways that I get my listings sold.
If you are sitting in the office right now waiting for the phone to ring then chances are good you will be disappointed. Those old school methods of posting a sign, holding an open house, and placing an ad in the real estate magazines just do not work. Are you spending a small fortune every week in advertising? In most areas print advertising is dead. Over 90% of buyers initiate their search on the net. It is time to go where the clients are, their homes and offices. I get about 40 property inquiries a day, most of which come in on the weekends and at night when the office is closed.
Set up a website!
First you need a domain name. Think of a name that is indicitive of your area and or office name. Use good keywords in your domain name for the best results. For one of my real estate sites I chose northidahohomeandland.com
If you don’t know html then find a good hosting company, web designer and SEO specialist. Don’t skip the SEO step! You can have the best website in the world, but if no one can find you, it will not do you any good. I have been hosting and designing websites for 12 years, many of which are real estate sites. You may look around this portfolio of web designs to get ideas or order services. On a real estate site you want to promote yourself, your listings and give your visitors a way to find the properties they want.
Syndicate your listings!
You want your listings to show up all over the net. One of the easiest ways to do this is to use a service to syndicate your listings
Some of the sites you want to post your listings to are Craigslist, AOL, Home Seekser, Google Base, zillow, Trulia, Yahoo, Home Gain, Oddle, Citycribs, Front Door, Prop Smart, Listing Mania, Cyber homes, Hotpads, Back Page, and Home Finder just to name a few. I highly recommend this site to post your listings
You can also enter your listings here
Write a blog!
Blogs are wonderful programs that allow someone without html knowledge post articles. The search engines love them and are updated quickly in the search engine results. You can write articles, post listings and provide area information. All with links back to your website.
Network with other agents!
I know agents from all over the United States and often send and recieve referrals. A great place to network with agents, get help and promote your listings are sites like Active Rain
Take advantage of all social networking communities such as twitter, facebook, ning, and myspace. this is all a part of “branding yourself” as the expert in your industry.
