In today’s real estate market, sellers are looking for any technique that will entice buyers to their door. Realtors use the Internet to market their listings with still photos and video tours known as virtual tours. Homeowners have also hired professional stagers to assist them with the layout of furniture and decorating accessories. The goal is to make your home look as appealing as possible to a prospective buyer.

But what if the home is vacant? Perhaps the owners had no choice but to move due to a job change. Perhaps aging parents needed to move to an assisted living facility or nursing home. Often some of their furnishings go with them, or they need to be removed due to being outdated or showing too much wear. An empty home can be a huge challenge to sell. With inventory high, the vacant house is more likely to be overlooked and may not see much web or foot traffic. Enter virtual home staging.

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During the last few years, you may have read about some atypical real estate transactions, such as the condo owner who sold his million-dollar home through Zillow’s Make Me Move. Or two New Jersey neighbors who swapped houses. Even more unusual is the couple who sold their home at their yard sale. 

Certainly these are not everyday occurrences, but with home sales in somewhat of a paralyzed condition, sellers are looking for creative ways to attract buyers. On the crowded dance floor of real estate, what can be done to increase the chances of luring a committed dance partner to one’s home?

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When you’re putting your home on the market for sale, you do your best to make it attractive to a wide variety of buyers. You get rid of the clutter, clean, repair and paint to the point where you ask yourself, “Why wasn’t I motivated to do all this for myself and my family?” (That’s a whole other topic.)

After all this hard work, you’re feeling good about your accomplishments and know your home is ready for showing. Just then you look out your front window and notice several small mounds of earth sticking up in your lush, meticulously manicured lawn. You scream - if only in your head - and dash out of the house.

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Wanna get your house sold? Starting with a good real estate agent is a good first step. Choosing a real estate agent who is diligent in the pursuit of your needs–as well as disciplined in the art of honest selling–is a solid head start. And you need a good head start to beat out your competition.

Talk is cheap, so without further delay, here are four ways the tough get going when the going gets tough.

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In any real estate market, a house that shows well and is in good condition is going to outshine the competition. Now factor in a market with a shift from a few years ago - increase in supply and decrease in demand. How do you stay in the game and eke ahead of the competition when you are selling a house?

You need to dress your house for success.

Dressing your house for success doesn’t have to mean pouring thousands of dollars into your dwelling. If you have kept up on routine maintenance - i.e., roof repairs, furnace cleanings and A/C inspections, you are ahead of the game. This “Sunday best” outfit is called staging, and market-savvy real estate agents use staging to get their clients’ houses sold, or hire professional stagers to stage their clients’ houses for them.

The practice of home staging means getting your house in show-ready shape. When done correctly, it allows buyers to walk through a house and envision it as their home. If buyers cannot visualize their belongings in your house, then they will not consider it as an option for them.

It’s really that simple.

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In a world full of DIY (Do-It-Yourself) stores and TV shows, real estate might seem like a natural fit for the independent crowd. Unlike installing new flooring or painting a faux finish, a real estate transaction involves a hang-tough attitude. Homeowners have to be impartial in what are very personal transactions.

This is near next to impossible if you are purchasing a primary or second home residence. Still, every year thousands of homeowners try to list their house as a FSBO (For Sale By Owner). Many more end up emptying their gas tanks sooner than expected and having a real estate agent take over their listing.

There are many reasons why the FSBO route fails. Here are the 3 top pitfalls of a FSBO real estate transaction.

Pitfall #1: Less money for your efforts

Try, try again seems to be the rally cry for FSBOs. Many homeowners who choose to sell their house on their own do so because they feel they will gain more money. Statistics speak otherwise. In 2007, the National Association of Realtors found ” … the typical FSBO home sold for $187,200 compared to $247,000 for agent-assisted home sales.”

In this scenario, even at a six percent sales commission, the homeowner still walks away with $232,180 - nearly $45,000 more than what they make selling on their own. (more…)

If you’ve been frequenting this blog, you’ll know I am a believer in Internet marketing. You gotta have Internet marketing to sell your house–it’s just that simple.

I have discussed the power of video and how your house needs to tell your story. Let people know what they’ll be getting when they move into your neighborhood. Include video footage of your parks, tours of your schools, show support of your local businesses … you can even spotlight your neighbor’s prized garden.

Your real estate listing needs to be an online story.

Back to marketing–I was watching this video today and couldn’t help but see the brillance in it. The marketing of the apartment homes in the video is sponsored by a local restaurant. The video of the ads lends itself to the luxury feel of the apartments.

The ads complement the real estate listing. The video tells the neighborhood story.

Take a look at your listing online: Is it appealing? Does it stand out from the other comparable houses in your local real estate market? Do you have a video?

Does it tell a story?

So, real estate sellers, it’s time to start taking it to the streets. Get cozy with local small business owners. Self-promotion of your real estate listing is great, but engaging in joint opportunities is better. 

Expand your impact, support local businesses, and sell your house faster.

If you enjoyed this post, you’ll want to read:

• Marketing your house on the Internet is essential to attract buyers
• Use the power of video to sell your house
• 6 places to get more exposure online for your house listing

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Posted by Rebecca D. Levinson

When you have your house listed on the local real estate market, your real estate agent will probably employ a variety of marketing techniques to bring traffic through your house. Connect2Agent has discussed the importance of your real estate agent utilizing an online marketing strategy. Some more old-school styles of marketing may also be used to intrigue prospects to grace your door. One of these is the open house.

An open house is a time when you "open your home" to the public. Open houses are typically held on the weekend and are held for a block of time–some as few as 3 hours, some as long as all day–to allow enough opportunity for prospects to view your house. 

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The spring market is coming to your town. What does this mean for real estate? An increase in interest and activity. Homeowners who had their house listed in the winter and didn’t sell it are now sprucing it up to put it on the market for sale again. Homeowners who had been considering a move are moving into action, especially with their children’s pending summer break on the horizon.

So if you are a homeowner in one of these scenarios, how do you sell your house and keep your sanity? Connect2Agent has five key tips to help you on your way.

1. Hire a real estate agent. Unless you like making a smaller profit on your house and you have an abundance of time, advertising tools and networking resources at your fingertips, let the experts take care of it for you. Unlike the difference between full-service and self-service at the gas station, the task of listing, marketing and selling your house on your own versus using a professional who lives and breathes your local market is vital to your real estate success.

2. Find the right real estate agent. Interview at least three agents. Make sure you set your expectations with each of the agents up front. Let them know what you are expecting to net from your home sale and what you are expecting them to do in order to accomplish your financial goal. Choose the agent who best suits your needs and who provides a detailed marketing plan and local real estate market analysis.

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I have addressed the topics in this blog of marketing your house by video, partnering with your real estate agent to sell your house and where you can go online to advertise your house listing.

Now, I have found a great new site I want to share. The website is Classifiedflyerads.com and it allows you to create a flyer of your house and have it post to multiple real estate directories, which include:

• GoogleBase
• Trulia
• Zillow
• Oodle
• Lycos
• BackPage (Posting HTML)
• Craigslist (Posting HTML)
• Digg
• Homes.com
• House.com
• Local
• Hotpads
• Feedburner
• RealPropDeals
• eHouseAds
• Technorati
• ActiveRain (Posting HTML)
• eBay (Posting HTML)
• Kijiji
• Geebo
• LiveDeal (Posting HTML)
• CLRSearch
• RealtyFeeds
• Slashdot
• Info
• OLX
• PropBot
• Vast
• PropSmart
• RealtyFeedSearch
• Propeller
• Reddit

The service offers a free version, which includes the creation of up to 3 flyers, 5 photos, 1 virtual tour, customizable widgets and more. You can view the details of their free and paid versions on their website.

Check with your real estate agent to see if he/she is utilizing this service. If you are just in the initial stages of finding a real estate agent to work with, make sure you mention this marketing tool to him/her and see if they would be willing to use this service to send a flyer of your house to the World Wide Web.

Happy selling.

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Posted by Rebecca D. Levinson