When it comes time to sell your little gem of a property, it’s critical to have a comprehensive marketing and advertising plan.
Usually, you will use a realtor to list the property on the local MLS, but not all realtors are created equal. Stay away from the ones who only market according to the three P’s: Post (a for sale sign); Publish (a short write-up with pictures in the MLS) and Pray (that someone interested notices the place and buys it.
Realtors don’t come with signs (well, I guess they come with for sale signs). But, not all realtors are as good at selling properties. Some are better at being buyers agents, some are Saturday morning realtors who have a different job during the week, and some just don’t understand the importance of treating their business like a business. Don’t use those.
Use someone who makes their living in this industry. You also probably want to stay away from those who are just starting out. Find out what they do to market the property. Everyone says “we advertise online” but what they don’t say is most of those sites you look up listed properties on like: www.redfin.com and www.trulia.com and www.realtor.com do most of the work for the realtor in terms of getting on their site.
Take lots of pictures. This might seem like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised how many realtors only take six or eight pics and think that’s good enough. You want to fill up the MLS max (generally 25 pics) with good high quality images. You might also want to have a “virtual tour” where potential buyers can look at even more pictures of the place. Remember, your goal is to sell someone their dream house. Are you really going to be able to do that with eight pictures?
Make sure your realtor spends money on a good photographer. Take a look at the virtual tour I posted last week. Now, compare that with other listings and pictures of competing houses in the neighborhood. The average days on market in that area is 30-60 depending on the type and condition of the property. You want to minimize this as much as possible.
Price it right. I’m not in the business of maximizing my return on one house. I am in the business of turning over properties. If you overprice something by as little as 5 or 10%, you could run the risk of being priced out of the local market. Take a look at the neighborhood. Price the property on the higher end, because you just finished fixing the place and making it nice. But you probably don’t want to be the most expensive thing on the block. You want to make sure that you sell quickly for a good profit. Be a little greedy, but not too much.
These are just a few simple tips. And I’ve learned most of these lessons the hard way, and sometimes multiple times. But sometimes you get things right. That house I posted pictures of last week is sold. We received three offers and ended up taking a full price offer with conventional financing last week. We may have been able to squeeze another 5,000 out of the place, but if it sells a month sooner, that’s a month sooner that I can start looking for the next place to fix up.
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