When selling a home, marketing can easily make or break a sale. Good marketing can impress buyers right from the very beginning and draw them to the home. While real estate agents will typically handle most of the home’s marketing themselves, homeowners can also do their part to add to and improve the marketing. Here are some of those ways.

For informational purposes only. Always consult with a licensed real estate professional before proceeding with any real estate transaction.

1. Make Sure the For Sale Sign is Visible

While having a for sale sign may seem obvious to some people, it isn’t to others. Some homeowners think a big sign in the front yard is an eyesore, or they may think openly announcing that the home is for sale could bring trouble. However, if a home is for sale, it should always have a clearly visible sign telling people that it’s on the market. One of the most common ways buyers find homes for sale, aside from seeing them online, is simply by driving by and seeing a sign. And if a buyer likes what they see when driving by, they may take a photo or make a note to find it online and look at pictures, or even have their agent arrange a showing time.

2. Take High-Quality Photos for Listings

If a buyer isn’t driving by the home in person and seeing that it’s for sale, they’re more than likely going to first see the home on an online listing. Because of this, pictures are of the utmost importance, so buyers need to ensure that the photos they use aren’t over or under-saturated, aren’t blurry, and make the home look enticing. The easiest way to get high-quality photos for a listing is by hiring a photographer to come to the home and take them. Hiring a photographer is also a good option because they will also edit the photos to do things like color corrections and cropping, which many homeowners wouldn’t be able to do on their own without previous knowledge of editing software.

3. Make Sure the Home is in the Multiple Listing Service

The Multiple Listing Service (MLS) is a service that only real estate agents are able to access. It acts as a database with information about homes for sale, and through the MLS, agents can communicate directly with each other to try to find homes for their clients and make sales. Most agents already use the MLS without having to be asked, but it’s always a good idea to ask and make sure the home is in the database.

4. Make Information Easy to Find

One of the easiest ways to frustrate a buyer is to hide information from them. Buyers want to know how many square feet the home is and how much money property taxes are, and they also want to be able to reference it easily. A good way to help with this is by creating a physical pamphlet that buyers can take with them when they come to a showing.  Some more information to include on pamphlet is:

• The home’s address
• A photo of the home
• Price
• Number of bedrooms and bathrooms
• Square footage
• Property taxes
• Amenities
• HOA fees

West Springs homeowners can also place these pamphlets in a plastic letterbox on or next to the For Sale sign. This way buyers can easily decide if the home is a good match for them without having to search Google for the right home listing.

Homeowners have a lot more ability to help market their home than they may initially think. Using these four strategies, along with the help of a skilled real estate agent, can help improve a home’s marketing and help it reach a wider audience.

For informational purposes only. Always consult with a licensed real estate professional before proceeding with any real estate transaction.