"The 5th P"
Most agents just do what is referred to as the "4 P's" when selling a client's home:
Put the home in the MLS
Put a Sign Up
Place an Ad in the Newspaper
and finally - Pray
During a Seller's Market - this strategy almost always worked.
Since moving to a Buyer's Market other things have become important when selling a client's home - Maximum Exposure and the "5th P".
Heather Farquhar and I have always provided Maximum Exposure to our Client's homes even during a Seller's Market - why? Maximum Exposure assures highest price in the shortest amount of time - it's simple really - the more people that know about the home - the greater chance of selling it.
How do we achieve Maximum Exposure for our Client's properties?
Professional Photos and Virtual Tours - now over 85% of Home Buyers are looking for their next home on the Internet - and they want to see photos and virtual tours. I spend a lot of time looking for properties for my clients as well as performing research for new Listings - It kills me to see the poor photos that agents take of their listings - even ones over $1,000,000 - sometimes it looks like someone just took a disposable camera to take the pictures - poor lighting, grainy pictures, bad angles and often times not enough pictures - our MLS allows up to 20 pictures now and a Virtual Tour - but not many agents take advantage of this. Take a look at one of our listings - www.11135Blix.com - don't forget to click on the Virtual Tour!
Internet - With 85% of Home Buyers looking on the Internet for their next home - doesn't it make sense to have an Internet Site? Also, how about one that can be found by Buyers? Heather and I have 24 Internet sites now focusing on driving Buyers to Our Listings - we get thousands of unique visitors to these sites every month. These sites are found easily on Yahoo, Google, MSN etc - example try Sherman Oaks Real Estate, Sherman Oaks Condos etc on Yahoo - we appear many times on page 1.
Craigslist.com - Heather and I advertise our listings extensively on Criagslist.com.
Realtor.com Featured Listings - The standard listing on Realtor.com is 1 photo and a description derived based on information provided when the listing was entered in the MLS - pretty basic and really not really giving a lot of detail. Heather and I have Featured Listing Status on Realtor.com for all of our Listings - why? Maximum Exposure! You can have over 20 pictures, virtual tour, your own description, advertise the Open Houses and provide our Sellers with reports on the activity for their listing.
LA Times Advertising - Not just the basic ad - We also do Color Ads on the Front of the Real Estate Section AND we always include the Internet Address for our Listings!
and we do Much Much More - I often think no one works harder for their Clients!
So what is the "5th P" - now it's all about PRICE - as we are now in a Buyer's Market with a huge supply of homes on the market - one of the most important things in Selling Your Home is PRICE. Your property needs to look the best and you need to have the best PRICE - it's now about PRICE. And that is the secret "5th P".
What do you think?