Now that the home is ready to be presented to the public, the next step is to deliver that message directly to as many people that have the ability and interest in purchasing your home!

Pre-Marketing

Most Realtors constantly gather the contact information and interests of buyers from many sources and retain this information in a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. This allows the Realtor to communicate to these groups based upon various interests and qualification. It is not unlikely to have hundreds of prospects retained in these databases.

Realtors usually represent homes in similar areas, or types of homes will have gathered buyers who have interests in those segments. So one of the benefits of hiring a local Realtor is that they probably have contacted people looking for homes in your area.

Smart Realtors will begin to market your type of home for buyers looking in your neighborhood before your home is ready to be promoted in order to message these potential buyers when that time arrives.

MLS

All Realtors have access to the Multiple List Source (MLS) in which to list your home. This is the primary information source that Realtors utilize because it will contain the most diverse amount of documented information and history about a home. The MLS is also regulated, so the data found within is usually more legitimate. 86% of buyers will purchase their home using a Realtor, so making sure your home is listed on the MLS is an essential part of promoting your home for sale.

Most professional agents also have a website that interfaces with the MLS. These websites can offer a customized web page (landing page) for your home where you can direct prospective buyers to obtain detailed information, view photos/tours and set appointments to view. Most of these platforms also provide flyers and other marketing material that can be used to promote the home. 

Syndicated Search Sites – In the past few decades a number of national real estate search platforms have emerged to become the default resource for retail search efforts. While individuals can enter home listings directly into these platforms, most of their data is syndicated from the MLS. Note again that most Realtors utilize the MLS directly due to the advanced search capability and quality of information.

Most of the real estate search platforms also provide an automated value estimate which seems convenient to the average consumer. These estimates are usually based upon vague information and assumptions and can be widely inaccurate.      

Friends, Family & Neighbors

Many people don’t realize that they come equipped with an entire network of friendly people who can spread the word about your house being for sale. Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram & Twitter are great platforms to let folks know about your home. If you have a lot of local business connections, LinkedIn is a great place to talk about your home. We frequently have open houses specifically for the neighbors (cause you know that they’re going to come by!), or do a direct mailing to your 50 closest neighbors with links to the virtual tour.

Open Houses & Broker Opens

It is common to set aside opportunities to hold the house open for viewing by the public. This has been a long tradition for buyers to expose themselves to homes in a particular neighborhood, to see the types of features that may be available. This is usually the most elemental stage of the home buyer process, and very few have been financially qualified, nor have established actual search parameters for what they are looking to purchase. It is however an opportunity for Realtors to increase their database of potential buyers to work with. You may also notice that this is the opportunity that your neighbors will utilize to enter your home for comparison purposes.

Broker’s Opens are the same type of opportunity to view your home, but invitations and access only offered to real estate agents. Some events are only offered to agents within a brokerage and sometimes only to agents active in a particular area or neighborhood. Our neighborhood has a monthly “caravan of homes” where a number of homes are scheduled to open for a brief period during a weekday morning and a number of agents go from home to home viewing and providing feedback for the listing.  

Just Listed – Just Sold

There are many forms of media for this marketing strategy, but essentially a message will be sent to the geographic area surrounding your home advertising the listing becoming active, any type of price changes or open house opportunities, and once the home has been sold.

An exception to this being exclusively being geographic in nature would be a reverse prospecting efforts. One of the features of the MLS is to create a list of agents who’s customer’s have ever viewed your listing on the MLS. This feature is helpful to reach out directly to those agents.

Digital Marketing

One of the biggest advances in real estate advertising is digital marketing. This is basically utilizing paid advertisement on Facebook, Google and similar social media platforms to interact with potential customers. Some of these platforms are better designed to facilitate this messaging than others.

Twitter has always been lacking in the ability to target or generate measurable response to messages. Facebook has perfected the ability to message and generate and capture responses, however many other tech platforms have made efforts to suppress their tracking capability. Google provides the most intricate level of targeting, but lacks in capturing and tracking responses.