Most traditional marketing plans include a For Sale sign, listing on the MLS, a broker’s open, public open house(s), brochures and, that old staple, newspaper advertising. If you have a high-end home your agent might also buy an ad in a local magazine.

The problem is, only 2% of buyers look at print ads as part of their home search, according to the National Association of Realtors. So, while it’s fun to see your home in print, especially in a glossy magazine, you probably aren’t getting much effective exposure.

It only stands to reason that, if you want to be seen by buyers, you should go where buyers are looking. Since 90% of people use the Internet in their home search, that’s where your marketing plan should be focused.

When you review your agent’s marketing plan for your North Shore home, here are the things you should look for:

1. Does the agent use professional photography in the listing photos? When people are searching online, photos are one of the key filters people use to determine which homes to tour and which to eliminate from consideration.  This is especially true when there is a large inventory of homes for sale (like now). Poor photos really do your home a disservice because it will not compare well to a home that has been professionally photographed. A professional photographer has the right lenses and lighting, as well as the expertise to show your home in its best light, and you should demand this from your agent.

2. Does the plan include featured listings on the big four real estate sites (Trulia, Realtor.com, Zillow and  Yahoo).
I’m not talking about whether the listing is on these sites. That should be automatic. I mean featured front and center when someone searches on a certain community. Coldwell Banker’s agents automatically have their listings featured on these sites. But any agent can pay to have her listing featured.

3. Does your property have its own web site (e.g., www.123broadway.com)?
A web site of its own will help the home show up higher on Google and will also direct interested buyers to call your agent, who is the one most knowledgeable about the benefits of your home. Also, if the For Sale sign has a sign rider with the web address, then passersby who see your sign can easily access the web site via a mobile device.

4. Does she advertise on Craig’s List?
Don’t rule out Craig’s List as another way to gain exposure for your home. The key is knowing what to include and what not to include in your ad. Some rules of thumb for Craig’s List ads: Less is more. Don’t give too much information. You want to drive people to the home’s web site, so you need a captivating headline, some basic info about the property (location, school district, contact phone number,  2-3 bullet points, a link to the web site and a call to action). The headline itself should be short and sweet: geo-targeted (town, subdivivion, etc.), with an attention grabber (New!, Just Listed!) and a keyword (Home for Sale). DON’T include the price in the ad but make sure that it is very visible on the home’s web site and NEVER put an email address in the ad (Craig’s List allows you to have an anonymous email so it’s not picked up by spammers).

5. Does your agent create a video about your home?
Not just a virtual tour set to muzak (which is certainly better than nothing), but a live action video where the agent walks the viewer through the home, talks about its best features and nearby amenities, and helps home buyers get a feeling for the lifestyle they will enjoy when they live here.

6. Does your agent have a high traffic blog-site where she writes regularly about your community, your neighborhood and your home?
Many home buyers subscribe to agent blogs about communities and neighborhoods they are interested in. Being featured on your agent’s blog is just one more way to gain exposure among potential buyers.

7. Does your agent create a Facebook fan page for your home?
Facebook pages tend to rank high in Google searches. This is a great way to have property information, photos and video easily accessible to everyone who is on Facebook (which is pretty much everyone) . The homeowner can add updates about the reasons they love the neighborhood, the house, the schools, etc. By asking friends to “like” the page, and recommend it to anyone they know who might be looking for a home, you may just find a buyer.

8. Does your agent advertise her open houses on Facebook?
Facebook is a very effective and efficient advertising medium because you can specify exactly who sees the ad: gender, age, location, interests, etc., thereby maximizing the chances of being seen by your target buyer.

9. Does your agent tweet about your home, your open houses and price adjustments, etc.
Many of today’s buyers use Twitter to keep track of developments in the communities they are interested in. Tweeting can be a great way to keep people informed about relevant activity.

QR Code

10. Does your agent use QR codes on her For Sale sign and other marketing materials?
A QR code (or Quick Response Code) is a matrix bar code that can be scanned by a smart phone that is equipped with a reader app. Scanning the code can display text, contact info or a web page (your property’s web site, for example).

You and your agent may decide that not all of these tactics are appropriate in your particular situation. But they should be considered if you are serious about attracting today’s buyers. The Internet has changed the way people shop for homes, so you want to make sure you are using this tool to your advantage.

Related Posts:

• Where Not to Advertise Your North Shore Home
• How Photos Can Prevent Your Home from Selling

But, there are some very good reasons why NOW is actually a very good time to sell your North Shore home:

1. There may be fewer people out looking for houses as the weather worsens and the holidays approach. BUT, the people who ARE out looking tend to be serious buyers, not lookie-lous. The fact is that people buy houses at any time of year for all sorts of reasons.

2. Since most would-be sellers think that nobody buys houses in the winter, they wait til spring to list theirs, so there’s 15-20% less inventory this time of year. That means you have 15-20 % less competition for those serious buyers if you sell now than if you wait til spring to list your house.

3. Another reason you will have less competition now is because of the recent suspension of sales of foreclosed homes. That means that many of the distressed and discounted properties are temporarily off the market. So not only is there less competition, but less low-priced competition.

4. Just when you think that mortgage interest rates can’t go any lower, they do! And buyers are smart enough to realize that this can’t last forever. If they have been sitting on the sidelines waiting for prices to drop even further, they have probably seen the recent data that North Shore prices have begun to stabilize. And if they’re smart, they’ve done the math that shows that a one point increase in interest rates will give them 9% less purchasing power. It doesn’t take a genius to realize that NOW is the time to buy.

5. Finally, if you are moving up to a bigger or better house, you can actually come out ahead, EVEN if you sell your current home for less than it used to be worth. Here’s how that math works: let’s say your current house is worth 20% less than it was three years ago. The bigger, better house you want to buy is also worth 20% less than it was three years ago. So you gain more on the purchase of the new house than you lose on the sale of your current home. You can read more about how this works here.

Related articles:

• How Move-Up Buyers Can Profit from a Down Market

• Success Formula for a Quick Sale of Your Home

But these days, the new mantra seems to be “price, price, price”, and there’s no doubt that price is what’s on everyone’s lips.

But the mantra really should be “value, value, value” because, in the sale and purchase of anything, whether it’s a house, a car or a pair of jeans, it’s always been about value.  In other words, the quality you get for the price you pay.  It’s really a very simple formula:

Value is the subjective assessment which the customer and/or the market makes about the overall worth of a product or service based on its quality and price.

There are three components of quality when it comes to buying a house: features (square footage, # bedrooms, etc.), location and condition (is everything in good repair, is it updated, does it show well?). If the buying public perceives your house to be the best house at its price point, then the house will sell. If it’s not, it won’t. Simple as that. You can’t settle for “as good as” other similarly priced houses (which, are not selling, by the way); it must be the BEST house at its price point (and you need to force yourself to be objective about this). If other competing houses are more updated or in a better location or have better features, then you’d better make adjustments until it IS the best one.

Since you can’t change the location and you can’t (easily) change the floor plan or other permanent features of the house, you have to take control of those things you can control: the condition of the house and the price. In most cases you can improve the condition by making repairs and inexpensive updates and staging the house to show it off to its best advantage.

But that may not be enough. If you’ve fixed and updated and staged and it still doesn’t measure up to the other comparably priced houses, then it’s time to adjust the price, until it is the clearly BEST value on the market.

If you follow this formula, your house WILL sell, even in this market.

My clients wanted to buy your house. They really did. Or at least they thought they did based on the description and pictures they saw on the MLS. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get in to see the house in person due to your “24 hour notice required – NO EXCEPTIONS” showing instructions. So now they have left town again, having put in an offer on another house that they liked almost as much as yours.

You see, my buyers are relocating to the North Shore from another state for a new job, and they only had this weekend to figure out where they wanted to live and find a house to buy. Once we’d done our area tour and they had identified two or three North Shore communities to focus on, I went about setting up appointments for later that day. When I called about your house, the appointment desk told me we could not see your house because of your showing instructions. When I explained about my out-of-town buyers, he said he was very sorry, but no.

Believe me, I understand how stressful it is to have your life disrupted by people traipsing through your home at the drop of a hat. And I know how difficult it is to keep your house in showing condition at all times, especially when time on market drags on and on. It is certainly your prerogative to decide when and under what conditions to show your home. However, I noticed that your home has been on the market for 97 days and has had one price reduction already, so I respectfully suggest that, if you really want to sell your house, you may want to consider being more flexible with showings.

The more accessible you can make your home to potential buyers, the more quickly you are likely to get an offer. And the faster you get the house under contract (the data shows) the more money you will get for your home.

Mr. and Mrs. Seller, I had a qualified and highly motivated buyer who, in all likelihood, would have made an strong offer on your house this weekend. But once you said no to a showing, you lost them. They won’t come back at a more convenient (for you) time.

Please, for your own sake, try to be more flexible the next time someone wants to see your home. You may just get an offer.

Here are some of the highlights:

After being on the market unstaged for 277 days on average, vacant homes then sold within 63 days after being staged.

After being on the market unstaged for 233 days on average, occupied homes sold within 53 days after being staged.

284 homes that were staged before being listed sold in 40.5 days.

You can read the  full RESA report here.

If you’d like to learn more about staging your home to sell, please give me a call at 847–687-5957 or email me.
I am a certified home stager and staging is part of my service for all of the sellers that I represent.

Related Articles:

• Beyond Cleaning and Decluttering
• Painting Your House to Sell

1. Spend your money where you can see it.

When you go to sell your house, you normally have a long list of things to do to get it sale-ready. Some of these are fixes, some are updates and some are replacements. If anything is broken or damaged or not working properly, you need to get it fixed. Otherwise it will show up on the inspection report and could end up costing you the sale or dragging out the negotiation. But beyond the fixes that are absolutely necessary, you need to be strategic about what you do and where you will get the most bang for the buck. Spend your money on the things that the buyer will see. Don’t replace the hot water heater (unless it’s broken) or put on a new roof (unless it leaks) or buy high-end bathroom fixtures – because the buyer won’t know the difference between the $150 faucet and the $800 one.

Instead, spend it on removing the wallpaper, repainting, or on new knobs to replace the dated hardware on your kitchen cabinets. Spend it on curb appeal: mulching and edging the beds, planting flowers, painting the front door. Spend it on the things that will help your house win the beauty contest. Spend it on the things that will make buyers feel good.

2. Don’t offer credits.

Short of remodeling the kitchen or putting on an addition, don’t expect your buyer to do anything you don’t want to do. In a nutshell, your buyer doesn’t want to trade their dirty carpet for your dirty carpet. And (unless they are dyed in the wool do-it-yourselfers), they will have a hard time imagining that a house with peeling paint and stains on the carpet could be the kind of house they want to pay good money for. They’ll reject your home and move on to the next one. There are plenty to choose from right now. Besides, you will probably end up spending more on credits than you would if you went ahead and got the work done yourself…and the buyer will still make their offer based on the current condition of the house. So you pay twice.

3. Find one purpose for each room and stage it accordingly.

No combo family room/office/play room. No combo guest room/office/junk room. Whatever you may have used the room for, figure out what your target buyer will likely use it for and turn it into that room. Young families? Turn that third bedroom/office back into a child’s room. Did you replace your dining room table with a pool table so you could get more use out of that room? Time to turn it back into a formal dining room. The new people may not end up using it as a dining room any more than you did. But they THINK they will.

4. Make sure each room has a focal point

Then arrange the room so that this is the first thing someone notices when they walk in the room. In the living room the focal point is often the fireplace, sometimes the view or sometimes a major piece of art. In the dining room it should be the dining room table. In the bedroom it should be the bed. In every case, make sure the focal point is staged to draw attention and wow the viewer. Doing this will also help distract the eye away from less appealing features in the room.

5. LightenUp

Light and bright houses are universally appealing. They make people feel happy and happy people want to buy. To maximize the light in every room, do the following:

• Paint rooms with low natural light a warm, light color like Benjamin Moore Windham Cream (HC-6)
• Trim bushes and trees that are covering windows.
• Open curtains, blinds and shades. If you have heavy and dated draperies, remove them.
• Change the light bulbs in every lamp to a higher wattage. And make sure every room has enough lamps.

6. Blend and weave (some of) the same colors throughout the house.

I’m not saying to paint every room the same color. That would be boring and forgettable, which is the death knell for a sale. What I’m saying is carry at least one or two some of the same colors into every room, whether in the paint color or the furniture and accessories.

7. Be neutral without being blah

Home stagers always say to go with neutral colors.  And you should, for the walls and large pieces of furniture. But don’t go overboard on the neutrals. You don’t want your home to be blah and boring. Be sure to add back some color to each room in the form of accents and accessories.  Artwork, pillows, flowers and other accessories can add a punch of color that will make the difference between blah and brilliant. One of the easiest and cheapest ways to add color is with a bowl of brightly colored fruit like lemons or oranges.

A final tip: put one of the lemons down the garbage disposal right before your open house and it will give your kitchen a fresh and natural scent.

Related Posts:

Home Staging Works. Here’s Proof

Right now you have a narrow window of opportunity to get a leg up on your competition when it comes to curb appeal. Put planters full of bright blooms on either side of your front door to welcome prospective buyers. If you have beds in front of your house, add some flowering annuals.   Since the weather will be “iffy” for a while yet, most people (including the home sellers you are competing with) don’t get serious about their yards until mid to late May. This is especially true when it comes to planting flowers, since there’s still a good chance we’ll have a frost that can kill most annuals. If you are the only seller with freshly edged and mulched beds and planters filled with welcoming blooms, your house will win the battle for curb appeal.

So, what about the problem of frost? You certainly don’t want to have a bunch of dead plants in front of your home. The answer is to select hardy annuals that can withstand a frost without being killed. Some that can take the unpredictable North Shore climate are: cornflower, foxglove, larkspur, pansy, stock, sweet alyssum and viola. The easiest, most readily available and most reliable is the pansy. They come in several colors, are available at all home centers and garden centers and are extremely cold tolerant.

Make sure you buy big, mature plants that will provide strong impact NOW.  They are more expensive than the little ones but you don’t have time to wait for the little ones to grow. Besides, once the weather gets hot, they will wilt and get leggy, and will need to be replaced by heat tolerant flowers.

Color psychologists suggest that yellow is the best color flower to use because it makes people feel happy and positive. Some go so far as to say that it puts people in a buying mood. The main thing is to choose colors that stand out against the background so they are visible from the street. You can add height to your planters by combining flowers with a taller plant, such as a boxwood (see photo above) or by adding a few pussy willow or curly willow branches to the arrangement.

On the other hand, if your home is filled with wallpaper, is painted with vivid colors or hasn’t been updated in awhile, you should seriously consider repainting. It can have an enormous impact on how well your house shows and how quickly it sells.  Your goal is to make it as broadly appealing as possible, which is why home stagers and real estate agents tell you to go with a neutral, non taste-specific color.

Neutral Does Not Mean White

But people often assume that neutral means white or off-white.  Problem is, white tends to be cold, harsh and not very inviting as a wall color. And, contrary to popular belief, it will NOT make a small room appear larger. It will just make it look like a small, sterile room. Likewise, painting the entire interior of the house the same bland beige color may not offend anyone, but will guarantee that your home is totally forgettable unless it has some very distinctive architectural features.

What you’re going for is a color scheme that elicits positive emotions and enables potential buyers to visualize themselves living in the house with their own furnishings.  It should look stylish and up to date without being too taste specific. One way to achieve this is to select a paints in the same color family for the main rooms so that the rooms flow together visually.

Warm Colors Make People Happy

When staging a house for sale I recommend warmer neutrals for the main living areas like the family room, dining room and kitchen, because warm colors stimulate the senses (as well as the appetite). Buttery, creamy, buff and tan colors will warm up any room and will to work well with red, green or brown furniture.

Cool Colors Soothe and Relax

For bedrooms and bathrooms you should be trying to create the feel of a spa retreat. Using cooler neutrals like pale blues, sage greens and grays will help accomplish this.

When selecting colors from a paint strip remember that the color will look darker on the wall than on the strip so it’s usually safer to go lighter. The best thing to do, however, is to get sample jars of 2-3 color choices and test them on a section of wall at least 2′ x 2′.  Make sure to test and compare colors in daylight hours, as that is when buyers are most likely to see them. Remember also that the same color can look dramatically different from room to room depending on the room’s exposure and how much light it gets.

Related Posts:

• Top Ten Paint Colors to Sell Your North Shore Home
• Pottery Barn Colors That Will Help You Sell Your Home

Usually, after I deliver the bad news about where I think we should price the home, I hear one (or more) of the five “buts”:

1. “But the other agent  said it was worth x” (a higher number)

2. “But my neighbor sold his house for x” (a higher number)

3. “But my house is much nicer than the ones you’re comparing it to”

4. “But if I price it that low now, then the buyer will still negotiate it down and I’ll make even less money.”

5. “But why can’t we just start a little higher? We can always reduce it later.”

All of these are natural reactions under the circumstances. But these “buts” can lead to pricing decisions that will ultimately cost you money. Here’s how to avoid these five pricing pitfalls:

“But the other agent said it was worth x”.

I don’t want to say that there are agents who will inflate the price to get the listing, but it can happen. More likely the agent is throwing out a ballpark figure without having (yet) done an in depth competitive market analysis. Don’t ever hire an agent based on the price he or she gives you. Your choice of agent should be based on experience, track record, knowledge of your specific market and the marketing plan for your property. Above all it should be based on trust and confidence that the agent has your best interests at heart.

“But my neighbor sold his house for x”.

When? Three years ago? The fact is, unless his house is almost the same as yours and he sold it last week, it’s an irrelevant comparison. The market has changed and the hard reality is that your house is almost certainly worth less now. You need to do (or make sure your agent does) the research to determine the value of your house today. You should only be looking at comparable homes that have sold in the last three months. AND you should be looking carefully at the homes that are on the market today, as this is your competition.

“But my house is much nicer than the ones you’re comparing it to”.

We all become emotionally attached to our home. It’s our refuge and our haven.We’ve added our personal stamp. We’ve made lots of wonderful memories there. But when you go to sell your house, you have to emotionally disconnect. This is not your home anymore. It is a product for sale and you need to look at it objectively vs. its competition. Then price it accordingly.

“But if I price it that low now, the buyer will still negotiate it down and I’ll make even less money” .

This is one of the most common “buts” and I have to admit I’ve been guilty of it myself.  The problem with pricing a house higher than it should be because you “can always negotiate” is that it will attract less buyer interest because it doesn’t measure up to the other houses at that price point, and you won’t end up having anyone to negotiate with. It seems counter-intuitive, but pricing it lower may actually net you more money in the end, because it will attract a lot of interest and potentially multiple offers and a bidding war.

“But why can’t we just start a little higher? We can always reduce it later.”

This is the slipperiest slope of all if you are in a depreciating market, because you end up chasing the market down and are always higher than you should be. You will end up months later with an unsold house at a list price that is much lower than the price you could have sold for if you had only priced it right from the beginning.

The other thing to keep in mind is that a new listing gets the most buyer interest and activity in the first 2-4 weeks after it goes on the market. If it is priced too high, you are only helping one of your well-priced competitors make a sale. And your home will be invisible to those people who are its most likely buyers, because it is out of their price range. When it doesn’t sell after a few weeks it becomes “stale” and people begin to think there’s something wrong with it. So you reduce it, but you’re still behind the market, and so on.

Like it or not, in this market pricing will be the deciding factor in whether or not you sell your house.  If you really need to sell your house, then you need to price it so that it is the best house at the best price, and not a penny more. End of story.

Usually, about halfway through the show Lenny and his partner solve the murder and arrest the suspect. They read him his Miranda Rights and drag him off to the interrogation room for questioning, where they roll into their “good cop, bad cop” routine. Sometimes the perp is smart and lawyers up right away, but often he is (inexplicably) so eager to please the “good cop” that he ends up spilling his guts and incriminating himself.

That’s when it struck me that agents should read their sellers their Miranda Rights before they are allowed to talk to prospective buyers or their agents. Sellers want so badly for buyers to like their home, and are so eager to build rapport with them, that they divulge information they shouldn’t. We need to remind them that “Anything you say can and will be used against you”.

Here are some things that sellers will reveal that can undermine their negotiating position with a buyer:

• They’ve already bought another house and are closing on it next week.
• They’re being transferred to …(distant city).
• Their mortgage is all paid up.
• They’re facing foreclosure if they don’t get their house sold soon.
• They hate all the barking dogs or screaming kids in the neighborhood.
• They can’t go below x on the price (or they need to make x)
• They’re getting a divorce.

Any knowledge that can give buyers negotiating leverage should be kept under wraps. Savvy buyers will ask innocent sounding questions in an attempt to find out about your situation, why you are selling and how desperate you are. One of the agents in our office even had a buyer tour her listing, see (and read) a letter from a divorce attorney lying on the desk, and then try to use the knowledge of the sellers’ impending divorce against them in negotiations.

Obviously you need to be honest when answering questions about the condition of the house – it’s the law – but otherwise it’s a good idea to keep mum and refer questions to your agent. Better yet, be gone when buyers are touring your home. Things will work out better all around.