Here’s a weird thing about real estate marketing: we have to do it twice.

First, for ourselves. Our target clients need to find us, be convinced that they want us, and ultimately sign on as clients. Second, for our clients. We need to find the ideal buyer for our clients’ homes, present them at their most appealing, and sell high, fast. This means we do a lot of marketing work.

What it also means is that you can tell a lot about your real estate agent by how they market their team. The same way you wouldn’t get a haircut from a barber with a bad haircut, you shouldn’t have your home marketed by a real estate team with poor marketing.

From open houses to video walk-throughs to navigating online listing services, here’s how we combine modern technology with an old-school strategy to best sell your home.

Putting a Bullseye on Our Target Market

For every home, we narrow our market down to a persona (or a few). This is the person we’re hoping to find to buy your home. Once we know who they are, we can design our presentation, photography, and targeted marketing in a way that we can not only find them, but appeal to them directly.

Presenting the Belle of the Ball

When getting ready for a party, some people spend only a few minutes throwing on their go-to outfit after a quick shower. Others like to spend a few hours working their way up to super glam.

Getting your home ready to sell is very the same thing. Some homes just need a good scrub and a decent declutter before being put on the market. Others need minor repairs and a fresh coat of paint. Some need a serious, sleeves-rolled-all-the-way-up overhaul.

The key in all of this is not to do what you think your home “needs”, but instead do what will net you the best return on investment. Return on investment (ROI) is the amount of money you put in versus the increased sale price.

Minor repairs, painting, and professional staging can be worthwhile investments for the subsequent increase in sale price. Sometimes even major renovations can have a massive impact on your return.

Staging, in particular, is a strategy that many buyers are asking about. Staging has been shown to offer a significant return on investment because it’s well-rooted in human psychology. Staged homes feel warmer, more welcoming, and buyers are more easily able to imagine themselves in the space.

Studies are backing this up – buyers spend one to six percent more on the exact same home when it’s staged.

We take a hard look at potential returns for different investments in every individual property we sell. Of course, taking your timeline and budgetary needs into account is a big part of this decision, and we’ll never push you to make a risky renovation or a rushed decision.

Photography and Videos

Once your home is in tip-top shape, it’s time to put it in front of a buyer’s eyes. This used to mean photos in newspapers, broker windows, and open houses. Now, it means photos, videos, and 3D walkthroughs on a dozen different online services.

Video also makes sense when it comes to certain, tech-savvy target audiences; although, some property layouts lend themselves better to video than others.

Listing a Great Home

Writing a great listing is still one of the best ways to sell a home. Listing-writing strategy has been around forever, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy.  Imaginative and descriptive phrasing, scene-setting imagery, and “lifestyle” moments – those little phrases that help a buyer imagine themselves cozying up in front of a warm fireplace or sipping a martini overlooking a busy neighborhood  – are key for buyers.

Where these listings go matters. And, again, it’s tied to target audience. If this property is the dream home for a specific person, then how would that person come across it? What would draw them in? How do you speak directly to the person you’re looking for?

Almost every buyer now starts their real estate journey online, so we put everything about your home online, where it’s accessible to the people who are looking for it. A potential buyer can find out everything about a property before contacting us, and that means there are fewer barriers to them falling in love with it. We’re making it easy for buyers to search for your property.

Social Media Matters

We’re believers in using our platforms – that’s why we’re big believers in the power of Facebook. As one of the most popular home marketing platforms, as well as business hub in general, we use Facebook to share client success stories, real-people examples, and share listing details when it makes sense. Showing that there are real people behind a sale or a property helps buyers feel connected to what they see online; which, in turn, helps make the sale,

Social media marketing for real estate isn’t something that’s totally taken off yet – and many people are still figuring out the ropes. But we are always learning the best strategies and how to incorporate new tech into home selling, because that’s what we’d expect from someone selling our homes.

Ultimately…

Marketing a sale requires an in-depth knowledge of our ideal buyer, beautiful presentation of the property so that it appeals to that ideal buyer, and using marketing technology to put that property in front of our ideal buyers’ eyes.

It’s not easy – but that’s why we’re here. We’d love to chat more about our marketing strategy.  Give us a call at 202.270.1081, email us at anslie@thestokesgroup.com, or send us a message here to get started.

The Stokes Group is a team of dedicated professionals who have passion for the real estate business and will advocate for our clients with the utmost honesty, integrity, and confidentiality. We believe in building solid relationships with our clients and that starts by getting to know who we are. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram.