Real Estate Marketing & Beyond
Some homes just seem to sit on the market for months on end. The reasons can be numerous, including the listing being priced too high, it's location in a bad community, or the property itself just being unattractive.
But stale listings are dangerous for real estate professionals because they reflect badly on them, suggesting to consumers that perhaps their marketing skills aren't quite up to scratch. So what to do in this situation? Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate’s Clean Slate blog provides a few helpful tips on what you can do.
The first step when marketing a stale listing, or a property that may potentially become one, is to place more emphasis on visual content. Home listings need good imagery that shows off the property in the best possible light. Create a virtual tour of the property and ensure it's professionally done. Images that are low quality, blurry, slow to load or simply don't show off the home in the best possible light can easily deter prospective buyers who've come to demand better.
The next step is to focus on the character of the home. Your job as a real estate agent is to show how the home is unique from any other. Try to highlight those special features, however unimportant they may seem, such as extra bed or bathrooms, the landscaping, new amenities, the community itself if it's a good one. Virtually every home has at least one or two standout features that can be highlighted.
Finally, it may be worthwhile revisiting the price on a stale listing. After all, overpricing is one of the main reasons a property doesn't attract interest from buyers. Of course you can't dictate to your clients how much they should be asking for, but you can advise them to be more realistic. Much better to remind your clients that a realistic price will almost certainly attract more interest, and with today's low inventory problems, you may well attract a higher offer anyway.
