Companies such as propertycashbuyers buy properties for cash, which is ideal if you are in a tremendous hurry to sell, but for everyone else, a regular real estate agent is generally a good place to start when you are ready to leave your home. Before the internet came along, real estate agents had to do quite a lot of legwork to sell a property, but the rise of online property portals such as Zillow and Trulia have changed the landscape for real estate agents and sellers.
These days most people go online to view properties for sale. They can flick through hundreds of property listings from the comfort of their own home, and make appointments to view any that appeal. In theory, this makes life a lot easier for the agent, but the hard part is persuading a potential viewer to click on the ad and view the full brochure – and if you don’t get this aspect right, you could lose out on a qualified buyer.
Market Online
First and foremost, you must be willing to market a property online. This is not to say you should avoid traditional marketing methods, but online is the best way to reach the majority of buyers. Even older people are now comfortable using online resources, so if you stick to local listings or even just a ‘for sale’ sign, your reach will be incredibly small.
Start with the Right Selling Price
A property is only worth what someone is willing to pay, but you do need to start off in the right ball park. Property portals let buyers filter out listings according to a number of criteria, but the most important is price.
Properties are listed in price bands. To achieve the maximum click through, it is better to price a property so it falls at the bottom of a price band, as this will push it to the top of the page when a buyer does a search for suitable properties in their price band. You will see a better click-through and therefore more viewings, and if you put ‘offers over’, you should still end up with a price that’s favorable.
Use Great Photos
Photos make or break a sale listing. Poor photos put people off before they even come out to view, which is hardly a good result. Great photos show off a property and make the best use of light and space.
When a buyer searches a property portal, they will see a prominent photo and a short piece of text in the results. This photo needs to be really good to encourage the buyer to click through into the main listing.
Take 360 Degree Videos
Videos are equally as important when marketing properties online, as buyers have the comfort of being able to see the entire room.
Refresh Listings
Listings need to be refreshed regularly, as this pushes them back up in the search results.
There are lots of things you can do to improve the click through rate on property listings, so if your property isn’t performing as well as it should, tweak a few areas to see if it makes a difference.
About Mike Wheatley
