Why Selling A Home Fast Nets You More Money
If you saw our recent article announcing our first-ever Facebook Live Open House, then you might wonder, are open houses making a comeback?
Our long-time readers know sellers have less than a one percent chance of selling their home through an open house, so what gives?
Open House On Facebook Live
We weren't so much testing the effectiveness of an open house, rather we were testing the impact of a Facebook Live event for selling a home.
As a reminder, we had a brand new listing "go live" on Facebook Live Saturday at 2:00 p.m.
We chose a Saturday afternoon (which historically does not produce a lot of open house visitors in Tallahassee), and ended up having several families waiting for us to open the door at the designated start time. Traffic to the home was good, but not as good as we were hoping from our Facebook Live experiment.
On Facebook, we had much better exposure. Jordan Scott, making his on-screen debut, did a wonderful job. The event was viewed (thus far) 3,600 times and was seen by nearly 8,000 people. Will this result in a fast home sale? We'll see this week. There is no doubt that Facebook Live helped us gain more exposure for this home.
The one thing any good marketing company will tell you it does ... is test, test, test. The goal of a great marketing plan is massive exposure and we are always looking to better promote the properties of our home sellers.
Marketing is an ever-evolving craft, and those that think they have it down pat are being dominated by those of us who know we must stay alert. Facebook Live is something that we have yet to put a verdict on for now.
Why Home Sellers Need Maximum Exposure
Unlike most real estate agents who just list a home, put up a sign and lockbox, put it in the MLS and then pray for a buyer, we actually do so much more.
In fact, there really is no comparison between what we do to market a home for sale versus what other real estate agents do. Did you know that we spend more money each month marketing our listings than most real estate agents earn in a year?
Well, it "aint cheap," but everything we do is critical for our home sellers.
You see, many people believe "it only takes one buyer" when selling a home.
Now, if you only want to sell your home, this can be true. But if you want to get top dollar for your home, perhaps even more than its appraised value, then you need to attract multiple buyers in order to bid the home's value up to its full market potential.
So our plan is geared to provide maximum exposure for our home sellers, not merely get them listed in the MLS.
The easiest way to explain what we do is to divide our home selling plan into three separate phases.
Three Phases Of The JMRE Home Selling Plan
- Non-Product Buyer Cultivation Stage - This is the marketing we do every daily, all year long in order to cultivate a group of potential buyers for future listings for which we will be hired to sell. I have written many articles about the long process that buyers undergo (you can read one right here), so I will just briefly point out that this is a stage of marketing that begins long before you hire us to sell your home. There is nobody that even closely replicates what we do with content marketing, and it is why we lead the market in selling homes fast and for top dollar. While you might see us sell your home within a few days of hitting the market, it is likely we began a relationship with your buyer online months (and even years) ago. Sadly, the majority of real estate agents do not have these resources and thus cannot operate a daily content marketing campaign and long-term followup program.
- "Coming Soon" Marketing Barrage - They key to getting top dollar for your home is to "have" what everybody "wants." And what is it that everybody wants? They want what they cannot have! An effective pre-marketing "coming soon" campaign exposes your home before it hits that market, and it disallows buyers from visiting your home until it does hit the market. They can sign up to see it once it goes live, but they will have to compete with other buyers for the chance to buy your home. Unfortunately, most real estate agents use the MLS as their way of announcing a home has hit the market, meaning only a fraction of the ready-buyers know about it the moment the listing goes live. You might get an offer right away, but wouldn't you rather have multiple offers right away, so that you can tell the buyers to sweeten their offers?
- "Just Listed" Marketing Barrage - This is the announcement, the grand opening if you will. We notify by email everybody who has shown interest in buying a home like yours, and we broadcast it to the 45,000 people on facebook who regularly engage with us. This costs a lot of time and money, and it's why the majority of real estate agents just don't do it. Can you afford to miss this type of massive exposure when selling your home?
Why Selling A Home Fast Nets You More Money
I've created a graphic (below) which shows the relationship between time on the market and the amount of money you will likely receive as a seller.
The horizontal scale measures market time, while the vertical scale measures the sales price obtained by the home seller. Note how the green line actually starts above the market value range (we have sold homes fast for above asking price and above appraisal) but immediately declines as time goes by. The initial urgency stage requires interest from multiple parties, otherwise top dollar will not be gained. Eventually, if you wait long enough for appreciation to kick in (think months and years), the green line rises again.
The problem with just putting a home in the MLS is that not enough buyers hear about it at the same time as the "best" buyer who is actively trolling for a home like yours. This first buyer needs to feel the competition of other buyers, making other offers, if you are to extract the most amount of money that this best buyer will pay.
When we create urgency for a buyer who (REALLY REALLY REALLY) wants your home, the buyer will pay whatever it takes. The key to our pre-marketing is to generate the competition that this buyer will face the moment your home hits the market.
Barbara Corcoran Endorses Joe Manausa Real Estate
Our massive exposure for marketing homes is being noticed, even outside of Tallahassee. Listen to what Barbara Corcoran has to say about what we do to sell a home.
Can Facebook Live Really Sell A Home?
Whether or not a home sells through the efforts of a Facebook Live Open House, it does not mean that this was the singular reason for the sale.
In fact, we sent an announcement about the open house to our list of nearly 24,000 people who have been interacting with us online and using this property search tool. This exposed the home to a solid group of prospects and had little to do with Facebook Live.
Additionally, we ran the ad (pictured at right) on Facebook and it generated nearly 11,000 views and was shared by 19 people who exposed the home to their friends as well.
Between our directed email to 24,000 people who have shown a recent interest in buying a home, the exposure of our ad to nearly 11,000 people, our Facebook Live event which has been seen (so far) by nearly 8.000 people, we have massively exposed this home for its first day on the market. [Note: The MLS shows the total view count through the MLS of less than 200 people ... this is all the activity that would have been generated by a typical agent's home selling plan!]
The open house was merely the culmination of all three phases of our home selling plan coming together. Actually, we seldom conduct an open house as part of our home selling plan, we just felt that this one was optimal for such an event.
One great benefit of the open house in this situation is that buyers physically interact with and see the attention being paid by the other buyers.
Wanna Know Why Most Real Estate Marketing Plans Don't Work?
Because most real estate agents don't work a plan!
With roughly half the listings in the Tallahassee MLS failing to sell during their initial listing period, you have to wonder if real estate agents are lazy or if they are ignorant.
Who would you rather hire, somebody too lazy to market your home EVERY DAY, or somebody who does not realize that daily marketing is essential?
If neither of those options appeals to you, let us know by making contact with us below. We'll take it from there!
Sell Your Home With Joe Manausa Real Estate
We would love the opportunity to demonstrate the massive exposure generated from our home selling plan for homes similar to yours. Even if you do not plan to sell right away, get us in and let us show you how to prepare to get top dollar for your home when you do decide to move.
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