Selling a house today requires an all-encompassing marketing plan that uses modern tools and technology to reach the greatest number of potential buyers.  It’s through reaching the greatest number of potential buyers that you will find the “right buyer”, the buyer who is willing to pay the prices, and offer the terms that are most acceptable to you.

If you remember the study on where buyers find the homes they buy, the top 5 categories were:

• The Internet
• Their REALTOR®
• Yard/Open House Signs
• Word of Mouth
• Builder

Ensuring your house is exposed to the greatest number of potential buyers so that you reach the “right buyer” is an exercise in getting the maximum attention & exposure for your house in the marketplace.  There are 2 categories of buyers we are looking to reach; the active buyers who are searching for a home to buy, and the passive buyers who are not looking but if they “right house” were brought to their attention would buy.

Reaching Active Buyers

When potential buyers are actively searching for a home they typically begin by identifying the type, style, and location of a house in their price range…and then eliminating potential houses until they find the one they buy.

Firstly the most important part of marketing your house for sale is the staging & professional photography to reduce reasons active buyers may eliminate your house from consideration.

With a pristine product to market, your house, we suggest a diverse media strategy aimed and hitting all the places active buyers are looking for houses.  A combination of popular social media websites, dedicated housing websites and/or classifieds cover 99% of the places they look. Adding the property to REALTORS® MLS® system ensures the house is advertised to industry professionals and a yard sign makes it visible to potential buyers scouring their neighbourhood of choice.

Word of Mouth is one of the more challenging and rewarding forums to promote your property.  To start, highlight the uniqueness and outstanding characteristics of the house when speaking about it.  Spread the word to friends, neighbours and co-workers as they likely know buyers who are actively seeking a house and might find yours suitable.

Reaching Passive Buyers 

Catching the attention of buyers who are not looking can be more challenging and require more focus on non-traditional marketing.  In this, word of mouth can be much more beneficial in finding an advocate who is going to seek out people from their social circles that they would like living near them (if they are neighbours) or friends they think would have improved lifestyles by buying and living in the house.

This is one of the areas where open houses become beneficial.  As most active buyers are seeing houses with their REALTORS®, open houses tend to attract buyers earlier in the buying cycle.  Frequently popping into an open house at random is one of the 1st steps in transitioning from passive to active buyers. On rare occasions (approx 1 in 200) the buyers fall in love with the open house and purchase it.

In both cases, creating visibility and getting attention to the house or an event around the house increases the likelihood of attracting a passive buyer.  Teamed with an active buyer strategy makes for an All-Encompassing Marketing Plan.

When selling a house we use a 3 pillar approach.

1. Hyper-Local Advertising. Focused on the community and area.
2. REALTOR® Outreach. To bring the property to the attention of agents working with active buyers right for the house.
3. And Internet Broadcast. With streams for local, national, and international markets.