In a buyer’s market, the most crucial factor in selling your home successfully is to increase the number of qualified and motivated buyers to find the property on the MLS listing service and get them to see your home. When the real estate market is slow it is no simple feat to get those buyers interested enough to come and see any home on the market. Whether the property is one of the many homes for sale in Stittsville or downtown Ottawa buyers simply have to visit the house or condo.
What are the top ways real estate agents can help sell your home faster and for more money?
- In any market condition whether it is a seller’s or buyer’s market the most important factor to get your property sold is to expose it to the maximum number of home buyers. The simple best way to do that is to list it on the MLS listing platform. The MLS or Multiple Listing Service is by far the most effective way to reach the maximum number of homebuyers in Ottawa, Canada.
2. Well over 80 per cent of homes, so 8 out of 10 home sold, are sold by Realtors. If you want to sell your property fast for more money you need to market the home directly to all the real estate agents in your area. How to do that? Offer them a competitive commission. Realtors works for a commission. They only make money when they successfully sold a property. Make it clear that you want to work with them when they bring a qualified buyer by offering them a commission to do their jobs.
3. Make showings easy and fast. Put a lockbox on your door or front rail and specify on all of your marketing products that the home is easy to show. Write Call and show on advertisements. Make sure to call or email back every single Realtor who wants to show the property to their buyer clients.
4. For sale sign on the front lawn. The tried and tested for sale sign in a highly visible spot, generally, the property’s front yard is still one of the best ways to expose the home to potential buyers. Make sure it is a large sign with your name, phone number and email on it. You can also put a topper on the sign with a bit of info about the home such as 4 bedrooms finished basement or hardwood floor on all levels. If the price is very competitive you can put the price on the for sale sign as well.
5. Use a mixed and as complete marketing plan as possible to expose your house or condo to buyers. Beside an MLS listing put pictures and descriptions on other high traffic and local sites such as Kijiji, Facebook Marketplace, real estate agents’ websites. You should print brochures and put them in neighbouring mailboxes. Put an ad in print as there are still many people reading ads in the newspaper. Tell your friends, colleagues and neighbours. Email the brochure to as many other real estate agents as possible.
6. Advertise on Google and Facebook. Create advertisement pay per click campaigns. These will increase the number of people seeing your home online and you can also track the interest in the home. If you get hundreds of visits online to the home’s digital page but very few actual requests to see the home you know something is not right. Usually, online visitors do not find the listing is a good value, in other words after seeing your online listing they think it is too expensive.
7. Host an open house during the first or second week after you put the property on the MLS listing service. You can create some urgency by hosting a short 1 hour-long open house or you can try two open houses during the same weekend. Make sure to bring listing brochures with pictures, highlights, neighbourhood info, and your contact info on them.
8. If you are in a seller’s market and homes sell fast to try to create even more urgency. Set a date for offer presentation. Price the property very competitively and make sure the marketing launch is powerful.
9. Price it well. This is a vital component of selling homes successfully. Make sure you analyze the competition and be realistic about the market value. If the property is overprized it will stay on the market unsold. For example motivated home buyers looking at Stittsville homes for sale will compare prices, condition and location online. They will only view homes they believe are well priced, especially in a buyer’s market.
10. If the property remains unsold on the MLS listing service platform the last resort a good real estate agent should do is discuss with the sellers the asking price of the home. Generally, if a home is marketed well and does not sell within about 2 months depending on the market, a price reduction should take place. The amount can be as small as 2 per cent or much more. This is the last resort step, but it works more often than not.