You’re ready to sell! Whether you’re looking to list your home For Sale By Owner or with a Realtor, you’ll need an effective real estate listing to get your home sold quickly.
But where do you start? Here are a few keys to remember as you post your home in Grand Rapids:
1. Get Ready.
First things first. Make sure your house is ready to sell, and is priced properly. The prettiest, most well-written real estate listing won’t get your home sold if your house isn’t ready. So if you haven’t finished your repairs, cleaning, and staging, start there. For some advice on this step, visit this page.
Having your house priced correctly is crucial. People tend to overprice their houses, for a number of reasons. First, sellers will often have a lot of great memories in a home, which inflates the value in their minds. Secondly, they don’t want to ‘leave money on the table,’ so they tend to start high.
If you want your home to sell quickly, try to be objective, and look at recently sold comps for the best data.
2. Take amazing pictures.
Too many real estate listings have mediocre (or bad) photographs. Poor lighting, bad angles, and low resolution can make a beautiful house look below average.
Don’t make this mistake!
Pictures draw buyers in, and keep them there. Seriously consider hiring a professional real estate photographer. They know how to make your house look its best, and are often very reasonably priced.
If that isn’t feasible, use a high quality camera, take a lot of photos. If you are not comfortable with editing photos, have someone who is good with Photoshop work on them. It is worth the time, money, and energy… you will make it back on the sale!
3. Stand out from the crowd.
You probably know what a ‘standard’ real estate listing looks like. If you don’t, check any site that has homes for sale. You’ll notice that 95% of the listings will be very similar, and hard to distinguish from one another.
You want to be different!
Start with your headline. Write something eye-catching, that makes you stand out from the crowd. You want people to look closer, and the headline is the hook. If you don’t write something engaging, most people will simply ignore your listing.
4. Tell a story.
In the description, write about your home in a compelling, inspiring way. Of course, you will want to mention all of the great features of your house, such as the size, number of bedrooms, bathrooms, and amenities. However, the devil is in the details. Consider the difference in these two sentences:
Option 1: “Three bedroom, 2 bath house includes a master bath and a great brick fireplace.”
Option 2: “Unwind after a long winter day by warming your toes at your natural wood fireplace. Relax by soaking in your luxurious jacuzzi tub, located in your en-suite master bathroom, and appreciate the beautiful trees just outside your bedroom window.”
Which description do you think is more engaging? One of them gives facts, and the other tells a story. Make it easy for your buyers to see themselves in your home.
5. Create a desire to act.
Near the end of your real estate listing, create an incentive for the buyer to set up a showing. This could be a limited time offer, special financing, or just a well written call to action. This will vary based on your situation and home, but the key is to create a desire to ACT.
You want to break the ‘browsing cycle’ for the buyer. You want them to stop, call, and set up a viewing. Experiment with different phrases to find what creates the most ‘pull’ for your house.
6. Don’t Oversell.
People have a built in BS detector. If you describe your house as ‘THE MOST AMAZING PLACE EVER BUILT,’ people will ignore your post. So create a great description for your home, and paint a picture for them. But don’t over-hype the property.
Be clear about why your home is a great place, and why they should see it in person. Appeal to their emotions, and make them realize that your house would be a great place to live.
A great real estate listing will bring people to your property, and get it sold faster. So jump in, and make it happen!