List of Ten Important Marketing Points For Home Sellers in 2009

Selling homes in today's economy requires patience, diligence, good marketing, and astute pricing. Sellers in denial continue to litter and stagnate the selling landscape with overpriced homes. Be assured that your home is not the only home that should not be affected by today's market.

Once your home is priced correctly and ready for listing on the MLS, the next most important aspect of selling is marketing your home. Here are 10 ways to market your home for the most pertinent, and professional, presentation and exposure if you are serious about selling your home.

1. Your home should be spotlessly clean and free of Fluffy's odor and the remnants of whatever you might smoke.

2. Your yard (curb appeal) should be neat, clean and even 'spruced up' if necessary. First impressions are very important. The abundance of homes for sale in many markets dictates that your home should 'stand out' from the crowd so as not to be overlooked or ignored.

You want to get buyers in your home to look at the interior, not be turned off and away by the exterior.

3. Buyers search net first Staging is even more important now than ever, especially if your home is vacant, or if you think shag carpeting is a selling 'feature.' Again, with many homes on the market these days, do as much as you can to present your home in its best light, and for today's market.

4. Clutter should be non-existent, including closets. You, the owner, should also be non-existent when the home is being shown.

5. Walls of family portraits should be taken down, holes filled
with putty, and fresh paint applied. People need to be able to picture your home as their home, not as your home.

6. Pictures, pictures, pictures. Your realtor should take numerous
pictures for the MLS site as well as for internet marketing. The more the better. Pictures should be professionally presented on the internet, and in abundance. If your realtor does not take good photographs, you should ask that a professional real estate photographer take photos of your home.

NOTE: Always look at your listing on the MLS, and on the internet, after it is posted. Make sure pictures are of excellent quality and in abundance, and information is correct and not skimpy. Do not tolerate an MLS listing for your home with only 5 pictures posted. If that is what you get, you are working with the wrong Realtor.

7. Virtual tours are last year's marketing. Videos of your home, interior and exterior, should be created and uploaded to effectively market your home.

8. Print media, direct mail, and radio/tv advertising are now the least effective methods of marketing real estate. Mark that ego picture of your home in a magazine that comes out a month after the picture is submitted right off your list.

9. Your Realtor should be aware and adept at internet marketing, and should be utilizing today's methods of advertising and marketing (on the internet). There is more to internet marketing than putting listings out on the now-common websites (i.e., Realtor.com, Trulia, Zillow and Big Box websites). While the named sites are, in fact, important... again, you need to set your home apart.

10. Videos, an internet presence, and a social media presence are more and more important every day for marketing, no matter whether you are selling real estate or selling shoes. Work with realtors who are looking to the future, not living in the past when it comes to marketing and selling your home.