Rising mortgage interest rates, decreased demand from homebuyers, continued high home prices, inflationary factors, and general economic uncertainty have all combined to hinder the housing market and make matters more difficult for sellers. The advantages they’ve long held in terms of leverage, listing price, and favorable purchase agreements are now shifting in many markets toward buyers, who are less willing to engage in bidding wars, pay exorbitant prices, or forfeit contingencies.
In other words, the halcyon days of quick sales, multiple offers, cash buyers, and high profits are mostly gone. Home sellers and their agents must pursue new approaches and devise fresh tactics to attract prospective purchasers or risk longer days on the market and steadily diminishing returns.
The key here, many believe, is to make listings stand out more distinctly amid a crowded marketplace of homes for sale.
Following are five proven strategies you can incorporate to attract greater attention and appeal to a wider array of home shoppers.
Implement video, including drone shots.
Vivid visuals speak volumes to potential buyers, who appreciate video tours and live motion capture of inside and outside features. They want to envision how they can personalize your property, which is why colorful, high-definition footage that flows smoothly between rooms, areas, and amenities matters. While interior footage can be carefully recorded by someone on your team or a professional videographer, exterior footage is best captured via drone photography and an expert skilled in this field. A drone device can produce stunning visuals, particularly overhead shots that showcase the yard and home exterior with swooping, fluid camera movements. This is particularly important if you have an impressive backyard to show off, as well as additional structures like a swimming pool, shed, ample garage, or garden. Aerial video via drone also adds dimensional perspective, giving buyers a better vantage point about the property’s size and exterior layout, as well as the surrounding neighborhood. Consider that 83% of agents are interested in or already use aerial photography, according to HomeJab, and listings with aerial images are 68% more likely to sell than properties without them, per MLS data. But don’t attempt to fly a drone on your own; hire a pro, which will likely cost between $150 and $400.
Include a floor plan.
A digital layout can make your listing pop and provide an indispensable visual representation of the property, enabling shoppers to better grasp the home’s actual layout and true square footage. Floor plans can have a positive impact on sales price because they make a property appear more attractive, resulting in increased views. Buyers rank floor plans as the most desired feature in a home listing, placing third after standard listing photos and property data, according to the National Association of REALTORSs®. Fortunately, free and easy-to-use floor plan tools and apps are available that can create an accurate rendering pronto, which means you no longer have to rely on manual measuring or expensive software to get the job done.
Stage the home effectively.
Carefully planned home staging can transform your listing and make the residence look move-in ready. By redecorating, rearranging furnishings, and possibly implementing temporary furniture and decor, staging can help a buyer prospect visualize the advantages of living in the home. Alternatively, virtual staging – whereby empty rooms are reimagined with the help of software to make them appear finely decorated in listing photos – can work wonders, too. According to the Real Estate Staging Association, staged properties sell 73% faster and nine days sooner than other properties.
Employ an arsenal of modern marketing materials.
Today, agents have a greater array of tools and technologies to help them with marketing, particularly in the social media realm. One example is Instagram Reels: full-screen vertical videos that can span up to 90 seconds and can be edited creatively to include filters, video clips, interactive backgrounds, and more. Consider that vertical video is particularly important on social media, as many buyers shop for homes using their smartphones, which are oriented vertically. By capitalizing on these and other online marketing tools – from social media platforms, blogs, and e-newsletters to YouTube videos, live-streaming, and virtual touring resources like HomeRover – agents can impress and connect with home shoppers in a variety of ways that can ensure greater visibility and reach of their listings.
Enhance your customer relationship management (CRM).
Your chosen CRM system helps manage all communications with clients and leads. But dated CRM resources make it hard to keep track of your interactions with these people. That’s why it’s crucial to upgrade your CRM software so that you can automate communications and processes more effectively, take advantage of more convenient data, easily generate reports, and contact partners and service providers quickly.
Of course, these aren’t the only tactics you can pursue to boost your listings and improve their chances of hitting and impressing the right targets. But individually and collectively, they can give you a leg up in the more challenging real estate climate we now face.
The bottom line? Prepare to think outside the box and deploy different approaches in your marketing to stand out from the competition for the foreseeable future.
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