Creatively Marketing Your Home

The world has changed...

"Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome" is not rational. Yet, in my opinion, that is what almost all Realtors are doing today. They consider their jobs complete when they list a house on the MLS, put a sign in the yard and print some poorly designed flyers. As for finding buyers for the homes they've listed, most Realtors' "process" is stuck in an unsuccessful pattern based a pre-Internet world as illustrated below:

Why does this fail? The primary reason lies in the agent's assumption that the buyer is in Las Vegas to see these "marketing messages". There are few buyers in Las Vegas today because in order for someone to buy a home they have to sell their current home or obtain financing - neither of which is that easy. As for the many other reasons why the above method fails:

• Newspaper ads - Two years ago, 80% of buyers searched the Internet for real estate, that percentage is even higher now. Newspaper ads do not obtain results; I've wasted a lot of money in the past with them.
• Signs as a tool to get drive-by's to call for information they are marginally effective if your home happens to be on a main street. If your home is on a quiet street or in a gated community, signs are virtually worthless.
• Company name - When you last looked for a home, did you limit your searches to homes listed by a particular real estate broker or did you look in Henderson or Aliante, or...? Even established company names like RE/MAX fail to factor into potential buyers' home finding parameters.
• Open houses - this is good for the agent; this is how most find leads. However, the potential buyers who can stop by are almost always locals (if they happen to stumble across the open house signs by accident on a day when they have time to make a stop). However, people are very adverse to face-to-face contact with strangers and they know an agent is inside the home lurking; waiting for someone to come. Open houses are only effective for nosey neighbors to see your home.
• Grocery store picture books. This assumes that the buyer is in Las Vegas. Few are and if they are, they are researching via the Internet, not the grocery store.
• Email a flyer to all agents - I frequently hear about this one. Many agent tell potential sellers that this is a great way to let every agent in Las Vegas know about their home!! To put it in perspective, I get about 800 of these flyers per month. I set up my email to automatically filter them into my junk email. And, based on the number of other agents who have asked me how to set up their email to do the same, these flyers are totally ineffective. And, it is not ineffective just because the agents don't read them. They are ineffective primarily because this assumes that the buyer is coming to the agent to find a home as opposed to finding the homes they want to see through the Internet.

Where is the buyer?

How do I reach these buyers? I market where they look, the internet. Reaching these people is not just putting a notice on Craig's List. It starts with preparation and understanding who your buyer is.

My personal business is almost evenly spilt between investors and personal residences. What they are looking for and what matters to each is totally different. Following are two descriptions for the same property; one for an investor and one for a home buyer.

Investor: Estimated RoA: 6.2%. Asking price: $168,000. Single family home, southwest Las Vegas, 4 bedrooms + loft, three baths, 1,600 SqFt, 2 car garage, on cul-de-sac. Estimated rent is $1,500/month, basic expenses (tax, insurance, association, 5% vacancy provision, 5% repair provision) are $630/mo. Estimated rehab is $2500. Built in 2002, all appliances and window treatments included.

Home Buyer: Granite, ceramic tile, stainless steel, 4 bedrooms, Rhodes Ranch. This well laid out 1,600 SqFt home in Southwest Las Vegas’ Rhodes Ranch subdivision has 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, a compact and well-lit loft area that makes the perfect home office or reading area. It has an open-space floor plan, each bedroom has a walk-in closet. Built in 2002, this lovely home is located on a quiet cul-de-sac and has a 3,667 SqFt lot with a large covered back patio. Tile floors in the high traffic areas downstairs and in the baths upstairs Large and numerous windows admit abundant natural light and high ceilings throughout the home add to its airy feel. Completing the comfort of this home are numerous amenities such as a large kitchen island, designer appliances, reverse osmosis and water softener, vaulted ceiling in the master bedroom and a burglar alarm system.

Both descriptions are for the same property, just different buyers. The probable buyer also determines what is repaired/changed. For example, for a home buyer a lush green front yard is a big plus. For an investor it is a big negative.

Some other key points:

• Good quality photos. Not the usual dark and dingy photos that populate about 95% of the MLS listings. Bright and inviting photos are critical to all buyers (investors and personal residence buyers). See here for examples.
• Personal Residence website - If the home is targeted towards a personal residence buyer, I create meaningful virtual tours. These are not the typical plain photo type; I provide visitors with an interactive experience as much as possible. See below for examples.

  • 5808 Shoko Bay Ct
  • 2636 Pine Run Rd

So, once the home is ready to place on the market and the correct marketing material is complete, how do I market the properties? I won't list the specifics here but some of the places I market properties include:

The above are primarily for personal residences; there are specific places for investors. Additionally, my web site is always in the top three on Google for the critical search term "Realtor in Las Vegas".

Where does my traffic come from? During the week ending 5/7/2009 I had 668 unique visitors between the US and Canada alone. The average statistics for my website are:

• 5:50 minutes on site per visitor
• 7.3 pages viewed
• 46% are new visitors
• 41% are from outside the US

Anyone who knows the Internet will tell you that the above time-on-site and number of page views is exceptional. Here is a map showing the above results:

Summary: I do everything that "typical" Realtors do (MLS, signs, etc.) but I get your property sold by getting it in front of potential buyers in the format that makes the most sense to them. I am not your average Realtor. If you want to sell your home and not just list it, call me. You will be glad you did.

Eric Fernwood
702-358-8884
EricFernwood@Gmail.com