Marketing Your Property

Your marketing campaign will be designed to achieve a specific goal. It will generate focused awareness in the target market, and will attract inquiries about your particular property.

It will be targeted to your agent’s database of likely clients, and other potential buyers in the area. It may use tools such as email campaigns and the internet, letterbox drops, signboards, property promotional brochures, direct mail, and local/national advertising.

Your Ray White agent knows your local market statistics, which tell you where the majority of buyers should come from, either from outside your area, or moving within it. Your campaign is tailored accordingly, and is based on your individual time frame, budget, and other requirements.

Marketing property via the internet is developing more each day, and Ray White is at the forefront of this technology; raywhite.com is your real estate partner of the future, working 24 hours per day, 7 days a week. It provides buyers with up-to the-minute information on thousands of properties listed in Ray White’s extensive agency network.

You should spend time with your agent going over every detail before finally agreeing to your marketing campaign and budget.

Preparing Your Home For Sale

How do you prepare your property for sale?

You never get a second chance to make a first impression. There are so many little ways in which you can maximise the instant appeal of your home. The effort and expenditure you put into preparing it for sale can be an extremely profitable use of time and money.

Emotional decisions are based on sight, sound and smell. Your house must look attractive, the sounds should be unobtrusive, and odours should be inoffensive. Below are a few easy makeover tactics to help you sell at a premium price.

Outside

Make sure the front gate works, after all this will provide the very first impression.
Freshen the front fence with a splash of paint.
Mow the lawn a few days before inspection.
Create an instant garden with flowering plants.
Cover weeds with pine bark or another similar ground cover.
Repair rusty roof gutters.
Clean the pool in the morning but remove the pool vacuum before inspection.

Inside

Clean the bathroom/s and kitchen thoroughly and ensure that there is no mould – but make sure there is no smell of bleach.
Remove any personal clutter from the bench tops and vanities.
Use indoor plants to liven up rooms.
Set the kitchen/dining table with place settings.
Make sure all the beds are made.
Use flower arrangements in the living areas, but don’t overdo it.
If it is a cold day, have the fireplace going.
Cover worn furniture with strategically placed cushions.
Remove the pets.
Use some subtle deodorisers – oil burners are better than incense.
Turn the television off.
Play some contemporary music quietly.
Brew a pot of coffee or bake a cake – the smell says ‘welcome to my home’

Why Conduct an Open Home?

As more and more people are purchasing property without stepping into a real estate office, opening your home for inspection is a must.

Open homes are often the first opportunity your agent has to directly sell your property to potential buyers, gauge the level of interest in your property, and to negotiate with potential buyers. Remember, the easier you make it for buyers to see your home, and the more times they view it, the more likely they are to buy it!

The general consensus among agents is that half an hour is the optimum time to conduct an open home. This ensures that you are likely to have more than one group of buyers there at any one time. This promotes competition and action, as viewers realise that others could also be interested in the property.

How often you open your home depends on your area. The most common arrangement for urban homes is to open once every weekend prior to auction, or once every second weekend for those selling through an exclusive agency. Even if only two groups of people attend your open home, that is two more groups than you would have if you left your agent sitting in the office waiting for someone to walk in and enquire about your property.

For those whose primary concern is simply to maintain privacy, open homes may not be the best policy; but for those who want to achieve the highest possible price in the shortest possible time, open homes are a must.