Maximize the impact of your BuyOwner.com advertising by proactively promoting your home throughout your daily activities.  Also, take a few hours a week and be deliberate with your personal marketing. You might not connect with your buyer but rather with someone who will share it with their friend or family member who wants to live in your area. Think beyond your buyer and create a network of marketers sharing your home with others.

Goal #1: Get your phone to ring or your email or social media messages to load up!

DISTRIBUTE FLYERS: Use your BuyOwner.com Online Seller Tool titled “Create Flyers” to personalize and print out eye catching flyers and then distribute them everywhere you can**:

1. Area supermarkets and stores.
2. Cafes.
3. Local schools.
4. Police and Fire Departments (many require that they reside within the city they protect).
5. Non-profit organizations.
6. Libraries.
7. Laundromats.
8. Independent booksellers.
9. Nearby University, Colleges or Hospitals. Put on Community Boards but also give to HR departments who might be hiring new Professors/Doctors/Nurses/Staff, etc.
10. Any additional place where you can obtain permission to post!
11. Keep flyers with you at all times, ready to hand out!!  (flyers typically result in a 1% response so the more flyers you distribute the better your chances of reaching a prospective buyer!)

USE YOUR CONNECTIONS

1. Post on the bulletin board at work or your gym, if possible.
2. If your subdivision/neighborhood offers a bulletin board or some kind of announcement section, post your flyer there! By posting in the neighborhood, you’re targeting people who are already attracted to your location.
3. Your town/city may have a similar bulletin board option at the town center or community rec center.

TELL YOUR FRIENDS

1. Talk about your home sale with your friends and family.
2. Mention it at work, at stores, with new acquaintances.
3. Be bold! If you’re standing in line at the coffee shop, bank, etc., and you hear someone talking about wanting to move into the area, excuse yourself for ‘eavesdropping’ but let them know you might have the home for them and hand them your flyer! Don’t walk away too quickly as they may have questions and engage immediately, especially if they are relocating or their home is already sold and time is of the essence!
4. Bring it up at book club, community events, parties, showers, holiday gatherings.

LINK TO YOUR BUYOWNER.COM AD

1. Create free online ads at places like Craigslist and Google that link to your BuyOwner.com page. You’ll be drawing even more people to look at your home’s photos, tours and text!
2. Post on your Facebook page and ask that people viewing it share it on their pages as well.
3. Instagram or twitter including a link to your BuyOwner.com webpage.
4. E-mail everyone in your e-mail address book a link to your online ad and ask them to pass it on to anyone who’s in the market.
5. Blog about your home sale. If you, or someone you know, blogs regularly, that can be a great way to spread the word about your property. Try to get a post written that links to your advertisement and mentions some of your home’s key features.

HOLD AN OPEN HOUSE

1. Schedule an open house on a weekend afternoon when not a lot of community events are happening. Hint: don’t plan the open house on the day of a big football game or the weekend of a holiday.
2. Promote your open house everywhere (see above for suggestions about flyers).
3. On the day of the open house, have a niece or nephew run a lemonade stand out front. This will help draw in other passers-by, inviting them inside.
4. Mark your open house online, through your ByOwner seller dashboard. Contact Customer Care to add it to your MLS & realtor.com listings.
5. Make the most of other open houses in the area. Check local ads, and when an open house is scheduled in nearby, put out several signs and draw those visitors to your home.

**Be careful to abide by all local ordinances regarding private property and only post the flyer after obtaining permission.**

Don’t hesitate to call your BuyOwner.com Customer Care Rep or your Personal Marketing Consultant and ask for help! We are here to make  your experience positive while helping you achieve your home selling goals!!

Home shoppers move quickly through websites viewing lots of properties in the hopes of finding their dream home. So, how do you make them stop and shop your ad?

PHOTOS:  When it comes to online shopping, your photos are your first impression. If they don’t like your photos, they’re moving on. Inventory is vast in the cyber world so you only have a minute to grab them and keep them on your web page with photos that cause them to think, “This could be my home”! Gone are the days of teasing them with a couple of photos. They want to “walk through” your entire home online. If they like what they see, they will schedule a physical walk through. If they don’t, that’s ok too. Saves both of you from wasting your time.  Tip: If you don’t take great photos, have your home professionally photographed and make sure your first 4 photos are your WOW factor photos causing them to continue through the rest! (For more tips see Blog article: Maximize your Photography)

DESCRIPTION: Keep it concise and to the point. Avoid writing a flowery novel about your wonderful life in your home. Your life might not reflect their life at all and you’ll actually cause them to move on. (ie: We have loved our friendly neighbors and neighborhood gatherings blah blah blah). If they are loners and don’t like to be bothered, they are not coming to see your home. Share your strongest highlights and details and be done!

BE REACHABLE:  Nothing worse than  being interested in a home and never being able to reach the homeowner to ask questions or schedule a viewing.  Remember, your buyers are shopping electronically so they will most likely want to email you, call your cell phone or text you.  If you can provide all three forms of communication, your results will be faster and stronger.

BE AVAILABLE: The more flexible you are with showings, the higher your odds of finding your buyer. If they can never coordinate with you to view your home, well, then they will buy someone else’s.

These might seem like obvious tips but sometimes the most obvious gets lost in the overwhelming task of selling your home. So before you become overwhelmed, do four simple things. Prepare, relax, show and sell!!

Fact: If you live in the home you’re selling, then sometimes your home looks “lived in”.  So what do you do when the phone rings and a potential buyer wants to come through and all you can see are dishes in the sink, sports equipment and kids toys on the floors and laundry waiting to be done?  Assuming you don’t have a live in cleaning person (we can dream, right?) then do a few quick pick me ups that won’t take too long to complete and will provide your prospects with a positive experience.

 Important to Remember

If your home is too far gone, then try and give yourself some extra time to get it ready. Let the prospect know you can accommodate them in 2 hours (instead of in 45 minutes) and that you’re excited for them to view your home. You don’t want to miss out on a showing BUT the reality is even though; when you say, “please excuse the mess” and the buyer says, “oh that’s ok”…. IT’S NOT. Keep in mind, to a buyer, your obvious mess implies that there is probably an even bigger hidden mess under the stove, behind the refrigerator, etc. Purchase some stackable opaque storage bins that you keep empty so you can thrown in items that need to disappear at a moment’s notice. They can then be closed and neatly stacked in the basement, garage, or storage room during your showing while giving you easy access to those items once your ‘guests’ leave.

First Impressions Are Lasting!  Move any clutter or shoes from the entryway. Even if you have a coat tree, take the coats off and put them in the closet. Perhaps put a great looking hat & scarf on the tree for style but a pile of coats minimizes the viewable space. DON’T throw everything on the floor in the closet. This will cause the closet to appear smaller than it is and buyers definitely will open your closets. Dirty laundry? Throw it in the washer or dryer. Just get it out of view.

Focus on Main Living Areas: Your top priorities should be the Kitchen, Living/Family Room, Master Bedroom and Bathrooms.

Kitchen: Empty the dishwasher daily so it’s always ready to be filled quickly. Clear your counters stashing everything except maybe your coffee pot. Remove stuff from the top of your refrigerator to reveal the cabinets above and take EVERYTHING off your refrigerator door and sides (might be special stuff to you…to your prospect it’s just clutter). Wipe down your appliances and floors (good to keep a swiffer type product handy…dry and wet for a quick swipe).

Living/Family Room: Vacuum carpets (just the areas that can be seen is fine) or wipe down wood/tile floors. Especially important if you have pets. Floating pet hair is not a good look and might be a problem if your buyer has allergies. Swiff away! Stash photos, magazines, etc. in one of those handy storage bins or if you have sofas with skirts just slide it all under the sofa and loveseat.

Master Suite: This is a very important room. If they love the Master, the other bedrooms become far less important. Let them see how much they’ll enjoy this private retreat. Get in the habit of making your bed every day so all you need to do is refresh the floors, hide the clutter (good reason to have a bed skirt….under the bed is a great hiding place)and give your table and dresser tops a quick wipe. Make sure your Master Bath is fresh, luxurious and reveals all its special features. Clear vanity tops and shower shelves, shine shower doors and mirrors. Add a lightly scented candle.

Bedrooms: Same as Master. Let your kids know that they need to make their beds every day as well. Toys, videos, books and clutter can be either put under their bed or thrown in a bin.

Baths: Clear vanity tops and shower shelves. Make shower doors and mirrors shine…no fingerprints or grime. Neatly hang fresh towels. Light a scented candle or give the room a fresh spray of something light with a linen or ocean scent. Toilets need to be clean, fresh and make sure the toilet seat cover is DOWN!

 Make it Smell Fresh! Nothing feels more like home that the wafting aroma of baking bread.  No time for that BUT it only takes a moment to place a tbsp of vanilla, almond or pumpkin extract on a piece of aluminum foil and put it in your oven at 250. Within a very short time your home will smell like you’ve been baking all day! Don’t use a lot of candles as that might imply that you’re trying to hide pet or other odors.

 TIP: Enlist the whole family to help keep your home buyer ready and save yourself from feeling overwhelmed. Make a habit of swiffering your floors & dusting off tables daily as you walk through a room, loading and unloading the dishwasher, keeping the laundry up to date and put away, beds made and clutter in bins.  Keep the front and top of the refrigerator clear.  Put off season clothes in bins allowing for a more spacious view of your closets. Yes, you still live in your home but there are ways to make the spontaneous showing experience less stressful by keeping on top of things that can remain ordered.