I’m going to chat today about marketing your property Mr. & Mrs. Seller. Of course the most important number one thing is to price it to generate offers in today’s market.

The second most important thing is to consider what exposure your agent will give your property.

(Here is where I am going to get BLASTED by some “traditional agents”…)

Of course everybody needs a yard sign presence on the property. Am I going to send out postcards to your neighbors? Nope. I will get on the phone and call them telling them we have a home on the market in their neighborhood and ask them who do they know that might want to move in? A nice personal conversation is better than an anonymous postcard that usually gets thrown in the trash.

I will also get on the phone and call agents who have registered that they are interested in your property through a program in the local Multiple Listing Service called ”Reverse Prospecting”. The agent specifies they are interested in; say a 3 bedroom, 2 bath Condo in Downtown. When I have a listing that meets their criteria the agent’s name pops up and I get on the phone. Do most agents do this? Nope. I even have called agents who are listed in my reverse prospecting that deny they are in there…

Am I going to hold open houses? Not unless the seller absolutely insists on in. Statistically Open Houses don’t sell homes; they are traditionally used by listing agents to find buyers that aren’t represented. I will do a Broker’s Open for the trade, and will show by appointment only. Would you want someone you don’t know cruising through your home possibly casing the joint to rob you? And you DO only want qualified buyers who are ready, willing and able to purchase your home don’t you?

Am I going to pull newspaper ads about the property? Nope. I will market heavily online to give my listing international exposure, as that is where 87% of buyers look first.

Internet users
• 1.73 billion – Internet users worldwide (September 2009).
• 18% – Increase in Internet users since the previous year.
• 738,257,230 – Internet users in Asia.
• 418,029,796 – Internet users in Europe.
• 252,908,000 – Internet users in North America.
• 179,031,479 – Internet users in Latin America / Caribbean.
• 67,371,700 – Internet users in Africa.
• 57,425,046 – Internet users in the Middle East.
• 20,970,490 – Internet users in Oceania / Australia.

That is a lot more eyeballs of potential buyers than a once a week three line ad buried in the Sunday Real Estate section of the local paper. My feed goes out to dozens of Real Estate web sites online including Century21.com, Trulia, Zillow and many more. Among other additional websites I also post to Craigslist as allowed by their terms of use; this cannot be posted every day. Usually 48 hours apart, but sometimes Craigslist holds off for three days between postings.
I feature your home in my newsletter and of course this blog The Hawaii Real Estate Biz
as well as present it in person to the numerous networking functions I attend each month. These networking functions are one of the few venues I will use print media in: nobody leaves with out a full page, four color presentation piece highlighting your property!

“350 million – People on Facebook

Every time you turn around you hear the term “Social Media” these days. What is Social Media? It is the next generation of how people use the Internet to convey information and communicate. It’s an interactive “give & take” form of communication. People post content and others comment and respond to the posts. Think it’s just kids playing online? Think again: A full 25% of the users on these sites are aged 35 to 44, which in other words is the age group that dominates the social media sphere. Only 3% are aged 65 or older. Do people 35 to 44 buy homes? You Betcha!

Social media:
• 126 million – The number of blogs on the Internet (as tracked by BlogPulse).
• 84% – Percent of social network sites with more women than men.
• 27.3 million – Number of tweets on Twitter per day (November, 2009)
• 57% – Percentage of Twitter’s user base located in the United States.
• 350 million – People on Facebook.
• 50% – Percentage of Facebook users that log in every day.
• 500,000 – The number of active Facebook applications.

“Twiiter is not for Twits!

A few observations:
• The average social network user is 37 years old.
• LinkedIn, with its business focus, has a predictably high average user age; 44.
• The average Twitter user is 39 years old.
• The average Facebook user is 38 years old.
• The average MySpace user is 31 years old.
• Bebo has by far the youngest users, as witnessed earlier, with an average age of 28.

BUT! (And I have a big Butt!) Real estate sales, no matter where the warm bodies are generated, is and will always be an in-person service business. Pro-active is getting out there in person, networking, calling and meeting people: talking it up! Re-active is printing a few flyers, mailing postcards and praying to the Real Estate Gods that the phone will ring or somebody will walk into the office by chance.

So Mr. and Mrs. Seller, do you think it is important in this day and age to hire an agent that has a command of these Internet tools to market your home? As well as being a pro-active agent and getting out there in person and on the phone to promote your home? Or do you want one that is going to just send out postcards and “Hope” somebody will buy your property?

Aloha from the Hawaii Real Estate Biz!

Internet Usage Statistics courtesy of Pingdom