Three High-Impact Ways to Market Homes

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Competitive pricing and home staging help move listings faster
Competitive pricing and home staging help move listings faster

RISMEDIA, December 14, 2006?At RISMedia?s 17th Annual Leadership Conference, RIS Consulting Group presented a session to help real estate marketers gear up for the tougher market ahead. RIS invited two experts to share their ideas at the Manhattan conference recently: Liz Talbot, President of THE TALBOT GROUP, based in Avon, CT., and Barbara Brock, President, of A PROPER PLACE ? Home Staging, in Manhattan.

The Talbot Group, a relocation and real estate counseling company, provides corporate clients and their relocating transferees with professional home marketing and other relocation management assistance.

Talbot?s comprehensive approach makes the difference between mediocre and high impact home marketing. While every home presents individual challenges, certain core elements are inherent in well-designed marketing plans and broadly include:

 Competitive and strategic pricing. Use at least two comparative market analyses to determine the right list price. Visit other homes that buyers will likely view along with the subject home?is the subject home?s price favorable in comparison?

 Advertising and Communication ABCs. Getting the word out with the basics of signage, MLS, open houses, agent tours, home advertising publications and others are proven tactics, but the message can be enhanced. Understand the needs of targeted buyers for a particular home and determine attractants. Is there an appropriate place for buyer or agent incentives in the plan? Don?t forget to solicit market feedback from agents and prospects to evaluate and assess next actions.

 Prepare the home for market. This category is very broad and requires looking at the home through the eyes of the buyer ? from curbside to inside. Consider the strengths and weaknesses of the home. What repairs have been neglected? What physical advantages do you want buyers to recognize immediately ?square footage?wood floors?great views?

Why not do a pre-marketing home inspection and make minor repairs before placing the home on the market to avoid surprises later?

Home marketing is a distinct process that can be managed as a relocation benefit separate from home purchase assistance (i.e., appraisal buy-out, BVO). Even if employees are ineligible for home purchase assistance, professional home marketing services is a low or no cost provision with significant value.

Zeroing in on Home Preparation

What exactly does ?preparing the home for market? mean? It starts with de-cluttering and depersonalizing and can include reorganizing and neutralizing furnishings or even repurposing and redesigning rooms ?all to allow buyers to easily picture living in the home. The idea of ?staging? a home for marketing purposes isn?t a typical strategy, but we are hearing more about its successes ? and that?s where Barbara Brock comes in.

Brock says ?Staging is a marketing tool?. it?s the process of transforming a home to a product for the market.? She should know – Brock is a professional home stager and accredited interior designer who has been successfully ?staging? homes in New York for over 5 years. She adds, ?How you live in a home and how you market a home are two different things.?

?Placement of furnishings is the key to presenting space, and not necessarily the style of the furnishings,? Brock explains. It?s difficult for many people to picture living in another?s sometimes highly personalized space or even to visualize a different use of space. But it?s not difficult to see how a ?prepared? or ?staged? home may shorten selling time when features are displayed for the purpose of having prospects easily envision being there.

Staging is a versatile tool, useful in occupied or vacant home selling situations. Because most often the subject home is occupied, staging or preparing the home usually involves removing extra furnishings, rearranging layouts and neutralizing.

Vacant houses, on the other hand, as in the case of corporate inventory homes, could be empty and on the market for 3-4 months or more and in some cases a home staging strategy for one or two key rooms may inspire market interest and an earlier sale. Rented furnishings will have additional costs, but carrying costs can add up fast and if a staging strategy can sell a home sooner rather than later, it may reduce overall costs. In any case, weigh anticipated carrying costs against staging expenses for a particular home to determine if it makes sense.

Brock says ?There are certain key elements of staging that really work; these are cleanliness, color, depersonalization, furniture arrangement, minimizing and lighting.? The following ?before and after? photos are good examples from Brock?s project book that demonstrate usage of key elements.

Favorable Feedback & Usage

There are no industry-wide statistics to reinforce abundant anecdotal information regarding home staging. Stagers like Brock track selling statistics of the properties they prepare and these numbers, when compared to current market statistics, are favorable. Many estimate that staging a home may shorten selling time by as much as half as one un-staged and that staging may yield approximately a 5 -10% sale price premium.

Statistics regarding the usage of home marketing assistance within corporate relocation policies is readily available; according to a 2005 ERC (Employee Relocation Council) survey:

 82% of companies who provide home sale assistance also provide home marketing assistance

 79% require transferees to use the provided home marketing services

 90% of transferees who are offered home marketing services use the program.

Real estate marketing challenges aren?t new; home sales aren?t on autopilot anymore, and comprehensive home marketing skills are more important than ever. Whether you are a real estate agent, ?for sale by owner?, or relocation manager marketing vacant or occupied corporate properties, consider all the tools available to create a well-designed marketing plan.

The Relocation Angle:

Corporate Relocation Administrators ? Is home marketing assistance working as hard as it can in your policy?

If you now provide home marketing assistance in your relocation policy you?ll want to encourage optimum sale opportunities employees can achieve by including ?good practice? features. Some employers require transferees to:

 participate in the home marketing process (or possibly forfeit other relocation benefits)

 list the property no more than 5% above the agents? suggested list price

 market the property for at least 60 days.

By adding structure to the home marketing program, transferees are using a proven process. The transferee?s role in the home marketing process may help to create awareness of its value, and in fact, 59% of employers (ERC, 2005) share the anticipated cost savings by offering a bonus to employees if their property is sold during marketing period.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to:
realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.


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