Traffic Generation is what most sellers (and agents) think of when selling a home. In fact, this is just one step of our six-step selling system. This step covers the strategy to expose your home to the most qualified buyers who are out there looking for a home like yours. According to the National Association of REALTORS, the top three ways a buyer has found their home was through signage, the Internet and their real estate agent. Other marketing venues like print marketing and open houses are simply not effective enough for us to spend our money and expertise on. Most anybody with a license has access to signage and has the ability to market the home on the local listing service for other agents to see. Therefore, we focus our budget and expertise on what works and what differentiates us: The Internet
Here are some of the Internet sites we use (sites may change based on syndication partners used by the MLS at the time):
Realtor.com Showcased Listing – This is one of the most trafficked real estate website out there. (optional: Featured Listing for first two weeks of the listing – top 4 and bottom 4 boxes that appear on search display page; seen 50.1% more than showcased homes and 100% more than a normal listing.)
Listingbook – Emailed as a featured listing every week and emailed to all buyers subscribed to your home’s criteria
ListHub – Real estate syndication to top search websites like Trulia, Zillow, Homes.com, Washingtonpostonline.com and over 60 more.
Featured listing on Zillow – Featured listings will appear as first few results in that zip code for searches by potential buyers.
*Postlets Syndication and Craigslist – Syndicates to Zillow, HotPads, Yahoo Homes, Frontdoor, Oodle, Military.com, Walmart, Facebook, Backpage.com, Walkscore, Campus Avenue, AOL Real Estate, Zumper, Trovit, Geebo, Enormo, Yakaz, Trulia, LiveLovely and more.
Facebook – We feature your home on our Mars Hill Virginia Facebook page and Samson Properties Facebook page.
Frankly, the Internet is not just equally accessible to consumers, it’s also accessible to real estate professionals and creates a very level playing field. Without good quality, universal content, these real estate websites will simply not be valuable to the consumer. Getting the latest account subscription to feature a home isn’t what is going to sell it for top dollar. Here’s some insider knowledge that your agent won’t tell you: Featured listings are additional services that the website salespeople will use to help agents generate more buyer leads, not necessarily sell the home that is being featured.
Chances are, if your real estate agent just spends a few hours posting your home as a regular, non-enhanced listing, the public will find it when searching in the right price range and geographical area. This step often gets too much attention. What’s important to realize is that there are very important steps that lead up to Traffic Generation that are equally, if not more, important and once you get an offer, the next step Negotiation Expertise, will be where you will find the greatest disparity between real estate professionals.