How to market my house

[SciaccaAZ]

Hi there. I have a home in central Tucson with a detached guest house in the back yard. The house sits on a little over a quarter acre. For the most part, our realtor has not really done any advertising on the property other than list it on MLS. It is a wonderful house that has a lot of upgrades including a newly remodeled kitchen, pergo floors and ceramic tile, etc. I have asked our realtor to be a little more aggressive, but her response was that she did not know what else we can possibly do. So, my question is, what else should we do? What group of people might be more interested in such a property? We are close to the University of Arizona and being centrally located, we are close to many things in town. Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

[Malok]

How is the market there? Depreciating? Flat? Appreciating?


Determine what your competition is. What are your comparables?

Where do you stand relative to them?


If you are in a depreciating/flat market - you need to become very aggressive across ALL aspects, this includes the price.

And the property needs to be IMMACULATE!


You want to be at the LOWER end price-wise of your relative competition, and you want to be the NICEST staged.


Once thats done, determine who the most likely target market is going to be.

How do you get in contact with them?

You've stated that you are close to a college - hitting up the college directory/fraternity/sorority might be a good starting point for a prospective buyer.

[kelsheikh]

I have asked our realtor to be a little more aggressive, but her response was that she did not know what else we can possibly do. So, my question is, what else should we do? What group of people might be more interested in such a property? We are close to the University of Arizona and being centrally located, we are close to many things in town. Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

Advertise online. Find some places to post your property. Maybe try Craigslist or Trulia and sell the property yourself.

[JimOlenbush]

I would recommend that you make sure the ads feature the Guest House. Same with the MLS listing, brochures, and signs. It is a big selling feature in my opinion. Good luck with the sale!

[legalhomeforms]

Has your agent had an open house? Is he/she advertising at all. If not talk to your agent. They are working for you. Ask your agent what they think the reason your home is not getting any interest.

[Morristown]

I would ask your current agent what forms of online advertising she is doing. I would not be very interested in newspaper advertising as it mostly is a big waste of time.

Open Houses are OK, but they are mainly for your agent. Very few if any qualified and motivated buyers will come though becouse of a open house, that would not otherwise come though with their Realtor. So you waist a Sunday afternoon with it, get a bunch of strangers who really don't have any interest in your home, and have the small security risk that goes along with it.

I would take a very detailed look at what the last 3 or 4 homes like yours sold for, then look at what your current competition is, and unless your market is appreciating I would price your home 1% or 2% below the market.

[NealRM]

My first suggest is to find a different Realtor. Based on your description, she has done the least amount of work possible to sell your property. Realtor's like her are what incourage sellers to go FSBO.

Suggestion on selling your house:

1. Get you house listed on-line.
   1. have at least 4 outside and 1 phote of each inside room.
   2. Make sure the photos are good quality. Remember these will be the first impression on the buyer.
   3. The posting site must have good traffic. A website without traffic is as good as ad that noone reads.
2. If you have clutter in the house, put it in storage. A staging professional can help here.
3. Was your home included in the local realtor tour. If not, get it included. In our area, these are held once a week.
4. Tell your Realtor to get off her butt. You are paying her to sell your house, she should be bring in potential buyers.

[hamlet]

The key is to advertise for yourself, do your own marketing:
-Go to your local library, schools, public places where you know prospects will visit and place flyers.
-place them all over, everywhere you go. You have nothing to lose.
-Of course place ads on all you local home seller mags

Self Promotion Removed

[Morristown]

The key is to advertise for yourself, do your own marketing:
-Go to your local library, schools, public places where you know prospects will visit and place flyers.
-place them all over, everywhere you go. You have nothing to lose.
-Of course place ads on all you local home seller mags

Self Promotion Removed

Of course by doing this you remove any reason for these people to call your agent, and by doing so remove all possibilities for her to actually sell them on seeing the house and because of that, no offers from these people ether.

Far as I am concerned, only way someone is getting a flyer for a home is to visit the home in a showing or open house, or call and request one, i will e-mail or snail mail it.

[VRI]

I would ask your current agent what forms of online advertising she is doing. I would not be very interested in newspaper advertising as it mostly is a big waste of time.

With my last house we didn't feel that the realtor was doing all that he could and our present houses contract was contingent on it's sale.

I put up a mini site with the major areas of the house in a virtual tour, as well as, the front/back yards and the water front which was accessed about two houses down. I then put an ad in the local paper "Perfect family home in neighborhood name" with a link to the mini site.

We had the offer that went through that day based on that ad. Granted, we were lucky, it was a great house in a great neighborhood and the market isn't what it is today... but it sure was effective.