How to market my house

[NealRM]

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

Why would do you own marketing - that is what you are paying the Realtor to do. If you take your car to a garage to have it fix, you wouldn't accept the mechanic saying "I don't know what is wrong, fix it yourself".

When you hire a Realtor, you should expect they will preform specific services:

1. They advertise your house
2. They show your house to potential buyers
3. They handle the paperwork

If they can't or won't do the basic services you find a Realtor that will.

My advice is to sit down and talk over your concerns with your Realtor. If she cannot address your concerns ask to be let out of your contract. Then find a Realtor that meets your needs.

[jasoncrouch]

VRI - I often want to use the term "family home", but we were always told not to use this phrase, as it might indicate a preference for families over single people or couples without kids.

I honestly feel like real estate classes should be called "1001 Ways to Avoid Getting Sued". Most of the scenarios that they pitched (at least when I was getting my license) seemed improbable at best, but they still made us scared that we were going to say or do the wrong thing, even if it was an innocent mistake. Thankfully, I have never had a mediation or a lawsuit to this point, with almost 11 years in the business.

[avonreal]

she doesn't what else to do? in that case you should take charge. advertise online, local free clasiffieds etc. or you could ask her if she can pass it onto another realtor with more ideas.

[Phoenix]

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.

Sad that you have to come online and ask what you can do when you've hired someone to do it for you.

For the most part, our realtor has not really done any advertising on the property other than list it on MLS.

Yikes! I've lived in the North Phoenix area since 1978 and I know two awesome agents in Tucson, call or PM me if you want to interview them once you are out of your current contract (by time or force).

[ericbadgley]

My opinion is this

The MlS accounts for more than 80% of all homes sales. Advertising will bring you around 2% of the sales. The fact of the matters is, most buyers work with an agent, about 90%. If your property is on the MLS the agents and buyers will find your property. There probably isn't much more he can do, things are pretty slow around the nation. Just be patient

[Steve Didier]

Your motivation will determine your price. All the advertising in the world won't help if you are overpriced. I have had friends tell me the market in Tuscon is quite soft which makes the issue of price even more paramount.

A couple things to remember when pricing your home:
-what you paid for the home has no effect on the value
-what you want to sell it for has no effect on the value
-in a declining market, make sure you are ahead of the pack, meaning that if prices are dropping, make sure you are priced lower than the last comparable sold
-make sure that you represent the best VALUE among comparable homes that are available, meaning you need to offer more features and benefits for a lower price

Make sure your agent is presenting you a realistic view of the comps and not just telling you what they think you want to hear. Unfortunately, many agents will quote a propect a high list price because they are afraid of losing the listing.

[SciaccaAZ]

Well, we have a new realtor and we are very pleased with him. He has taken a different approach towards marketing the house and we are getting fairly decent traffic as a result. His brochures for the home look incredible, very professional. We lowered the price, and an agent's tour will be scheduled soon. Hopefully we will get a good result. Thanks for all the advice!

[Steve Didier]

That's good news! There are some good agents out there - best of luck!

[pj1020]

I agree with eric and driven. First, most serious buyers will find out about your house thru the MLS. Ads and Open Houses are almost useless and usually are a waste of time and money. That said, one never knows when one of these methods might work but I would not count on it.

Second, pricing is the key to selling a house in todays difficult market. I like the advice given to check other comparables and price agressively, meaning below the competition. But,of course the client most agree to the pricing.

The third factor is presentation. Getting potential buyers to view the home is one thing but if it does not show well it still will not sell. I offer my listings free professional home staging and with the few listings I have had so far ( I am a fairly new agent ) and it seems to have worked very well. The professionals I use charge $80/hr for the two of them and a typical townhouse will take about 4 or 5 hours, more for a larger or detached house.