• Tweet
• Share
• Email

• Tweet
• Share
• Email

The game of selling real estate in the greater Northville, Plymouth, Novi, Canton, etc. market – and everywhere else, for that matter -  just keeps changing. Tried-and-true techniques that sold homes effectively for literally DECADES are in many cases now nearly completely ineffective, and other methods have arisen almost overnight that are extremely effective.

Here is a quick overview of the things that WORK in terms of getting homes sold in today’s new real estate paradigm (ranked in what we believe is the relative order of importance):

• REALCOMP (“The MLS”) – This is where the majority of local exposure is created: among Realtors working with clients looking for homes, which remains the single most likely source of a buyer for your home.

• REAL ESTATE COMPANY WEBSITE – Given that approximately 90% of all people search for homes on the web, and given that most of those searches are “hyper-local” in nature (e.g., “Plymouth real estate” or “Northville homes for sale,” etc.), a local website that ranks well on Google is a powerful method of creating exposure for your listing – and a must for getting maximum exposure for your home among the population most likely to be looking for your home.  Most company websites rank poorly, as most agents and companies are not well versed in search engine optimization (and if you are not on “Page 1″ of a given Google search result, for all intents and purposes you “don’t exist” when it comes to being found by those super-important hyper-local real estate searchers).  Make sure the website has a home search feature on its home page, as this is a critical feature in terms of drawing users to a real estate website.  This is key.

• REALTOR.COM – Still the biggest and most powerful source of exposure for listings outside of the MLS and a “hyper-local optimized” company website.

• POINT2NLS.COM – This is basically a newer and potentially more powerful version of Realtor.com.

• YOUTUBE – As the popularity of video continues to skyrocket, video will become more and more critical in terms of real estate marketing.  You should create video of your home (via virtual tour or otherwise) and syndicate it to YouTube and TubeMogul.com.  Again, this is key.

And here are the old-school methods that just do not produce results like they once did:

• PRINT MEDIA – Many newspapers have shut down or gone digital.  Further, several major real estate advertising publications have gone out of business.  These things were inevitable because (1) people – by an overwhelming margin – search for things via the internet vs. via printed materials, and (2) the cost of advertising digitally is so much lower.

• OPEN HOUSES – With virtual tours, photos and video now populating most every real estate website, people can search for houses from the comfort of their own homes rather than visiting open houses.  Further, as open house visitor flow has decreased, many agents have stopped doing open houses for safety and or liability considerations.  Our experience suggests open houses are effective less than 1% of the time.

• DIRECT MAIL – This once-popular method has decreased because online advertising is cheaper and more accurately targeted.  Direct mail is “shotgun” in nature in that it is directed at a random population, most of which will have no interest in the subject matter, while internet advertising is viewed only by those specifically looking for that particular subject.  This dramatically increases the chances that online advertising will be relatively more effective than any form of direct-mail-based marketing.