As with anything people buy, homes need to be marketed to reach the right buyers at the right moment. Marketing and advertising is a big part of what your real estate agent can help with (although some will charge extra for the service). The better the marketing, the more interest and the more competition, which means there’s the best chance possible at getting a good price when selling your home.

There are many ways to market a home, and your real estate agent should come to you with a strong marketing plan to reach prospective buyers. Our agents take care of the marketing plan for your home. However, if you are selling your home yourself, here are some top tips for successfully marketing property:

1. Create a thorough marketing plan

Your real estate agent should have a good grasp of what sells homes in your area: for example, whether people read the local papers or if a major newspaper will be worth the outlay. The marketing plan should include not only print advertising but also digital and physical marketing materials such as flyers, a pamphlet for your property, and signage.

2. Get great photographs

Part of selling a home is creating a vision. Prospective new owners are looking for feelings of happiness, security and comfort in your home, so fantastic photos are the cornerstones of any property marketing campaign. Making sure there’s plenty of light, no clutter, and a sense of space is essential; to achieve this you may get a professional stager to arrange hired furniture in the space. Of course, if you have views, a great garden, a pool, period features or recently renovated kitchens or bathrooms, these should feature prominently in the pictures of your home.

3. Make use of your street frontage

Marketing a property is rarely done without the use of a signboard, as attracting the attention of passers-by is a time-tested marketing method. One particularly worthwhile feature of the signboard is that it can capture people who are not necessarily actively looking for a new home to buy – that is, they’re not scouring the listings and circling the real estate supplement in the newspaper – but could be persuaded when the right home becomes available. For this reason, it’s always worth putting up a signboard, even if you’re in an apartment and the board isn’t directly attached to your property.

4. Do a flyer drop of the neighborhood

People who are already living in your area can be the perfect source of potential buyers: for example, young families who are growing out of apartments and want a family home in the school area or retirees looking to downsize but stay close to their friends and family. Creating a good flyer or brochure to distribute around letterboxes and to hand out at open for inspections is an important part of good advertising.

5. Cover the major online advertisers

Your real estate advertising will of course have its widest reach online, so ensure that your estate agent has created fantastic listings on realestate.com.au and domain.com.au to show off your property to the biggest audience of homebuyers in Australia.

6. Make sure you have professional copywriting

It’s sometimes very clear that real estate agents – instead of hiring a professional who knows how to wield words to their best effect – will often write the property description themselves. And it’s not always pretty. Make sure that your agent sticks to what they do best – selling houses – and hands over the copy creation to a professional writer.

5. Choose the right agent

Most people selling their home choose agents from the most recognizable agencies, or perhaps who they bought the property through initially. The problem with this is that the agents from the biggest agency on the block aren’t necessarily the ones who understand the market, what buyers are looking for, or what the best tactics to sell your house are.

Not all agents are created equal, there are good and bad agents everywhere, so make sure that you take the time to find the right agent to whom you can trust.

 

Feng shui to sell a house fast

Feng shui is the art of arranging buildings, objects, space and life to achieve harmony and balance, and many believe adopting its principles can help you sell your house faster. Follow these basic feng shui rules to increase your chances of a quick sale:

Paint your front door – The front door is one of the most significant aspects of a house in the practice of feng shui, and should exude strength and confidence. Paint it a bold, lucky colour like bright red to help attract positive chi to your home.

Reconfigure the walkway to your front door – In feng shui, it’s considered back luck to have a direct pathway to the house like an arrow towards a target. If it’s possible, redirect the pathway to your front door so it’s curved or angled, such as by laying an S-shaped stone path.

Install entryway lighting – If you don’t have lights on either side of your doorway, install them. According to feng shui, lights attract chi energy and luck to your home.

Start prepping your home now

 

Home-selling improvements that take less than an hour

One of the biggest tips for selling your house is to give the place a spruce-up before you go to market. However, making home improvements can also be one of the unseen costs of selling a property. If you want to make the biggest impact for the smallest investment of time and cash, here are 15 quick ways to help you sell your house:

1. Tidy the front garden and nature strip

Curb appeal is an important factor in getting people interested in buying your house, so spend an hour mowing, weeding, edging, and pruning.

2. Clean the windows and mirrors

Make sure your windows are nice and clear, giving a sense of space, light, and air. Same with your mirrors, especially the ones in the bathroom.

3. Put away kids’ toys

After a while, it can be difficult to remember what your house looks like without all the Lego, balls, dolls, and trucks, but tidying them away will make a big difference to the sense of space and calm in your house.

4. Pack away personal items

De-personalising is a great house selling tip. Taking away knick-knacks, most of the family photos, letters, bills, medications and reminders creates a more streamlined environment that people can imagine themselves living in.

5. Put out some nice throw cushions

One way to give your living room and bedrooms an instant lift is by using some attractive throw cushions on the sofas and beds.

Be sure to make a ‘getting your house ready to sell’ checklist. It could be as easy as getting some new throw cushions to spruce up your living room.

6. Take everything off the fridge

Clear off the artwork, postcards, magnet collection, and shopping list – the fridge is a large surface in the kitchen, and the eye can be drawn to the clutter. Kitchens are an important consideration for buyers, so making it look its best should be top of the ‘getting your house ready to sell’ checklist.

7. Put some plants inside the house

Another way to make the environment more pleasant is to add some house plants to the living spaces.

8. De-clutter surfaces

Go through the house with a keen eye for any clutter – books, papers, magazines, trinkets, stationery. Anything that could be put away should be.

9. Make sure it smells fresh

Think about all the senses when you’re preparing for a house inspection: the smell is a big one. If your place smells damp or stale, it could be a turn-off for potential purchasers, so open the windows or burn some essential oils to freshen the smell.

10. Clear any magazines from the bathroom

Many bathrooms have a stack of books, newspapers, and magazines that go unnoticed. Clearing them away makes the bathroom much tidier and more appealing.

11. Add lamps to make the lighting brighter

If you’ve got dim or harsh lighting, adding lamps to dark corners is a great way to brighten a space or create a gentler light.

More tips for selling your home include brightening up dim rooms with lamps.

12. Fix creaky doors and leaky taps

Been putting off some DIY jobs? Now’s the time to upgrade. Get out the spanner and the DW40 to eliminate small, but irritating, flaws in your home.

13. Dust in hard-to-reach places

Above door lintels, in the corners of ceilings and floors, on the top of cupboards. Keen-eyed buyers will notice cobwebs.

14. Repaint window sills and door frame

Painted wooden window sills and door frames often get chipped or stained, so a quick touch-up is a good way to improve the look of your home quickly.

15. Tidy the backyard

Pop away the lawnmower, bikes, kids’ toys, neaten up the barbecue area, and remove any major weed breakouts.

To get a general idea of how much your property may be worth before you sell, you can also request a free property value estimate online. This only takes 30 seconds and gives you an in-depth report featuring historic sales data and comparable home sales in your area

Avoid selling during the holidays

While selling in summer allows you to showcase your home in

Its best light, you also want to make sure that your property is on the market at a time when there’s plenty of buyer interest. As a general rule, avoid selling over the Christmas period when people tend to be on holiday or spending time with their family.

Choose a qualified real estate agent

Picking the wrong real estate agent can end up costing you thousands of dollars and causing you a huge headache, so it pays to do your homework before making a decision. Here are some of the key things to consider:

• Track record/reputation: What properties have they sold recently? Do they have positive online reviews?
• Sales/marketing plan: How will they promote your property and how many open homes will you have?
• Fees and commissions: How much of a commission does the real estate agent charge, or do they operate on a fixed-fee basis? Do they include marketing in their fees?
• Service: How will they keep you updated throughout the selling process?

1. Choose the right agent and auctioneer –

These are debatably the most important people involved in your auction. Your agent and auctioneer will have a big impact on the outcome of your auction, so it’s imperative to take time to find the right partner to help you sell your home. Choose someone with a proven positive history, look at the agent and auctioneer’s recent sales in the area, and make sure your auctioneer is registered under the Land Agent’s Act.

2. Set your reserve price –

As the Vendor, you can set the reserve price with your agent. Look at previous auction results in the area to get an idea of how much you can expect from your property, and consider the supply and demand during your time of sale. Make sure you’re not picking a holiday time, as people aren’t usually keen to buy during these periods. Talk with your agent and make sure you pick the peak time to sell your home.

3. Spend time preparing your home –

Whether it’s styling your home or making renovations to increase your property’s value, little changes can boost the appeal of your home in order to attract potential bidders. Keep your house looking nice all the way until auction day – you never know when a prospective buyer is looking. Speak with your agent about hiring furniture for Auction day if you’ve already moved out, as buyer’s like to see the appeal of the home and having the house styled helps greatly with this.

4. Advertising price –

When advertising your property prior to the auction it is necessary to give prospective buyers guidance on price. The advertising price should be set in accordance with the comparative market value of the property and with consideration of the reserve price. Speak to your agent in depth about what’s right for your home. Some buyers will not contact the agent if they see the property advertised for auction without an indicative price range so it is vital to provide this information to them, the more open and clear you are about it, the more people will seek more information!

5. Social Media Marketing –

In order to for you to have a successful auction and get the sought after price for your home, it is essential that you utilise social media advertising to attract as many prospective purchasers as possible to your auction. This is done by advertising the property in every possible medium and also making sure that all the neighbours are invited. Having a large crowd at an auction creates a perception to prospective buyers that there is strong interest in the property and that they need to bid in order to purchase the property. Even invite friends and family!