Our Exclusive Marketing Plan to Sell Homes

selling a home

1.) Advertising - Most agents will take out ads on your property, but wego the extra mile with our sellers by tailoring a comprehensive advertising program to each home, all at no cost to you. Our advertising includes...

Print Advertising in local publications like the Home Buyer's Guide and the Times Picayune. We will also choose other magazines based on reaching the perfect audience for your home. Direct Mail advertising through updates that go to our exclusive mailing list and through full color, glossy postcards that go out to your neighbors once we've listed your home. 24-Hour Advertising Online - Studies show that the majority of all home buyers research homes online before making a decision to see a home. This means we've got to work extra hard to make your home stand out in the virtual world. We do this by featuring your home in my website www.MyNewOrleansHome.com and at hundreds of affiliate websites including www.latter-blum.com and www.realtor.com. And at each of these websites, buyers will be able to see all the photos we've taken of your home. Studies show that multiple photos cause buyers to interact with your home longer online, and interaction is key in getting and keeping their interest in the home.

2.) Marketing your home to other agents As much as we love to advertise your home, the fact is that ads don't sell homes, agents do. And statistics show that most homes are sold by an agent other than the listing agent. So what does this mean to you? This means your agent better have a great relationship with the other agents in the area, and she'd better know how to reach them! How do we reach them?

Immediate MLS Exposure with Immediate Photos - There are 1800+ agents in the greater New Orleans area, and by entering your home into the Multiple Listing Service, each one of them can pull up a hot sheet for your property the day it comes on the market. The problem is that most of the time those hot sheets don't have photos, because it takes the MLS photographer 2-14 days to drive by and take one outside photo of your home. We don't work that way. The hot sheets for you home are too important not to have a photo. We personally take multiple photos of your home, touch them up in Adobe Photoshop, and input them online immediately, so that the day your home hits the hot sheets, all the agents (and their buyers) can see the pictures. - Brokers Open Houses - Every week each market area has its own brokers tour dates where agents can preview new homes. This is the perfect time to sell other agents (and by connection all the clients they're working with) on your home, and we don't waste this opportunity. All our listings get a brokers open that is catered by a title or lending company. Showing Follow-Up - We follow up with every agent who shows your home to see what buyers are saying. It's a quick, simple thing, and it only takes us a moment to do, but it can really help us figure out how to improve if we're getting lots of showings but no offers. - Helpful, Quick Service to Other Agents - Last but not least, one of the major ways we market your home to other agents is by being the kind of people they want to do business with. If we're unpleasant to talk to, don't return phone calls, or give them the wrong information, they're going to want to steer their buyers somewhere else if at all possible, and we've seen it happen. We won't do that to you. We pride myself on the relationships we've built with other Realtors. We will always do whatever we can to help them help us sell your home.

3.) Communication - How often have you heard friends or neighbors complain that they listed their home with an agent and then didn't hear from them for two months? Selling your home is a big deal, and listing it exclusively for sale with a brokerage is a huge commitment on your part! We wouldn't ask you to make that commitment without making some promises of my own.

Phone Updates - When you list your home, we'll set up a time right then and there for our weekly phone call. Maybe it will just be a couple minutes, maybe it will be a couple hours, but we'll find a time when I can give you updates on your home. We'll talk about what we've done, what showings or calls we've had, what feedback we've gotten, and what the market's doing. If there is new competition, or if a similar house has gone under contract, we'll talk about that as well. Typed Reports Every 4-6 Weeks - As we do things for your home, we keep a log of everything we've done, the calls we've answered, the feedback we've gotten, etc. . . We'll also put in the amount of internet hits we've received and what ads have been run. Then, every 4-6 weeks we'll type up that information for you so you have a written record of what we're doing to market your home.

4.) Better Service Upfront to Save You Headaches Later - We spend a lot of time with you upfront, explaining who we are, how we work, and how the home-selling process goes. We generally visit our sellers several times before Iwe put a home on the market, spending as much time as necessary to make sure you feel good about our marketing strategy.

Setting the Right Price - You know the old saying, "Only three things are important in real estate, location, location, location?" They really should change that to "price, price, price." You can take any home in any condition and in any location, and someone will buy it if it's priced fairly. Unfortunately, many sellers want to "test" the market at a higher price, and then they say they'll drop the price if they don't get any action. This is a horrible marketing idea, because the home's first month on the market is one of the most critical. This is when it's on the hot sheets, this is when agents tour it, this is when it's the new kid on the block! To set too high a price now means no one will pay attention to it. Then, when you lower the price later, no one notices. I've seen overpriced homes reduced three or four times before they end up selling for less than their fair market price, because they're such old hat by that time that no one's paying attention, or because they've been sitting on the market so long that agents think there must be something wrong with them! We will do a thorough market analysis of listed and sold homes in your area to determine a good price range to list your home in. We will also explain mour professional opinion of what those price ranges will mean to you in terms of selling time, potential buyers, and how we fit in the market, so that you can make the best decision on price. Getting Your Home Ready to Sell - The way we live in a home and the way we sell a home are two different things. With your permission, We'll go through each room of your home with you to make suggestions for things that we can put away or touch up to make the home seem larger and in tip-top shape. The best part is that by doing little things up front, you're actually earning more equity out of your home.

These are just a few of the things we do to help you market your home. To get your own individualized market analysis and to get more information on how you can sell quickly, call us at 504-957-2422. We're ready when you are!