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With a lot fewer homebuyers trolling the market, sellers need to make sure that their homes are getting out in front of the most promising prospects.
Whether the home being sold is a suburban rancher perfect for young families or a move-in ready condo for single urban professionals, a wealth of high-tech tools is available to help sellers target the most likely buyers. Unfortunately, tech experts say, most people are misusing them.
"Fifty percent of the people who are using social media (to sell real estate) are doing it wrong," says Michael McClure, president and CEO of Professional One Real Estate in Plymouth, Mich., and a frequent guest lecturer on real estate and technology. (Bing: Top social media blunders)
Rather than developing relationships with potential buyers in places where they hang out online, such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, most agents are simply slapping up electronic listings and hoping buyers take the bait. That strategy can backfire, turning potential buyers off and away from what looks like spam.
"There's a culture (in social media) built up around the ostracizing of people who do that," McClure says. "People will say, 'We need to unfollow (or unsubscribe from) that person immediately.'"
Owners have a bit more leeway than agents in promoting a home online. But, regardless, McClure says, nine of every 10 pieces of communication on Facebook or Twitter should be something other than a sales pitch.
It's not about selling, he says. It's about "engaging and relating" with the people who have a good shot at buying what you have to sell.
1. Target your marketing
While you can't target specific groups of buyers in the text of your marketing appeal without risking charges of discrimination, you can draw attention to your home in the places where its most appreciative would-be buyers hang out.
A home's seller can say things on Twitter that might attract the right buyer, such as "#architecture buffs should check this one out" or "my #kids were crazy about this yard."
If you have an amazing view or the world's largest walk-in closet, you can tweet about that, too.
"Can you believe the size of this #closet?" the post could read, with a link to photos on your agent's site.
It's best to stick with promoting a home's unique features and simply put the message in places where the buyers you are targeting can't miss it, such as ethnic, religious or school-related groups or local parenting pages. Likewise, owners of horse property or lakefront homes could try hitting up fishing or equestrian blogs and message boards.
Slide show: 7 tips for first-time sellers
Whomever you're targeting, experts say, there's a way to reach them without explicitly singling them out in your listing.
2. Harness the new breed of advertising
One of the most focused ways to target certain buyers without risk of discrimination is through Facebook ads, McClure says.
Even if you can't advertise that your home is perfect for people without kids, young hipsters or gay and lesbian couples, you can silently target these groups with keywords in the social network's advertising. You can be even more selective by placing ads in front of Facebook users by age, employers and even ZIP codes to get the most bang for your online buck.
And that means you can call out incentives that may matter most to the groups you are searching for, offering help with closing costs to first-time buyers, proximity to public transportation for young professionals or home warranties for empty nesters.
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"I think most people don't know that this technology is there, but the learning curve (to do it) takes 30 seconds," McClure says.
He says he finds it much more effective than glossy real-estate magazines and newspaper ads, after spending two decades using those without success. "I'd be willing to bet that digital return on investment (ROI) is 100 to 1,000 times greater" than print, he says.
Digital media also allow you to reach potential buyers who may be relocating, or investors scouring your area for properties, says Ben Kinney, an agent with Keller-Williams in Bellingham, Wash. "It's important that you do things to market your home to people outside your physical area," Kinney says. "Consumers might want to think twice about hiring the agent who spends their money on print because they are not keeping up with the market."
Indeed, Kinney says, you're better off saving your money and posting your home's listing on Craigslist as long as you're willing to update your listing every 48 hours from the day you list until the day you sell.
Many real-estate experts also recommend advertising on the nation's big real-estate search engines such as Realtor.com, Zillow and Trulia, so your home pops up at the top of the search page, rather than on page 15, by which point many potential buyers have stopped looking.
It's all about being in a high-profile position on the sites that buyers frequent most.
"You have to go where your audience is," agrees Sara Bonert, director of broker services for Zillow.com.
Sue Adler, a Keller-Williams agent in the Short Hills area of New Jersey, advertises on search engine Google using keywords including the handful of bedroom communities just outside Manhattan in which she works. She's also hired someone to do search engine optimization of her site, so it and her listings are at the top of search results – paid and unpaid -- and top of mind for those looking.
"Anybody can stick a house in the (multiple listing service). The whole key is to get the right amount of exposure and get people from out of the area in," Adler says.
