Demand professional photos and videos – consumers like to see lots of quality photos and videos. Studies have shown that ads without images are quickly ignored. The video tour has also become increasingly popular with consumers, they want to know as much as possible about a property before requesting a viewing.

If the property is rural or exceptionally large, drone photos are warranted to show how the land is landscaped and what surrounds the property. Again, consumers want to know as much as possible in advance, so keeping their attention focused on your ad is key.

Ask your agent if the multiple listing service they are a member of has reciprocal listing agreements with other MLS systems. For example, the San Diego MLS system (Paragon) has reciprocal agreements with the Riverside and Orange County MLS systems, while the combined regional MLS system has agreements that reach approximately 85% of realtors in the state.

Since we don’t know where buyers (and buyers’ agents) come from, it’s imperative to reach as many places as possible. The CRMLS uses a platform called Matrix and it is much more powerful in achieving power, so ask your agent if they use Matrix and CRMLS.

Pay agents a full commission, which will allow the listing agent to spend money on advertising and attract buying agents to your listing. In some MLS systems, agents can search by commission level, so it stands to reason that if a full commission is paid, buyer agents will search for these listings and send them to their buying clients. This is not a super hot sellers market; houses are no longer selling. Strategies need to fit together to help your ad get noticed.

Open days work! Yes, they can be awkward for the owner, but they draw crowds. Sometimes we hear visitors say they are just neighbors to whom we say “wonderful!” Neighbors are an important source of buyer referrals to sell the ad.

Announcing an open house in MLS and via social media is a great way to draw crowds. Before COVID, an average open house in the Fallbrook area had four groups of visitors. Two and a half weeks ago, my partner and I hosted a $1,399,000 open house on a Saturday. We had 26 groups across the property and, at the end of the day, we had an offer in hand; two more appeared later.

Last weekend we held an open house at the $649,000 property and hosted 18 groups; we had two offers in hand the next day. The common theme was that we keep them open on Saturdays; we announced the open houses in MLS and on social media; we used facebook to target market areas in orange county and san diego proper and according to my last post the right priced properties are selling! Open days allow you to distinguish your ad and give it good visibility.

When an ad becomes obsolete, the remedy is often a price reduction. Instead, I propose an interest rate buyout of the buyer’s interest rate paid by the seller. Sounds expensive, but please review the numbers below (courtesy of Tico Title); this is how to create a win-win scenario

For the buyer: the buyer can bid at full price and use the seller’s contribution to buy out their interest rates, resulting in a savings of $92 on their monthly payment and $77,209 in interest over the term of the loan due to the lower interest rate.

For the seller: by paying $19,000 to buy out the buyer’s interest rate, the seller now gets the full asking price and will earn $13,550 more than if he reduced his price by $35,000.

Here are the mathematical estimates based on a 30 year term and 20% down payment, all numbers are estimates only:

Full Price Offer / $35,000 Price Reduction / Seller Buyout

List price $800,000 $765,000 $800,000

Loan amount $640,000 $612,000 $640,000

Interest rate 5.25% 5.25% 4.5% $

APR 5.367% 5.367% $4.611

Total $$$ at closing $181,195 $173,554 $180,998

Seller contribution $0.00 $0.00 $19,200

Monthly payment $4,553 $4,354 $4,262

Seller’s net at closing $743,812 $711,062 $724,612

Some of these suggestions might be unconventional thinking, but if it brings buyers to your doorstep and your home is selling while other properties are for sale because no effort has been made to ensure that the property was ready to market, the property was too expensive and there was no incentive. for buyers or agents, it would be good to consider thinking outside the box to get the job done.

Food for thought on how to differentiate your ad from others.