In the Spotlight with Rémy Martin
There is no point in trying to fight it: The world has gone digital. From updating your debit orders to doing your grocery shopping, almost every daily task has migrated to the realm of ones and zeros. Why should selling your home be any different?
“In today’s market, most buyers will view a property online before they make the effort to view it in person. Sellers who do not take the time to ensure that their property is marketed correctly online, are dramatically decreasing the true marketing potential of their homes,” says Adrian Goslett, Regional Director and CEO of REMAX Southern Africa.
DO . . . Insist on an Online Listing
Most reputable agents should offer to market your home on a digital platform. If they fail to mention it in their marketing plan, don not be shy to ask them about it. “It is always advisable to find out from your agent which sites they plan on using for your listing so that you can be assured that your property has the widest reach possible,” Goslett advises.
Fact-check the Listing
Copy gremlins are sneaky creatures that manage to slip past even the most diligent of agents. Be sure to double-check your online listing for any typos or factual errors. Buyers search according to certain filters, so if your listing information is misspelt or some information has not been included, your property will not surface in the list of results for certain searches. Beyond this, typos tend to make a listing look less professional, which could potentially deter the buyer from the property.
Hire a Professional Photographer
“A highly marketable property can be overlooked if the listing images are poor quality or if they do not provide insight into what the property has to offer,” Goslett says. To maximize the results of your online listing, most agents will advise that you hire a professional photographer to take your listing photographs. If you choose to forgo this advice, ensure that the images that are uploaded are not blurry and that they provide an enticing view of each room. A virtual tour would be the crème de la crème of online listings, but in lieu of this, the more quality images you provide of the property, the better.
DO NOT . . .
Tangle the Lines of Communication
If your listing will appear on multiple online portals, be careful that the lines of communication do not get crossed. Experienced agents will double-check this themselves, but if you have chosen to market your property yourself, you need to check that the information you’ve supplied is the same across the board. Factors such as price and contact details are particularly important in this respect.
Neglect the Description
We are living in a world orientated towards instant gratification where buyers have become too lazy to ask questions. Leaving space for questions on your listing (photographs can only do so much to satisfy a buyer’s curiosity) is an easy way of redirecting buyers to a property where they can find all the information they need. If you’re trying to market your property on your own, you need to anticipate all the questions a buyer might ask after looking through the images of your property, and then try to answer as many of them as possible in your listing description. Be sure to include key selling features that are not visible in photographs, such as underfloor heating or heated towel rails.
“While it seems easy enough to market your own property online, it is trickier than it seems. It is best to leave it in the hands of a reputable agent who knows exactly how to entice buyers into leaving their computer screens and taking the next step to view the property in person,” Goslett concludes.
For more info, visit www.remax.co.za.