The Gallant Group

If you haven’t already, please read the article about the liabilities of selling real estate by yourself. Instead of just the typical glossy guide that Realtors and Brokers often provide, I have provided an indepth look at *the most important* aspect of selling real estate as a homeowner, that being disclosures. Failure to disclose certain things about your home to a prospective buyer is the #1 cause of all real estate lawsuits that happen in California between selling and buying parties. So please don’t take the issue lightly.

First Step: Identify the Target Audience

Before you start with staging your own home or advertising, do what 99% of sellers don’t do and figure out who is that you’re selling to. By this I don’t mean doing a cursory and superficial glance at your neighborhood and observing that most of your neighbors are families. I mean for you to dive down into your market and identify all of the following:

1) New commercial development trends in your neighborhood.

Example: new retail shopping centers and high end coffee stores that are a short distance away from your house attract stay at home moms and dads. This group of people often times look for a comforting decour and spacious living areas as they spend a lot of time in their homes. If new commercial developments are going up or have recently been established in your area, you can bet that quite a few of the buyers will fall within this category.

2) Cost of Housing.

Is your neighborhood a middle class home or a high income class home? If it’s the former, the target audience is very cost-conscious and will shop for the best deal. In a down real estate market, forget about investing in kitchens, bathrooms, flooring and such as these additions or upgrades to your home will be a sinking fund. Instead focus on pricing your home correctly and offering something to buyers that others aren’t upon close: (Free plasma screen TV, etc). If the house is located in a high income neighborhood, the target audience will most likely consist of professionals or business owners. This group of people like plush, comfortable homes. Offers for plasma screens etc won’t nearly go as far as a rebate thrown in for a kitchen upgrade.

3) Density of Stay At Home Parents vs Both Working.

Both of these groups have vastly different needs when it comes to a home. As I said above, stay at home parents require shopping centers, restaurants, and parks located a short ways away from their homes along with space. Working couples look at close daycare facilities, work commutes, and expressway access as the important factors. Space and comfort are important too, but at times both aspects can be overridden if the home is ideal in other ways.

Second Step: Create Marketing

Newspapers, craigslist, and sites such as Forsalebyowner.com are good starting points to get the word out about your property. Include pictures and most definitely Virtual Tours. What’s more important though is who you’re targeting. Create advertising that targets to a specific group and you’ll indirectly attract groups outside of your target audience by sheer curiosity . Taglines such as “Perfect for working couples” or “Hide In Hills with Ample Restaurants & Shopping Nearby” attract two totally different audiences. Cater to your target.

Third Step: Create the Mood

All of the above is worthless if the appropriate mood isn’t present. The last thing that buyers want to see is some thing that doesn’t live up to how it’s been advertised. So create a mood — get the buyer to fall in love with your home. You can do that by spending a small amount of money staging your home. Hire a staging company and work within a budget. Let the company know who you’re trying to market and they’ll come up with ideas to help you.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 12th, 2007 at 1:03 pm and is filed under Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.