1) Price the home correctly.
The first step, after having chosen the right Real Estate Professionals to represent you in the sale of your home, is to price the home correctly. Many sellers list with the “Highest Bidder,” as if the Agent who asks for more can convince the marketplace to pay more, and then convince an appraiser to appraise the house higher! The best way to begin marketing a listing is to price the home properly from the beginning. Call (616) 888-1394 for a free Comparative Market Analysis if interested in an estimate of your home’s value.
2) Staging the home for showings.
The second step in our marketing plan is to prepare the home to be shown. Both the pricing and the preparation stages are completed before the listing is ever announced to Realtors® or to the public. Many homes need to be improved slightly prior to becoming active on the market (whether this is a simple once-over cleaning or painting the living room). For some very general tips, buyers prefer: Clean to dirty, newer to older, no odor to odor, no noise to noise, and less work to more work.
3) Put up a sign!
This may sound like a simple step - and it is - but it is important. Greenridge has recognizable for sale signs which help Potential Buyers to spot a listed property. Bill or Christian place one of their name riders on the listing signs, which enables Potential Buyers or other Realtors to call them directly to discuss your listing.
4) Promote the home to Many Realtors through the Multiple Listing Service.
At this point, the listing agreement is signed and professional photographs and video are taken of the home. These are then uploaded to the Multiple Listing Service (MLS), an online collection of listings accessible to Realtors® and the public. This is where Real Estate Professionals from around the State of Michigan search for Real Estate listings for buyers they are working with. There are over 7800 Realtors® in the MichRic MLS alone, which is the MLS Bill and Christian belong to.
5) Promote the home to many thousands of Buyers online.
One of the services offered through the Multiple Listing Service is Internet Data Exchange, which allows Real Estate Professionals to promote their listings online. As soon as Bill and Christian upload an active listing to the MLS, it is shipped off to Zillow, Homes.com, Realtor.com, and most any other website that promotes listings. This is partly where the professional photos and video mentioned earlier become important.
6) Get the Word Out through Social Media.
Bill and Christian then use the professional photos and videos to promote the listing on Social Media. Combined, Christian and Bill have 900 Facebook Friends and over 800 Instagram followers - (for some people this a large number of followers; others, not so much). Many people watch Bill and Christian’s pages for up and coming listings.
7) Promote the Listing In-house.
Greenridge has over 400 agents, many of whom may be dealing with a potential buyer for your home! We promote listings in-house so that Greenridge Agents can match your home to one of their potential buyers.
8) Place an Electronic Lockbox on the property.
Placing an Electronic Lockbox on the property allows Realtors® to access the property. With ShowingTime technology, Bill and Christian are able to vet Agents and schedule showings.
9) Order Preliminary Titlework.
Preliminary Titlework can discover Clouds on Title and other issues which may impede the orderly transfer of title necessary to sell a home. Preliminary Titlework enables issues to be discovered before they stop a sale part-way through the transaction - after Buyers, Sellers, and Realtors may have already invested copious amounts of time and money.
10) Bill and Christian work with Potential Buyers!
Much of the other marketing discussed in this section is devoted to reaching other Realtors® and Potential Buyers whom Bill and Christian are not already working with. However, Bill and Christian do regularly work with Serious, Qualified Buyers who may want to buy your home!