Using Floor Plans in Your Marketing Strategy
Though having high-quality photos and a well written description of each room in your home are critical components to your listing, having a professional floor plan will also help to step your game up when advertising and promoting your home.
The size and overall layout home is one of the most, if not the most overall, important selling feature when you have your home listed on the market.
If you're looking to add further credibility to your home, then having readily available floor plans is the perfect way to do it when selling your home.
The added credibility comes from both the buyer and the seller knowing that the listing has been specially handled by a professional, and over the fact that everything is literally laid out properly for the buyer.
Using a 3D Interactive Floor Plan
A floor plan can be so much more than just using numbers, basic geometry, and legal confirmation for the claimed size of the home in order to grab a seller's attention.
In fact, using an interactive 3D floor plan is a great way to improve your marketing strategy will help turn something that would normally be boring and bland into something beautiful.
3D floor plans work as models, think of something like a doll house, to show potential buyers exactly what the home looks like from above, or if you have a plan that looks as if your home is literally cut in half.
Unlike photos, having an interactive 3D floor plan literally and physically puts everything into an animated perspective.
If the property you are currently selling has tenants renting and living in the space, then 3D floor plans are the best way to ensure that the full potential of the home, building, or whatever the case may be has a chance to be completely showcased.
You'll still have to show the property, but a floor plan gives the seller a chance to see it without the tenant's belongings skewed everywhere.
How to Get a 3D Floor Plan and Why You Need a Floor Plan Technician
One of the most important selling features for a home is having the square footage already determined and ready to go to be put into the listing. Using a tape measure simply will not do, but working with a professional who is certified within creating a 3D floor plan, however, will.
A certified floor plan technician will ensure that your 3D floor plan will be perfectly accurate, incorporate all minor and major details, and that it will be a spitting image of your home.
Using a floor plan technician will ensure that no legal action comes out of a small discrepancy within your home after it has been sold, which does happen when a seller is not careful and skimps on the square footage numbers given in a listing.
Should the buyer bring in an appraiser to determine whether or not the square footage given was correct, and finds an error, the seller may face a lawsuit. To avoid such, a floor plan technician will find the correct square footage, guarantee it, and ensure that you, the seller, are advertising the correct number within your listing.
If you were given floor plans by the seller that you purchased the house from, but have renovated the home during your time living there or renting out the space, the original plans cannot be used.
When it comes to MLS boards, they are nightmarishly specific over measurements that can and cannot be included. Floor plan technicians specialize within real estate measurements, and keep up to date with the local regulations, as well.
When it comes to pricing, big differences are affected by small differences, so playing the guessing game here simply will not do, as you could very well miss out on space that is valuable.
Using a tape measure will ensure that you get at least one error, if not plenty more, but by going with a floor plan technician, your home will be measured down to each 1/16th inch.
Using a Virtual, 360 Tour
As a seller, you'll need to look at all of your available options when it comes to marketing, and using a virtual, 360 tour is a great way to showcase all that your home has to offer to potential buyers.
360-degree panoramic photography enhances visualization by showcasing an entire room in one full, beautiful shot, without missing a square inch.
Visualization Benefits
Potential buyers will be able to view the property in a way that's ten times better than traditional photography, considering a virtual tour allows the location to be understood more easily.
Interestingly enough, potential buyers of higher quality are generally attracted through a virtual tour, because of how exquisite the photographs turn out.
Benefits When Compared to the Competition
If you're living in an area that has multiple homes up for sale, and you're wondering how to gain the leg up on the competition, bring your neighbors or local sellers in general, then a virtual tour is the best way to do so.
Your property will stand out among the rest, thanks to the beauty of the virtual tour overall, and will give the perfect first impression online.
Benefits for Exposure
It's no secret that visual tours are both curious and pleasing to the eye, and will ensure that all potential buyers take a second look at your pictures before they have a chance to think about it.
Your listings are more likely to be visited time after time if you incorporate a visual tour within them, and you will also have the chance to gain more referrals, as well.
The Virtual Tour and Real Estate Statistics
Though most people assume that virtual tours are only used for establishments such as hotels, resorts, and restaurants, for example, sellers who use a virtual tour within their listing are using one of the best marketing tools in real estate to their advantage.
In fact, 75% of potential buyers who took place within a real estate study commented on the fact that they were more into seeing a virtual tour in a listing rather than normal, traditional photographs.
Listings that incorporate virtual tours are viewed by approximately 40% more when compared to listings that only had traditional photographs to offer.
Using Neighborhood Marketing to Your Advantage
Neighborhood marketing can be incredibly tricky when a seller tries to tackle it in order to use it as a tool to sell their home, but when it's gone about properly, and all of the proper foundations are in place, neighborhood marketing can be used to your advantage.
Keep in mind, however, that neighborhood marketing generally fails because it's often confused with getting publicity for neighborhood watch and other housing programs and activities, for example.
When Neighborhood Marketing is Successful
Should the following foundations be set into place, neighborhood marketing will be a successful tool that can be used to a seller's advantage in order to sell their home;
A sense of security that is reasonable at the very least.
Neighborhood leadership that is organized for the purpose of decision making for the entire neighborhood, as well as a marketing activities that take place there.
Associated marketing plans in effect, which could include sub-neighborhood titles or names, for allowing multiple paces of efforts in marketing.
A revitalization strategy that is both comprehensive and designed around the overall strengths and weaknesses of the neighborhood, which could mean targeting a specific market of potential buyers, for example.
Overall, the only way that neighborhood marketing will work to a seller's advantage, is if their home is located in a stable, together neighborhood community. Otherwise, it will not work, and should not be used as a marketing tool whatsoever.
The Many Benefits of Aerial Photography in Real Estate
Aerial video tours are the perfect method for a dynamic way to showcase each aspect of a seller's property in order to give a potential buyer viewing your online listing a full view of the exterior of your home.
Using a smartphone to take quick pictures and videos is practical, but the quality of the end results will definitely cost you some points, whereas using aerial photography and video would put you through the roof.
Listed below are just a few of the many benefits of using aerial photography for marketing purposes when selling your home;
The true shape, layout, and overall size of your home is properly and easily captured through the use of the drone used for the aerial photography.
Your true dimensions of the entire property will be laid out.
Blueprints and albums that could be of importance will no longer be needed, considering an aerial shot is all that is needed.
One video can showcase absolutely everything.
There are multiple companies who specialize in aerial photography that are teaming up with real estate agencies and their clients in order to cover both photography and video using drones from the ground.
Overall, aerial photography is quickly becoming more popular as a grand marketing tool used in selling homes.
Using Video Walkthroughs as a Marketing Tool
Considering the majority of potential buyers conduct all of their research online or through their real estate agent, who is more than likely also looking online.
Therefore, having a video walkthrough is one of the smartest things that a seller can do when it comes to utilizing all available marketing tools to sell their home.
In short, video walkthroughs are created through the owner doing a walkthrough of the entire property in which they show everything that you normally would during an open house or general showing.
This gives prospective buyers a view that is more intimate, maximum exposure to the entire property, and will help you to weed out buyers who may waste your time.
Tips for Video Walkthrough Creation
Listed below are some general tips on how to create the perfect video walkthrough as a marketing tool for the purpose of selling your home:
Ensure that all personal items are put away, in a closet, for example, if the property is not completely vacant, or if it's in the process of being vacated.
Ensure that your property has the proper lighting in order to be ready for the camera, which may require you to open up the shades and your windows, but you can experiment to see what works best for every room.
Keep the video under at least 10 minutes long, if it all possible, to ensure that it is more likely to be watched rather than skipped completely.
Start filming within the rooms that are of the greatest asset in the home, such as your newly renovated kitchen, bathroom, or whatever the case may be.
Bring someone who can follow you around and record you showcasing the home and the entire property overall, as it will be difficult to do by yourself, and the video may not come out properly.
Include a view of the street, the front of your home, and the backyard, just to ensure that every aspect of your home is in the video entirely.
For a better video, consult someone who does video editing professionally, unless you have a friend or family member who can do it themselves.
From there, send the video to your real estate agent, if you are working with one, to add it to your listing. If you are managing your listing yourself, then make sure that you add it in a spot where a potential buyer will see it almost instantly.
It also would not hurt to add a couple of pictures as well, but make sure that your video walkthrough of your home for sale can be easily found within your listing.
Video walkthroughs overall are one of the best marketing tools to use, as they will mainly help you to weed out prospective clients who are at risk of wasting your time, and may be too picky.
