What I am about to teach you is the most important lesson in my system — locating buyers to purchase your property.  In this business, finding properties is easy!  Once you establish yourself, you’ll have so many properties coming in that you won’t know what to do with them all. BUT, if you can’t find buyers to purchase your properties, you won’t make a penny!

Many investors find it difficult to find buyers. By ‘difficult,’ I mean they often take six months to find a buyer, or they have to resort to hiring the services of a Realtor. But you are in luck, finding buyers is my specialty; so leave the realtors to the other guys and leave your money in your pocket. Follow me, and finding buyers can be your specialty too! I’m so good at it that other investors come to me, asking if I have any buyers for their properties. I could charge them a fee of $1,500 to $2,500, but instead, I just tell them they owe me a favor (when you treat people well, they are likely to do the same for you).

My three things that sell houses fast are

Exposure, Creative Advertising, and Creative Financing. Lets  put these all together to sell your houses fast.  Make sure you follow my 30 day marketing plan along with every marketing technique to find buyers fast here..

http://www.duncanwierman.com/content/category/lead-generation/hungry-buyers/

PRICING

While we will get into the real secret of finding buyers later in this chapter, we will start with the fundamentals. One of the fundamentals of the fundamentals is pricing.

How do you know where to set the price of your property? Are there any rules you should follow? These are good questions which deserve good answers. The good answer is simple: Set your selling price at fair market value. It doesn’t matter how many buyers you get standing at your door, if your property is substantially overpriced, most of them will back out. Your selling price should correspond with those of the comparables which you and/or your appraiser earlier gathered. Once the buyer discovers that you are not trying to rip him off with too high a price there will be little holding him back from signing on the dotted line. All people want a fair deal. So give them a fair deal, and they will give you some green.

Marketing Advantage

An appraisal can actually assist you in attracting more buyers. When working with a seller, I always explain to them the many benefits of getting an appraisal prior to putting their home on the market. Then, if the appraisal comes in at a price that is in line with our research of the competition, we set the asking price of their home $100 under the amount of the appraisal.

This way, we can advertise their home as being sold below market value, which always increases the amount of buyer traffic coming through. When hiring an appraiser, they will usually ask what the purpose is. Are you doing so for selling purposes or for refinancing purposes?

An appraiser will usually put a higher value on your property if you are simply refinancing. As such, always tell them you are refinancing. You will end up with a higher appraised value and a lot more breathing room to negotiate!  It is well worth taking a few dollars off your price for the additional traffic it brings, as this typically results in a faster sale.

There is another factor you need to remember: Because you will almost always buy your properties at discount prices — you are a savvy investor who buys only distressed property — you have room for negotiation. In other words, if you are in a pinch or for some reason really want or need to sell a house, you can set your selling price below fair market value and still make a good amount of money. If or when you do this, BE SURE TO LET THE POTENTIAL BUYER KNOW. Show them the documentation of the actual comparables. Let them see for themselves what a great deal they’ll be getting. When you do this, I can virtually guarantee that no buyer will back out. You will sell your home, and sell it quickly.

Negotiating Advantage

If a buyer comes through the property and wants to pay less than we’re asking, the appraisal offers solid ground for us to negotiate. Think for a moment about what a buyer does when looking at a property. In fact, imagine a young couple coming through your home. Alongside of them is their father, tagging along to make sure they don’t buy into trouble.

One thing you can count on is that they are going to try to lower your price and make a deal. But, let’s say you’ve done what I suggested and set your price just a few dollars lower than the appraised value.

They tour through your home, checking out the various rooms, looking at the layout, making comments to each other here and there about some of the different features. They ask you a couple of questions about different things in the home and in the neighborhood and make various small talk.

Eventually, though, the tour ends and you come to a stop with them in the living room for  more serious discussion. At this point, if they’re not interested, they will typically say a couple of more things to each other, make a nice comment or two to you and be on their way. If they are interested in your home, however, what will typically happen at this point is the father will start in and begin talking about all of the things that are wrong with your property. All of the reasons your property isn’t worth the price you are asking.

In other words, he will start setting you up for the kill!

But, having prepared yourself in advance, you simply pull out your appraisal and say, “Well, actually, I’ve already had it appraised. In fact, I’m actually asking less, because I want to get a quick sale.”

What is he going to say?

You have pre-empted his strike and stopped him dead in his tracks. Now, the floor will be opened up for realistic negotiations on the part of both parties.

Most buyers aren’t out to wheel and deal, nor are they out to steal your property off from under you for 20% of market value (that’s your job!). They simply want to ensure that  they’re getting a fair value. Show them that they are and you’re well on your way to a sale.

Putting It All Together

When formulating the perfect asking price for your property, remember that there is no perfect price. The value of a property is, ultimately, whatever a buyer will pay. Your job in researching the competition, and in exploring all of the other avenues we have talked about, is to come up with a price that is as close as possible to a buyers’ perceived value of your property. Then, adjusting it for timing.

In this way, you’ll have the best chance of getting your property sold on time, for the least amount of hassle and, most importantly, for the absolute highest price the market will bear!

PROPERTY CONDITION

The other fundamental which bears on selling property is property condition. No one wants to buy or live in a junker. With this in mind, there are a number of techniques that go into making property show well. As most of the properties I buy and sell are seasoned (not new), they usually require degrees of renovation. There are tricks to doing this right. Other than what we covered in “Property Inspection and Valuation,” there are specific techniques you can use to make your house look as attractive as possible, while spending as little money as possible. Let me tell you what some of these are.

Getting that Curb Appeal

What you are shooting for is called ‘curb appeal.’ This means that the property is as attractive as it can be as the buyer pulls up to the curb to look at it. To achieve this there are specific things you do and don’t do. For our purposes — selling houses — we will extend the curb appeal idea to the inside of the home as well. It is nice to get people out of their cars and into the front door, but if they turn right around and march back to their cars, you are still not going to sell houses. The interior also needs to ‘show well.’

Rule #1:
As a real estate investor you do not spend more money than you have to on any renovation. Making the property functional, safe, and appealing does not mean you or your contractor have to go out and purchase the most expensive repair parts on the market. Don’t use tile on a bathroom floor when linoleum will do. Don’t use name brand faucet fixtures when the cheapest you can find will do. Even inexpensive faucets look nice when they are new! One way to easily tell what quality of replacement parts you should use is the general condition of the neighborhood the property is in, as well as the price range of the house. Because I work with lower-to-middle income folk who have rented all their lives, their expectations are not high. Putting top-of-the-line components in their homes would be a waste of money. On the other hand, if you end-up working with middle or high income people who are accustomed to higher quality items in their homes, achieving curb appeal would include using components of a quality equal to the norm of the neighborhood the property is in.

Rule #2:
The house must be as appealing as possible from the curb. This means the landscaping, if there is a front yard, needs tended. Grass should be green and mowed; bushes trimmed; leaves raked; and there should definitely be no debris around (garbage, loose papers, broken swing sets, construction materials, etc.). The back yard, if there is one, is a little less crucial. Because it is usually only accessed from the back door of the house or seen through a back window, it is simply not as important as the front. Even so, it should be clean of debris or clutter; if there is a lawn it should be mowed and green; leaves should be raked, and so forth.

Unless there is new or near new paint on the exterior, the house should be painted, and preferably in a neutral color, such as white or beige. Trim can be almost any color, but stay away from unusual or bright colors (red, pink, bright green, or anything neon). Your aim here is to attract most people, not the rare cookie. Selling houses of unusual colors can be very difficult even if everything else about the property is top notch. So be warned.

There should be no obvious signs of disrepair from the outside. Torn or missing window screens, or broken fences immediately make a bad impression. An easy and inexpensive item you should always replace is the front door knob and lockset. Nothing is more distasteful for your potential buyer than reaching down to open the front door and finding some corroded, dirt encrusted piece of metal to grab onto. Similarly, if the front door is in poor condition, replace it. First impressions last.

Rule #3:

The interior should be tasteful and correspond with the quality of surrounding homes of a similar price. If the home has a distinct entryway/foyer, it should have new or like new flooring. All carpeting should be new or like new. If you replace the carpeting, be sure to use a thick, high quality padding; it gives the impression of expensive carpeting without having to use expensive carpeting. All faucets should be new or like new. Replace any sinks if they show any wear or defects. Replace toilet seats and lids. Linoleum floors in bathrooms and kitchen should be new or like new.

New light fixtures are a big plus. Make sure the windows are clean. The entire place needs fresh paint. All paint should be white and the carpet a light neutral color.

Replacing small, inexpensive items like light switch plates and towel racks go a long way toward improving the appearance of a place.

Repairmen

Your walk-through inspection was completed before you purchased the property. You know exactly what needs fixed to transform the property into marketable condition with high curb-appeal. The question remains: Who should you hire to do the work?

While there is something called “sweat equity,” in which you, the owner, helps increase your equity in the property by doing all or most labor and renovations yourself, this idea does not go along with my program. To make lots of money as a real estate investor you need to buy and sell properties quickly. Doing repairs yourself is a very slow, time consuming process; not to mention — it is too much like work! I do not recommend it. Hiring your repair work done is the only way for an investor to go. So who should you hire? I suggest you work with two types of professionals, handymen and contractors. Each has their place in the renovation business. While contractors can do or hire someone to do all the work your property may need, if you use only contractors you will end-up spending too much money. Contractors are expensive.

The thing to do, then, is find a handyman you trust and who does good work, and hire him to do the majority of renovation on your properties. Tell him that you buy and sell many properties in a year, and that if he does good work for you at a bargain price, you will keep him very busy. They like that. “Busy” equals job security; it means bread on their table. But how do you find a good handyman? Put an ad in your local newspaper, saying that you have a lot of work for a handyman; or, just look for advertising handymen in the “Services for Hire” section of your paper. Either way, once you make contact, interview several. Take each of them on a walk-through of one of your properties. It is important that they walk through the same property. In this way you can determine many important factors: Do you like them? Are you comfortable working with them? What do they tell you needs renovating? What kind of a price quote do they give you? In short, you can compare handymen and decide which one you want to hire. Hint: It is not always the guy who offers the cheapest quote that you want to hire.

Very often ‘cheapest quote’ equals ‘cheapest work.’ Handymen can do most repairs and renovations you may need done. They can usually do interior and exterior painting, drywall repair, minor electrical and plumbing, most carpentry repair, garbage disposals, window screens, linoleum floors, sinks, faucets, toilet repair or replacement, and so on. About the only things handymen should not be expected to do is major electrical, major plumbing, major carpentry, or reroofing. These latter repairs are the domain of licensed contractors.

As for contractors, you can locate a good one to work with by using the method I describe above for handymen. One exception to this is that most contractors will not be  found advertising in papers. Rather, the best way to contact them is through your local Yellow Pages. www.yellowpages.com  or www.angieslist.com

When you come to actually own a property which requires repair, you will not only want to locate a handyman and contractor you can trust, but enter into a repair contract with them so you can all rest comfortably knowing who will repair what, and what those repair costs will total. It is unwise to commission any repair work without a contract. Why? You will know why if you send a contractor in thinking it will cost you $3,000 for his work, but he comes out telling you the house required $7,000 of his labor and materials! Clarity of work parameters and corresponding costs are vital to you if you hope to maintain your calculated profit margin. This being so, two forms of construction contracts are included below for your examination and reference. While the sample contracts are contractor-specific, they can easily be modified to accommodate a handyman; simply duplicate the form, substituting the term “handyman” wherever the word “contractor” appears. DO NOT send someone in to do repairs without a contract.

Agreement Between Owner and Contractor

This agreement is hereby made and entered into this _____ day of

______________, 19______, by and between ________________, of ________________,

hereafter called Owner, and ___________________, of ____________________, hereafter called Contractor.

The said parties, for the considerations hereinafter mentioned, hereby agree to the following:

1. The Contractor agrees to provide all of the material and labor required to perform the following work for:

(Describe work to be Performed)

as shown by the drawing(s) and described in the specifications prepared by ______________________ and provided by the Owner, which are identified by the signatures of the parties to this agreement and which form a part of this agreement.

2. The Owner hereby agrees to pay the Contractor, for the aforesaid materials and labor, the sum of $____________________, in the following manner:

(Describe Method and Timing of Payment)

3. The Contractor agrees that the various portions of the above-described work shall be completed on or before the following dates:

(Insert Dates)

and the entire above-described work shall be completed no later than the ______ day of

_________________, 19______.

4. The Contractor agrees to provide and pay for all materials, tools and equipment required for the prosecution and timely completion of the work. Unless otherwise specified, all materials shall be new and of good quality.

5. In the prosecution of the work, the Contractor shall employ a sufficient number of workers skilled in their trades to suitably perform the work.

6. All changes and deviations in the work ordered by the Owner must be in writing, the contract sum being increased or decreased accordingly by the Contractor. Any claims for increases in the cost of the work must be presented by the Contractor to the Owner in writing, and written approval of the Owner shall be obtained by the Contractor before proceeding with the ordered change or revision.

7. The Owner, Owner’s representative and public authorities shall at all times have access to the work.

8. The Contractor agrees to re-execute any work which does not conform to the drawings and specifications, warrants the work performed, and agrees to remedy any defects resulting, from faulty materials or workmanship which shall become evident during a period of one year after completion of the work.

9. The Owner agrees to maintain full insurance on the above-described work during the progress of the work, in his own name and that of the Contractor.

10. In the event the Contractor is delayed in the prosecution of the work by acts of God, fire, flood or any other unavoidable casualties; or by labor strikes, late delivery of materials; or by neglect of the Owner; the time for completion of the work shall be extended for the same period as the delay occasioned by any of the aforementioned causes.

11. In the event the work is delayed due to neglect of the Contractor, the Contractor agrees to pay the Owner the sum of $_________________ per _______ as liquidated damages until such time as the work is completed.

12. The Contractor agrees to obtain insurance to protect himself against claims for property damage, bodily injury or death due to his performance of this agreement.

13. Neither the Owner nor Contractor shall have the right to assign any rights or interest occurring under this agreement without the written consent of the other, nor shall the Contractor assign any sums due, or to become due, to him under the provisions of this agreement.

14. This agreement shall be interpreted under laws of the State of _______________.

15. Attorney’s fees and court costs shall be paid by the defendant in the event that judgment must be, and is, obtained to enforce this agreement or any breach thereof.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, the parties hereto set their hands and seals the day and year written above.

__________________________ _____________________________

__________________________ _____________________________

THE SECRET TO SELLING PROPERTY

Now that we have the preliminaries — pricing and condition — in order and out of the way, let’s get to the good stuff. What is the secret to finding buyers? What is the secret to having buyers standing in line at your door? Why do I have so much success locating buyers when many agents, brokers, and other investors just can’t get the job done? It’s simple! I get MARKETING

What Is Your Home Marketing Budget?

After you have arrived at an asking price, there is still one very important step left. You must take the time to sit down and calculate what you will get out of the sale of your property, based on that asking price.

That is, how much money will you walk out of closing with?

Once you know this figure, you’ll be able to work backwards and determine how much money you can budget to market and sell your property, without having to invest outside capital.

In order to do that, you need to complete what I call a Marketing Budget Overview.  First, this form calculates what you can expect to get out of a sale, once the standard closing costs, agent sales commissions, etc., have been subtracted out.

Then, it subtracts out the amount of money you need from the sale. Remaining is the amount   of money you have to spend on marketing and advertising, and still break even.  Since you are basing your calculations on the asking price, rather than the actual sale price, this will only provide you with a rough estimate. Even so, it is essential that you know these figures before you put your property on the market. For one thing, this is your last indication of whether or not you should be handling the sale of your property yourself.

Once you’ve determined how much time and money it is likely going to cost you to market  and sell your property, as well as how much your time is worth to you, you might find that hiring an agent would actually cost you less in the long run.

Like it or not, even though you may be selling your property yourself, there will still be a number of expenses involved. If you find yourself unwilling to spend the necessary time and money on marketing to sell your property, than you had better turn the sale over to a real estate agent now and save yourself the time and aggravation.

Without proper marketing, your property is likely to languish on the market for a number of months without any action. If you have the time to sit and wait for a buyer to stumble in, fine. Otherwise, you’re not making a very wise bet.  By completing the Marketing Budget Overview, you will develop a very good idea of what you have to work with, in terms of money and other resources, to get your property on the market and sold.

The Condition Of The Market

There is still one last important thing to consider when pricing your property.  Based on the condition of the market at the time you’re selling your property, you may want to consider offering certain seller concessions to make your property stand out from the rest of the competition.

Many factors can have a negative effect on the real estate market. Factors such as high unemployment, high interest rates, or high inflation. If this is the case, you may want to offer certain concessions to help counteract these conditions.

Such concessions might include:

• Helping a buyer with closing costs.
• Paying points to help the buyer get a lower interest rate or a lower down payment.
• Holding some of the financing.

All of these will contribute to helping more buyers to be able to afford your property, and all should be looked at as possible marketing tactics to help make your property more financially attractive to the buyer market.

You may even want to consider some of these tactics in a good real estate market. As I said before, buyers are usually not as concerned with price as they are with the down payment and monthly payment.

If you can find a way to reduce either of these, you have the best chance of getting  your top sale price.

For instance, there are going to be many buyers who can afford the monthly payment on  your property, but simply can’t afford to make the down payment. You could solve this problem for them very easily by:

• Offering to pay part of their closing costs.
• Offering to pay a couple of points.
• Paying points will allow them to get a lower down payment, lower closing costs, or a lower
• interest rate. This could very easily save them $2,000 to $3,000 or more in up-front costs.

By doing so, the number of buyers who can afford to buy your property could easily double, triple, or even quadruple.

At this point, you may be thinking, “why would I want to give away all that money?” The answer is, you don’t have to!  If you offer to pay $2,000 towards closing costs, for instance, just raise the sale price  $2,000.

You will multiply your number of possible buyers, yet still come out of closing with the same amount of money. This is assuming, of course, that the extra addition to your sale price does not take the total price of the property out of the realm of getting financed.

As noted earlier, a lender will usually not loan out more than the appraised value of a property.  If you’re in a bad market, though, chances are you’ve already had to put your property on the market for less than the appraised value, anyway. In other words, you have room to negotiate.  Ultimately, there are dozens of different concessions you could take advantage of to make your property available to more buyers. All the while, still coming out in the end with what you had planned.

So, step out of the box and think creatively. It will pay off to you in huge dividends in the long run.

 

MYTH:  Frequent Open Houses Are Necessary For  A Fast Sale

Reality: Open Houses Are A Big Waste Of Time!

It’s a beautiful, Saturday afternoon, 75 degrees and sunny. The birds are chirping. Children  are playing. It seems the entire neighborhood is barbecuing or riding their bikes.

And where are you?

You’re in your living room, staring out the window, wondering why nobody is coming to your open house.

Not only is it a beautiful, Saturday afternoon, but it’s the eleventh one in a row that  you’ve wasted, sitting in your property, waiting for a miracle to happen. You’re alone, while half-hearted prospects and nosy neighbors wander through, tracking mud and dirt into every crevice. In for a few minutes, then back out again to enjoy the great outdoors.

Meanwhile, you still have another hour-and-a-half left of your open house. More time to sit and wait for that one-in-a-thousand buyer to walk in and say, “This is it! Where do we sign?”

In reality, things rarely work out that way. In fact, very seldom does an open house actually sell a home.

Why then do real estate agents hold their listings open every weekend? Why do you see them, every Saturday or Sunday, sitting in a vacant home for hours at a time? Why would anyone waste a perfectly good weekend sitting in a home, least of all someone else’s, if open houses don’t work?

The main reason, ironically, is to keep their clients happy. The majority of sellers mistakenly believe that open houses sell homes. Therefore, agents feel compelled to hold  them just to satisfy their sellers.

In other words, it’s a complete waste of everyone’s time! Particularly, the poor soul  sitting there waiting for a buyer to walk through the door. Most agents know it. Yet, most agents continue to do it!

At the most, open houses are a hopeful way for real estate agents to pick up new clients. Their hope is that a potential buyer, walking through the home, will say “hey, we need your  help!” That rarely happens, either.

At the most, open houses are nothing more than a waste of time, perpetuated by agents who simply do what they see other agents doing. And, sellers mistakenly equating open houses with sales, simply because no one has ever told them any better.

For the person selling their own property, it’s a real waste. After all, you’re not looking for  new clients. And, you surely have better things to do with your time than camping out,  waiting for the perfect buyer to come stumbling in. What to do, then?

Home Tour: The Wave Of The Future

One of the chief reasons for the fact that very few homes are sold by open houses is that very few serious buyers are willing to go through open houses in the first place. Remember the picture we painted earlier of what the public thinks about real estate agents?  Take that picture of the typical agent and put them into an open house. What do you get?

An ambush!

That’s exactly what most buyers think of open houses. They’re a chance for a real estate agent, in a home all alone, to ambush a poor, helpless, prospective buyer coming in the door.  After all, they’ve got the buyer all alone in this nice home that just happens to be for sale.

What’s left to do? Sell! Sell! Sell!

“But, I’m selling my property myself,” you say. “I’m not using an agent.”

It doesn’t matter. A buyer doesn’t know one way or another what they’re going to run into at an open house, whether listed with an agent or not.  A homeowner can push a sale just as much as a real estate agent. In many cases, worse!  Consequently, a serious buyer will rarely walk into a home and say, “where do I sign?”

Another reason for the lack of productivity of an open house is the total absence of emotion of the potential buyer. If there is one thing to keep in mind when selling a property, it is this:

A property does not sell on common sense or logic;  a property sells on emotions!

Emotional excitement is absolutely necessary to a sale. The typical atmosphere of an open house makes it nearly impossible to create any emotional excitement in a potential buyer.  Instead of becoming excited about the potential of the property, they’re far more worried about the salesperson following them around trying to sell them. Their goal is to get out of there as quickly as possible! Thus, no emotion, no sale. So, how do you create emotion in a buyer?

Creating Emotional Power

Imagine if, instead of an open house, you’ve put together a small ‘event’ called a Home Tour.  At this Home Tour, there are several buyers present. All at the same time. They all start out  being skeptical. But, when they get there they find lots of other buyers touring through your  property.

In this instance, you have an entirely different psychology going on. They’re no longer  worried about a salesperson following them around, trying to sell them. Instead, they’re wondering what they missed!  Now, they ‘re focused solely on the property itself and the fact that there are several other couples going through the property at the same time.  Does this create an emotional atmosphere? You bet!

Have you ever been to an auction? What happens at an auction? Rather than one person, wandering through a retail store alone, there are dozens of buyers bidding on the same item.  Instead of one person wanting it, a dozen want it! Once the bidding starts, so does the  emotional frenzy.

One person places a bid. Then another bids a little higher. Then another a little higher. Soon, a dozen people are fighting over the same item, each bidding more than they would have paid were the same item sitting on a shelf in a store. All because of emotions!

They get wrapped up in the emotional cloud of the auction, and of the bidding process itself.  They loose their minds. Sooner or later, somebody has to win. Meanwhile, everyone there wants to be that winner!

So, they continue on, further and further. Bidding higher and higher. Eventually, someone wins. Then, the next bidding starts!  Now, take this situation, this roomful of people, and place them in a property that you have for sale. Are you getting the picture?

That’s the power of the Home Tour!

The Home Tour is a sort of auction for your property. The more people you can attract, at  the same time, the greater the excitement. The more buyers viewing your property, at the same time, the more the power of emotions will take over and create an effect where the home sells itself!

This seldom occurs in a traditional open house. One house. One buyer. One  salesperson.

The atmosphere this creates is not exactly conducive to emotional excitement. At a Home Tour, with several interested prospects in a property at the same time, everyone wants it a little more. The fact that there are a lot of people in the home makes the buyers who do like it even more interested and motivated to act.

It also makes them far less likely to quibble about your asking price, especially if you have an appraisal to justify it.

You also give them an informative flyer that puts your property in the best possible light. Information they need to know about the property, as well as information on the very best home loans available.

Suddenly, they’re not only emotionally attached to the property, and the lifestyle it will give them, but now you’ve shown them in black and white how affordable your property is.

If a buyer likes your home, even a little, they can’t help but be influenced by the  powerful emotions of the other buyers. Potential buyers overhear the positive, exciting comments of other potential buyers. Their emotions play off of others’ emotions. They become more motivated. The home sells itself!

Let’s not forget the hidden benefit to having a Home Tour, rather than a traditional open house. Time and freedom! While everyone in neighborhood is at the park, riding their bikes, or out at the lake, where are you? The same place!

Enjoying your beautiful, Saturday afternoon just like everyone else. Once your Home Tour is over (after a few minutes, rather than 4 hours), you’re back out enjoying your weekend just as you should be.

Also, with a regularly scheduled Home Tour, there is no need for dozens of individual showings. This will save you a remarkable amount of time in itself.  Rather than weekly, four-hour long open houses, along with several private showings spread throughout the week, you take care of it all in one shot.

The only time you will have to hold a private showing is when someone attending a Home Tour requests it. Then, you can schedule a private showing with them and give them as much time as they need to go through your property. All the while, knowing that you are with a sincere prospect.

Contrast this with an open house where you sit and stare out the window for hours at a time, while half-hearted people parade through your property. Or, to a private showing where people trample through your property out of pure curiosity.

“So, do you like it?” you ask.

“No, we can’t really afford it. We were just curious what a home in this price range would look  like,” they say. “Thanks, anyway.”

Hidden Advantage To A Home Tour

We’ve all heard the grueling stories of real estate agents that were mugged, robbed, and beaten in vacant homes, where they were supposed to be meeting with a potential buyer. No one likes to think about it, but the danger is ever present. With a Home Tour, this danger is greatly reduced, because a homeowner is far less likely to find themselves in a position of harm.

Instead of one buyer, there are dozens. Instead of being a potential target, you’re the last place a criminal would want to pay a visit to. They want an easier target.  Once a potential buyer comes back for a second visit, you’ll be all but guaranteed of the fact that they are legitimate. After all, criminals don’t typically schedule their crimes  with you in advance.  Besides, by the time of the private showing, you’ll have had time to check them out and verify  their identify. If it turns out they’re not who they say they are, you can have the police waiting for them.

Protecting Your Assets!

As unfortunate as it is, you must also give some serious thought to protecting yourself from the likes of frivolous lawsuits. Meaning, you must do everything you can to prevent the possibility of personal injury to someone touring through your property. Like it or not, once an individual sets foot on your property, they’re your responsibility.

So, prior to your Home Tour, it’s a good idea to do one last, thorough check to ensure that there are no hidden safety risks. The more preparation you do, the less likely that you will face what every property owner dreads – a personal lawsuit!

Myth : You Must Be A Slave To Your Phone

Reality: You Shouldn’t Talk To A Prospect Until They’re At Your Door!

As important as the condition and price of your property are to the sales process, neither will matter if potential buyers don’t know your home is for sale. That’s where marketing comes in. If your property is in good condition and fairly priced, somewhere out there is one buyer, if not several, who would buy your property if only they knew about it.

Up to this point, you’ve taken steps to ensure that your property is in good condition and optimally priced. Now, it’s time to let buyers know about it.  In fact, the purpose of marketing is just that. Letting buyers know that your property is for sale. The purpose of marketing is not to sell your property, but to get buyers to come to it with the mindset that they may buy it.

Once they’re touring it, your property has to sell itself.

The majority of homeowners, and real estate agents alike, attempt to sell the property in their marketing material. You cannot sell a property in an ad, a flyer, or any other marketing medium. A buyer must be in the property and be sold emotionally first.

This is so important that I’ll say it again:

The purpose of marketing is to get prospective buyers to your property to tour it!

That‘s all it’s good for and it’s the only purpose for which you should market.

A Marketing System Is Essential

In order to obtain the best results with your marketing, you must use a system. Very few real estate agents / investor, by comparison, have any marketing system at all in place for marketing a property effectively.  They may have a few boilerplate ads they’ll run, or brochures they’ll hand out, or promise to hold an open house every weekend.

But, are they really putting a system to work for you to sell your property? Or, are they just winging it, hoping a buyer will grab the bait? With thousands of dollars on the line, you can’t afford to wing it.

In it’s simplest terms, a system is a very specific way of doing something. A way that has been tested and proven and is used over and over again to produce the same result. The true test of a system is whether it allows ordinary people to produce extraordinary results. In other words, can that agent hand their marketing system over to another, who may or may not be experienced, and have them produce the same results?

If not, it isn’t a system. Without a system, there is nothing on which to base the likelihood of  future success and the outcome will always be unpredictable. Without a system, you’re taking a gamble every time you step up to the plate.

I wouldn’t bet a single hand on that agents’ ability to get the same results they may have gotten last month, or even last week. After all, why were they successful with the last home they sold? Or any of the homes they’ve sold for that matter?

Was it dumb luck? Were they simply in the right place at the right time? Was the market hot? Do they under price all of their listings? After all, if a home is priced low in a great market, even terrible marketing will get it sold.

The Importance Of An Effective System

An effective system produces near identical results on a regular and consistent basis, no matter who’s using it. It greatly lowers the chance of the user of that system making a mistake, whether experienced or not.

How else do you explain how a staff of teenagers can run a local fast food restaurant the same as its sister restaurant in the next town? It’s because the managers of both use an identical system.

They have every single procedure necessary for its successful operation planned through  and written down, so that the same result is produced over and over again. Flipping burgers, ordering supplies, cleaning the bathrooms. It’s all written down, step-by-step, so that anyone can do it.

Just as a system is important to their success, so a system is important to the successful marketing of your property. Without it, you’re a flag blowing in the wind. Without it, you’re always in reaction, rather than taking action.

A system takes you by the hand and tells you what to do every step of the way. Not because you can’t figure out on your own what to do, but because you don’t have time to. You can’t afford to throw away the time and money necessary to develop a plan as you go. That is why you have my course, to help you put your system in place!

There IS A Better Way

This system begins with putting in place an automatic assistant. One that will work for you twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, giving the same information over and over again at all times of the day and night for next to nothing www.RealEstateTeleCenter.com Listen to the voice artist I had record on the telecenter number   (888) 314-0736 for you to use!

The typical seller spends far too much time on the phone speaking with prospective buyers.  Not only is this a complete waste of your time, but it’s actually detrimental to what you’re trying to accomplish. You shouldn’t even be speaking with your prospects until they’re at your front door, waiting to get in for your scheduled Home Tour.

By then, they should know everything they need to know about your property, short of actually seeing it. All without ever having talked to you.

How?

With the automated hotline that you’re going to provide for them. You’re going to put the simplest of technology to work to handle and screen all of your prospective buyers for you, so you don’t have to!

First, let’s listen in on a typical sales call:

You: Hello.

Buyer: Hi, I was calling about the home for sale in the paper.

You: Yes.

Buyer: Um, how many bedrooms does it have?

You: Three.

Buyer: Okay, how many bathrooms?

You: Two.

Buyer: What about a basement? Does it have a basement?

You: Yes. It’s partially finished.

Buyer: How big is the yard? Is it fenced?

You: It’s about half an acre and the back yard is fenced in.

Buyer: Okay. I see in the paper that you’re asking $129,900?

You: That’s right.

Buyer: Is the price negotiable?

You: Well, it depends. Make me an offer.

Buyer: Okay, thank you very much.

You: Would you like to come see it?

Buyer: No. We’re just seeing what’s out there right now. Thanks.

Now, what have you accomplished with this phone call? That’s right, absolutely nothing!

Meanwhile, your dinner is getting cold and another call is coming in.

You: Hello.

Buyer: Hi, I was calling about the home for sale in the paper.

You: Yes.

Buyer: Um, how many bedrooms does it have…

Sound familiar?

Meanwhile, by the time you’re done with this call, your dinner has taken on a mind of its own. You’ve also missed the first 10 minutes of that movie that you’ve been waiting all week to see.

All that and you’re no closer to a sale than you were after the last 20 calls!  “There has to be a better way,” you say to yourself. “Maybe I should’ve just called a real estate agent.”

Putting Your Robot Assistant To Work

There is a better way. With an automated hotline in place, you won’t have to answer all of your sales calls. Your hotline will answer them for you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Your automated hotline will save you an immense amount of time, because it will screen your calls for you without any time involvement on your part. What’s more, it will automatically set up the appointments for you.

Multiply this time savings by a number of different properties (if you have multiple  properties for sale or rent at the same time) and the time savings from this one component of your marketing system alone is incalculable.

You won’t need to spend hours each week giving out the same basic information over and over and over again. You won’t be answering calls or returning messages at 9:30pm, or during dinner, or while you’re reading your child a bedtime story.

In other words, no interruptions!

Besides, are you 100% accessible all the time? Of course not! What about those prospects looking through the paper at 3am? Not everyone works 9am-5pm, you know?  What about those calls coming in while you’re at work? How are you going to answer them?  With an answering machine?

The problem with an answering machine is that buyers who get it may not leave a message and may not ever call back. The only result of this is lost calls and wasted money!

Your automated hotline works for you constantly, without interruption. It answers your calls and delivers your message at all hours of the day and night. What’s more, you’ll get far more calls through your marketing efforts, because prospects can call 24 hours a day for information.

With more people calling and hearing the features and benefits of your property, your property receives more activity. More activity means more showings. More showings mean a quicker sale!

In addition, your hotline provides you with the added benefit of increased privacy and security. Thanks to your hotline, you won’t have to risk giving out your home phone number. Plastering your home phone number all over the city is just asking for trouble. You’re just inviting criminals to call you and stake out your property. After all, you’ve given them a reason to call and ask questions.

This is even worse if you’re selling the property you’re currently living in, because they have your address and your phone number!

The Basics Of An Automated Hotline

So, just what is an automated hotline?   Simply put, it’s a message left on a voice mail system that provides a prospective buyer a   small handful of juicy details about your property, and pushes just enough of the right  emotional buttons in them, that they’re motivated to come out and see it.

An automated hotline is not simply an answering machine. It is instead a voice mail system that is dedicated entirely to answering your sales calls. It is entirely separate from your  personal phone and has its own dedicated phone number.

Your hotline does all the work for you, but costs virtually nothing to operate. It gives your message to dozens of buyers, then motivates the sincere, interested ones to come out and  tour your property – automatically!

When a prospect calls your hotline, they listen to lots of information about your property and its features. All given in a logical and progressive manner.

They also get a detailed description of the property, which stimulates their emotions and gets them to picture themselves living in the property, making them want to see it even more. Then, they hear how they can purchase the property for a lot less money than they ever thought possible. They begin to realize, “Hey, we can afford this. We don’t need to save up anymore money. We can buy it now!”

Suddenly, they really want to see your property, because now they’ve learned that they may actually be able to afford it.  Then, they hear about how they can go through the home at something called a Home Tour.  There will be lots of other people and they’ll be able to go through the property and see for themselves if it’s as great as it sounds.

Meanwhile, they won’t have to give their name to an agent, or sign a guest book, or even make an appointment. So, if the property isn’t what they’re looking for, they can get back out quickly without having to worry about being chased down.

In other words, they have nothing to lose by coming out to see your property! With your hotline, you can stimulate your prospective buyers’ imagination just enough to make them want to learn more by coming out and touring your property. Your hotline creates interest, desire, and action!

At the same time, you don’t risk giving out too much information and losing the prospect. You also avoid getting caught in a bad mood by a potential buyer. After all, are you always in an upbeat and jovial mood?

If you answer a sales call by snapping at the prospect on the other end of the line, do you think you’re on your way to a sale? More likely, all you’ll be doing is confirming their  suspicion that what was said in the ad is too good to be true!

By using an automated hotline to feed your sales message to prospective buyers, you know that the information will always be given in a consistent, logical format. You also know that the message they hear will always be pleasant and full of emotional appeal. You record your message once and you’re finished.

Sure, you may have to record your message 20 times before you get it just right. But, would you rather practice on voice mail or on a real, live prospect?

When a prospective buyer is listening to your hotline message, it’s very important that you come across to them as honest and sincere. You do not want to sound like your recording a message.

When recording your hotline, relax and focus on giving out your message as if the prospect were standing right there in the same room with you. As if you were having a normal, everyday conversation with someone face-to-face. Your recorded hotline message is your prospective buyers’ first impression of you and, more importantly, of your property. Concentrate on making it count!

Your Automated Hotline In Action

We’ve already seen what happens when you handle all of your sales calls personally. Now, let’s look at an example of handling a sales call with your automated hotline. Since you don’t have to answer the phone, all you’re ever going to hear during this sales call is peace and quiet! Do you hear it?

Meanwhile, behind the scenes, let’s see what your prospective buyer is listening  to:

“In the Brentwood area, on a quiet tree-lined street marked with beautiful homes, 2456 Lakeshore Drive is a lovely, 3 bedroom family home with a spacious and beautifully decorated interior. This lovely home can be yours for only $2,900 down.”

“Upstairs you will find 2 large bedrooms, each complete with their own walk-in closet.” “On the ground floor is a beautiful and spacious master bedroom suite; a newly remodeled bathroom; family room with fireplace; large, open living room for formal entertaining; and lovely country kitchen with streams of natural flowing light.”

“On the lower level is a full basement with separate laundry area.” “This terrific home is remarkable in every aspect. From the exquisite, hardwood floors and new carpeting to the charming accent lighting throughout, this home is perfect for entertaining or just for everyday living.”

“Sliding glass doors lead out to a deck and large, fenced-in rear yard, perfect for children and pets to play in safety and comfort. A 2-car attached garage provides extra convenience and safety.”

“This home has been appraised for $145,000, but it’s currently available for only $143,900. With just $2,900 down, you can own this great family home for only $580 per month at  7.5% APR for 30 years.”

“2456 Lakeshore Drive will be open for your viewing, without an appointment, at 6:00 p.m. sharp on Thursday and again at 3 p.m. sharp on Sunday on our Home Tour. There will be lots of other people touring through the home at this time and you will be able to tour  through in a short period of time, without obligation.”

“Lakeshore Drive runs east off Dickinson, one block north of Jefferson. Thank you and we look forward to seeing you on the tour.”

Now, after listening to this message, interested prospects will show up at your Home Tour. At that point, your property has to sell itself.

Up to that point, however, you’ve done your job of marketing and you’ve done it well. With an automated hotline, you’ll receive much better results than the standard sales call could ever give you.

What’s happening, in addition to what we talked about earlier, is that your hotline is positioning you. Your property, and the loan, sound so good they’ll often come right out without even looking at other homes.

They’re often not even aware that there are other properties out there for a similar price,available for similar loan terms. Your hotline is positioning you as the only game in town!

In addition to that, there is a very large segment of buyers who want to buy, and are qualified to buy, but aren’t looking at homes because they don’t know they’re qualified. These people would swarm to your property if only they knew.

Is your hotline going to guarantee that all callers come out to your Home Tour? No, but you don’t want to hear from all of them, anyway.

Why waste your time with insincere prospects?

Some will hang up. Some won’t respond. But, the sincere prospects will respond by coming out to see your property. Those are the prospects you want!

Six Steps To An Effective Hotline Message

There are six steps to writing an effective hotline message that will drive prospective buyers through your door.

#1 – Sell the immediate neighborhood and street. Describe it as beautifully or as elegantly as you can, depending on the price range of properties in the surrounding neighborhood.

“In the Brentwood area, on a quiet tree-lined street marked with beautiful homes…”

#2 – Provide  one or two key features of the property. You want to immediately grab the attention of the listener and begin to build their interest in the property. Make sure you include emotional features, rather than just bland features alone. Otherwise, you risk quickly losing their interest. Then, follow this by telling them how affordable the property is.

“…2456 Lakeshore Drive is a lovely, 3 bedroom family home with a spacious and beautifully decorated interior. This lovely home can be yours for only $2,900 down…”

The next two steps come from the words of a great copywriter who said, “sell the sizzle, not the steak!”

In other words, people aren’t interested in a piece of meat. They’re interested in the warm, tender texture of the steak in their mouth and its luscious, juicy flavor against their tongue (unless, of course, you’re a vegetarian!). That’s what you want to sell.

In the case of your hotline, you want to do both. First, you want to give them some of the general features of the property (but not all!). Then, you want to give them some of the emotional features, as well.

The emotional features are what will cause them to leave the comfort of their home to come out and see your property.

#3 – Sell the steak. Describe the property by taking them on a brief tour in their mind. A sort of virtual tour.  You want them to form a picture in their mind, by describing the main features in a logical and progressive order, as if they were physically touring the property in person. Begin upstairs and work your way down.

“…Upstairs you will find 2 large bedrooms, each complete with their own walk-in closet…”

“…On the ground floor is a beautiful and spacious master bedroom suite; a newly remodeled bathroom; family room with fireplace; large, open living room for formal entertaining; and lovely country kitchen with streams of natural flowing light…”

“…On the lower level is a full basement with separate laundry area…”

#4 – Sell the sizzle. Describe the property with emotionally strong features to build their desire to see it and own it. You want to give them an emotional feeling for it, by  describing things like “the spacious rooms” or the “streaming natural light, bringing the outdoors in”. Then, move to the outside and describe it.

“…This terrific home is remarkable in every aspect. From the exquisite, hardwood

floors and new carpeting to the charming accent lighting throughout, this home is

perfect for entertaining or just for everyday living…”

“…Sliding glass doors lead out to a deck and large, fenced-in rear yard, perfect for

children and pets to play in safety and comfort. A 2-car attached garage provides

extra convenience and safety…”

#5 – Tell them how they can own it! Reinforce in their mind how affordable it is, by providing them with the information on the best loan your lender has been able to track  down for you.

“…This home has been appraised for $145,000, but it’s currently available for only $143,900. With just $2,900 down, you can own this great family home for only $580 per month at 7.5% APR for 30 years…”

At this point, you must also tell them the finer details of the loan program, as I’ve included above. This is due to a federal law regarding advertising referred to as ‘Regulation Z’. This law requires that any time you include any type of loan repayment information in an advertisement (your hotline is an advertisement), you must include all of the repayment information.  In other words, any time you include refer to the monthly payment, interest rate, or length of term in an advertisement, you must also include all three. It is a rather fuzzy law, for which everyone seems to have their own interpretation, but the general consensus is that you should include all of them to be safe. Truth is, laws are always fuzzy and open for interpretation.

For instance, it is believed that the down payment amount is not considered to be a triggering term, so long as you are not a regular creditor selling more than five homes per year.  Therefore, if you include the down payment in an advertisement, you do not have to include any of the other three triggering terms.

My advice if you are really interested? Ask your attorney. For purposes of writing your hotline and other advertisements, note that the ‘per month’ figure used is principal and  interest only. Other items that are generally tacked on to a mortgage payment, such as taxes and insurance, do not need to be included. Make sure your lender is aware of this when they provide you with the information.

#6 – Invite them to come out and see it! Describe your Home Tour and provide them with the date and time. If possible, it’s best to have one or two set dates and times, so that you only have to record your message once.

One evening time during the week, and one afternoon time during the weekend, tend to work best. Again, not everyone works the same schedule. You don’t want to exclude people from the opportunity to see your property due to scheduling conflict.

Finally, provide general directions to your property.

“2456 Lakeshore Drive will be open for your viewing, without appointment, at 6:00 p.m. sharp on Thursday and again at 3 p.m. sharp on Sunday on our Home Tour. There will be lots of other people touring through the home at this time and you will be able to tour through in a short period of time, without obligation…”

“…Lakeshore Drive runs east off Dickinson, one block north of Jefferson. Thank you and we look forward to seeing you on the tour…”

With your hotline in place, and your Home Tour ready to go, it’s time to put your marketing into action.

Myth: For Sale Signs Are A Dime A Dozen

Reality: Most For Sale Signs Are Completely Ineffective And Wasted!

Properly used, signs are the cheapest and most effective form of marketing you will use to sell your property. Used improperly, you’ll get the same stagnant results as everyone else. Most sellers idea of a sign is a cheap piece of plastic picked up from the local hardware or home store. Don’t make the same mistake. Not only is this an ineffective marketing  tactic, it will actually harm your results.

If you want to sell your property fast, you need to turn your property into a marketing circus! You want your property to scream as loud as possible “I am for sale!”. The problem with traditional signs is they don’t do this. How many real estate signs do you figure the average consumer notices on an average day? Even as an investor, how many do you notice? How many signs stand out from the crowd and really make you look twice?

If a sign doesn’t make a consumer look twice, it might as well be written in the dirt. When it comes down to it, most look the same. A piece of wood or plastic stuck in the ground with a company name and phone number on it.

Oh, and how about those for-sale-by-owner signs? How many of them are different and unique? My guess, when I see them, is they all went and bought them at the same hardware store.  Do you really think that’s going to make your property stand out from the competition? Is  that really how you want to market one of your largest assets? With a $5 piece of junk?

Maybe your thinking to yourself, “I would never do that.” Well, look around you. That’s what everyone else is doing. Are you going to follow in their footsteps? Or do you want to get your property sold fast?  If you’re looking for a fast sale, there is another way. A better way!

The Power Of Circus Signs!

There is nothing like the right combination of signs to attract a mass of low-cost attention to your property. I call my unique and powerful combination of signs Circus Signs! So called, because that’s exactly what their purpose is. To turn your property into a circus!

Circus Signs! consists of a combination of three signs. Each brightly colored and each with its own distinct purpose. With traditional signs, there’s hardly anything unique, or different, about any one sign to make any one sign stand out.  Consumers, in this day and age, are bombarded with thousands upon thousands of advertisements on a daily basis. Yard sales. Garage sales. Houses for sale. Political signs. Window and siding company signs.

The main streets of most cities are nothing but a barrage of metal and neon, all competing for our attention. As a result of this constant parade of advertisements, the average consumer tunes out as much as 95% or more of what they see.  In other words, less than 5 out of every 100 advertisements put before the average consumer actually gets through. The others are simply ignored. Knowing this, it’s no wonder the traditional way is ineffective. A sign that doesn’t get noticed doesn’t sell.

Circus Signs!, however, effectively break through this barrier. Three brightly colored signs, standing side-by-side, can’t help but be noticed! Contrast this with the traditional,  single sign standing alone.  Oh, but three signs? What will the neighbors think? Won’t that look tacky?”

If you’re worried about what the neighbors think, you might as well give up now and call a real estate agent. Normal doesn’t get attention. Typical doesn’t get attention. Different gets attention! Different makes a prospective buyer stop and take notice! Do you really care what the neighbors think? You shouldn’t. Professional marketers care about one thing, and one thing only. Results!

Nothing else matters!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The ‘For Sale’ Sign

The first sign in the Circus Signs! arsenal can be likened to the traditional ‘For Sale’ sign. After all, you need something informing passersby of the purpose for the marketing circus on the front lawn. The only difference is that your For Sale sign won’t be so traditional. Instead of the  traditional ‘For Sale By Owner’, your sign is going to promote your automated hotline. It’s going to let people know how easy it is to call and get more information. They don’t have to call a homeowner. They don’t have to call a salesperson. They don’t even have to call a person. All they have to do is pick up their phone and call a pre-recorded message telling them how lovely and affordable your property is. They don’t have to call on a Monday or a Thursday. They don’t have to call at 7am or 5:30pm. They can call any day they want, 24 hours a day!

The single greatest fear of a buyer is that they’ll call for more information and get sucked into a conversation with a salesperson, whether that’s an agent or the homeowner.  Buyers don’t want to talk to a salesperson. Buyers don’t want to give out personal  information and answer canned questions. They just want to know about the property and what it has to offer them. They just want to satisfy their curiosity and find out whether the property has potential for them.

By advertising a 24-hour number on your sign, the chances of a serious buyer calling will multiply. In fact, they will skyrocket! There’s no longer concern about getting sucked into a game of cat and mouse with a salesperson.   Instead, they know they can call anytime they want, 24 hours a day. They know they’re going to be listening to a pre-recorded message, rather than having to feel uncomfortable answering questions to someone they don’t know.

The ‘By Owner’ Tag Line

Many sellers mistakenly feel that because a sign says ‘By Owner’, a prospective buyer will somehow be more inclined to call. Theoretically, because they will not have to deal with a real estate agent. In reality, they couldn’t care less.

If they like the house, they’ll call. If they don’t, they won’t. In fact, some individuals are more leery about dealing directly with an owner than with a professional. They feel an individual owner is more likely to mislead them in order to get the sale.

My advice? Leave “By Owner” off your For Sale sign. It adds nothing and could actually prove to be a detriment if the prospect seeing it happens to be one who distrusts people  selling their own home.

The signs only purpose is to inform them they can call a 24-hour hotline to get more  information about your property. Just a friendly, pre-recorded message, and that’s it.

What Should Your Sign Say?

The For Sale sign is actually quite simple. In fact, the simpler the better, as long as it gets your point across. The only thing on your sign should be the words “Home Hotline”, along with the phone number. A small amount of graphics is helpful, as well. Graphics help to grab attention, to break the  monotony of words alone, and to make it more pleasing to the eye. While you don’t want to create a masterpiece, it shouldn’t be dull, either.

In addition to the main sign, include a rider with the words “Call 24 Hours” to emphasize the fact that they are calling a hotline that can be accessed 24 hours a day. After all, many buyers don’t understand exactly what a hotline is.  If a buyer is the least bit interested, they can’t help but write down the phone number and call your hotline to get the details. The trick is in getting their attention and getting them interested in the first place.

That’s where your next sign comes in.

The Wow! Sign

The next sign in your Circus Signs!? arsenal is the Wow!’ sign. So named, because that’s the response you want to elicit from someone driving by.

“Wow! How can they do that?!”

The Wow! signs’ purpose is to build so much interest and desire within a potential buyer that they’re drawn to pick up the phone and call, because they can’t help but call. To build the desire within them to the point where they may even become a bit agitated. Where they’re so excited that they can’t wait to get to the phone to get the full details .

That’s the kind of response you want!

How?

Previously , I referred to the marketing power that a lender can bring to your team. This in the sense that they can provide you with valuable information that you can use to draw in prospective buyers. To get them to stand up and take notice. Not only those who are actively seeking a home, but those who would not have otherwise noticed your property for sale. Those not looking because they don’t know they can afford one.

Your job is to shock them out of believing they can’t, and bring them into the glowing reality that a home is within their reach! That’s what the Wow! sign does. It shocks them with unbelievably low finance terms that they had no idea were available. Suddenly, prospects that were unaware they could afford your home are excited and drawn to it.

Your Wow! sign will pull in individuals who aren’t even looking for a home just by virtue of the low financing.

One thing that makes the Wow! sign such an attention-grabber is that it’s handwritten, rather than professionally designed and made. This lends a sort of ‘garage sale’ quality to it.  Signs that are handwritten are few and far between. Therefore, they have a tendency to catch someone’s eye more so than one professionally made. They’re unique and stick out in the crowd.

Different gets attention. Different gets results. Different works! Let’s look at Kathryn for a moment. Kathryn is your typical apartment dweller. Married. Two kids. Two bedroom  apartment. No yard for the kids to play in. She must leave the safety and security of her apartment to do her laundry in the basement, or worse, at a coin laundry. She has to live by her landlord’s rules. Deep down she wants more. Deep down she wants a place she can call home. A place of her own. “Stop dreaming,” she reminds herself, glancing at the  three bedroom homes with fenced yards, as she drives home. “We can’t afford a home of our own.”

Like the typical renter, she continues to fuel the belief that you need a large bank account and a file drawer full of investments to buy a home. “It would set us back $10,000 minimum,” she says to herself. “At least $10,000. You can’t buy a home for less than that. Certainly not with the measly $4,000 we have saved. Meanwhile, she continues to wait. All along, inflation creeping up more than savings. Each year, a home costing more. Each year, a home still remaining a distant dream. A fading one at that.

Suddenly, breaking from her deep thought, she sees three bright, yellow signs up ahead in front of a beautiful, ranch home. One sign catches her attention:  “Wow!”, she says to herself. “$2,900 down? $580 per month? That’s less than we’re paying in rent! How can that be?” Little does she know that it is possible. Not only with this home, but also with dozens of  others. Now she has hope. Now she sees possibility.

Will she call? You bet she will!

Will she come to your Home Tour to get a closer look? You bet!  Have you pulled in another potential buyer? Yes! Better yet, there are dozens more like her. Dozens of potential buyers who never thought they could afford a home. All you have to do is open their eyes!  Will one of them purchase your property? Maybe. Have you increased the chances of selling your property exponentially? Definitely!

One thing to remember in using the Wow! sign is Regulation Z, as mentioned previously. Your signs are advertising and, therefore, all laws of advertising apply.  To keep your sign in compliance with Regulation Z, all you need to do is ensure that all of the terms of the loan are included on your sign. All terms must be a minimum of 1” in size and legible.

Therefore, the down payment and monthly payment are written in large lettering, while the repayment term and APR are written in 1” lettering near the bottom .

The Home Tour Sign

The third sign in the Circus Signs! arsenal is the Home Tour sign. This sign accomplishes two things. First, it helps to create additional excitement and draw more attention. Simply put, two signs are better than one, three signs are better than two.

The Home Tour sign is just one more way of gaining the attention of prospective buyers driving by. They can’t help but see three signs having a party in front of your property!  Second, it serves as an advertisement for your Home Tour. If a passerby is seeing it for the first time, they’ll immediately be put on notice that there is a regularly scheduled tour.

If someone is driving by that has already seen your signs, and may have already called your hotline, it serves as a daily reminder to them of when your next tour is. Oh, I forgot about that”, they think to themselves as they pass by on their daily commute. “Saturday at 2:00 pm. I better write that down before I forget again.”

The wording on your Home Tour sign should be just as simple as that of your For Sale sign.  For example, the words “Home Tour”, along with a small amount of graphics. Again, with a rider, as well. This time the rider simply states the day and time of the next tour.

Have one rider on hand for each day and time for your tour. That way, after each Home Tour, you can simply swap the rider out with that of the next tour day and time.

Sign Design

The design and overall look of your signs isn’t important, so long as they attract attention and are easily read from the road.  However, testing of different color combinations and styles of signs have proven bright, yellow signs with black lettering to be the most successful. Not only are they extremely effective at attracting attention, but they’re also very easy to read.

Many real estate companies concern themselves so much over whether their signs look “elegant” and “sophisticated” that you can’t even read them. In some cases, you can’t even tell the home is for sale.  In reality, the readability of your sign, as well as the message it sends, is much more important than these things.

Ultimately, your signs’ only purpose is to get potential buyers to pick up the phone  and call your hotline. It’s not to be elegant and sophisticated. If it doesn’t do this, it’s a waste of time and money. After all is said and done, your collection of Circus Signs!? will probably cost you in the neighborhood of $150-$250, depending on where you purchase them.  This may seem like a lot to spend when you can buy a piece of plastic for $5, but it’s well worth the investment. Especially, if you’re a serious investor. After all, you can use them over and over again.

Your signs will work for you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They’ll never complain for a raise or a coffee break. When selling a sizeable investment, spending a couple hundred dollars on signs is small change.  As I said earlier, signs are one of the cheapest forms of marketing you can use to sell your property. Yet, they are the most effective of any marketing effort you could ever put forth. It only makes sense to get the best, and most effective, use possible from them.

One Last Note

Many communities and local governments have passed restrictions on the look and placement of signs. Community associations, such as condominiums, typically have their own rules and regulations regarding signs. The majority of them are very strict as to when and where you can place them. Some communities forbid them, altogether.

As such, it’s a good idea to check local regulations for any do’s and don’ts, prior to investing in signs. Especially, if your property is located in a neighborhood or community governed by a homeowners’ association.

Myth: In Advertising, More Is Always Better

Reality: There Is No Quicker Way To Lose Prospects And Waste Money!

One of the most important tools you’ll use in marketing your property is the  online classified ad. Classified ads are an extremely cost-effective way of getting the word out to a vast audience of buyers. Consequently, ads are a favorite among real estate agents.

Most ads people use, however, are completely ineffective!

Just as with their use of open houses and signs, the advertising techniques used by the typical agent all boil down to looking good and pleasing their seller. One thing they’re not focused on is getting results. If you look for a home in the average daily newspaper, you’re bombarded with hundreds upon hundreds of ads that all look the same. There is no originality. No uniqueness.  Nothing to make any one stand out from the rest of the competition. They all drone on about being a cream puff and being close to shopping. Just what do they mean by cream puff, anyway, and why would anyone want to live in one?

Close to shopping? Who wants to live next to a mall. Maybe back in the days of the horse and buggy, but this is the 21st century! When a buyer reads the garbage that most agents put in tir ads, they just go on to the next ad and never look back.

An Ad Only Has One Purpose

Most agents continue to use the same ineffective ads because they’ve forgotten the purpose of an ad. That purpose is to get buyers to pick up the phone and call. They continue, instead, to try and sell the home in the ad. I’ve got news for you. Selling your home in an ad is impossible! No one is going to call and say, “I just read about your 3 bedroom cream puff with the electric garage door opener. I’ve been looking for a house with an electric garage door opener!

When can we close?”

If you only remember one point from this, remember this:

The purpose of an ad is to get buyers to pick up the phone and call.

That’s it!

The purpose of an ad is not to sell the home. You can’t sell a home in an ad. Buying a home is an emotional process. A buyer has to be in your home before they can make a buying decision.  Your job with marketing is to get potential buyers through your home to look at it. Once they’re in your home, the home has to sell itself. That said, we know that advertisements are a low-cost marketing medium and very effective. Therefore, they are very necessary to include in your bag of marketing tools. In fact, properly used, they can be your secret weapon. But, only if you know where to place them and how to write them.

Ad Placement Strategies

According to the most recent research, close to 75% of home seekers consult the online  classified ad websites first.  The remaining 25% consult home magazines, TV ads, daily shopper papers and other sources.

So, what does this mean for you?

It means that, unless you have an endless marketing budget, the only place you should be advertising is on classified ad websites ! Anywhere else and you’re wasting your  money!

The only exception to this is the recent explosion of FSBO-only shopper magazines that are available almost everywhere, as well as an increasing number of FSBO-only web sites on the Internet. Both of these avenues offer excellent, costeffective places to advertise your property.

It also means that you should avoid display advertising like the plague! The only purpose for display advertising is that of pumping up your ego. In fact, display advertising is a complete waste of money when it comes to selling real estate. Not only are classified ads much less expensive, but they are more effective. You’ll be far better off leaving the ego-pumping tactics to your local real estate agent!  That said, let’s look at how to write effective ads that get results.

Making Ads Your Secret Weapon

The most effective marketing on the planet is created and written according to a specific formula called AIDA.   AIDA is the formula of champion copywriters. Without it, your ads, flyers, brochures, and other marketing material will flop. Let’s review the AIDA formula.

A = Attention. Your ad must first be noticed. If your ad isn’t, in some way, different from the crowd of ads around it, readers will just fly right on past. You will never catch their attention. It doesn’t matter what you put in your ad past the first word if they don’t stop to look at it. You’ve got to find a way to flag them down and make them stop and read.

I = Interest. Once you have their attention, your ad must immediately build interest. You have to immediately catch their eye with a strong benefit to make them want to continue reading your ad.

D = Desire. At this point, your ad copy must create a strong desire within the buyer to learn more about your property and everything it has to offer.

A = Action. The whole purpose of building desire within a buyer is to lead them to action. In this case, to motivate the buyer to pick up the phone and call your automated hotline. To illustrate, let’s compare two ads. First, a traditional ad that hasn’t used AIDA as a guideline:

New listing! 3 bedroom cream puff! 1,217 sq.ft. Large kitchen, basement, dbl closets, nice yard with 2-car tool time garage. Perfect for the mechanic. A must see. This one will go fast! $98,800. 555-2354

Now, an ad using the principles of AIDA:

BRENTWOOD – Lovely 3 bdrm family home. Quiet street, fenced yard, fireplace. Only $2,900 down. Call 24 hrs. 555-2354

Which ad would you want to call first?

The first ad has absolutely no emotional bearing at all. New listing? Who cares! Double closets? Again, who cares! If a reader can say “who cares?” to anything in your ad, get rid of it. Do you really think a buyer runs around saying, “I only want a home with double closets. If it doesn’t have double closets, I don’t want it!”

The second ad, on the other hand, draws the reader into the ad and gets them to want to learn more. Who wouldn’t want to learn more about a “lovely 3 bedroom” on a “quiet street” with a “fenced yard”?

Oh, and it’s only $2,900 down when most people think they need $10,000 for a down payment! With a 24 hour message to call for more information, who wouldn’t call? Even if just to satisfy their curiosity?

Once they call, you’ve got them! All of a sudden, you’ve opened up a whole new market to your property. A market that never would have shown itself had you not educated them otherwise.

With traditional marketing, the only people calling on your ad will be people who actually think they can afford your property. In fact, because of the information in this ad, you’ll probably get anywhere from a 200%- 400% higher response to your marketing efforts. Do you think that will help you to sell your property faster? You bet!

Besides, the more effective ad actually takes up less space, thereby saving you money, as well.

Dissecting An Ad That Works

The best way to learn how to write an effective advertisement is to do it. So, let’s take an ad that works and dissect it to determine why it works.

How To Draw Attention To Your Ad

The first thing an effective ad does is catch the readers’ attention. When it comes to advertising a home, this is best accomplished by putting the area first:

BRENTWOOD – Lovely 3 bdrm family home. Quiet street, fenced yard, fireplace. only $2,900 down. Call 24 hrs. 555-2354

When looking at ads, a buyer is scanning and eliminating. In order to get the number of calls they have to make down to a manageable number, they’re eliminating as many ads as possible as they go through the paper.

Any ads that do not appear to meet their criteria will be skipped. The first criteria they use in eliminating ads is the area in which the home is located. So, if a buyer is looking for a home in the Brentwood area, their brain will automatically stop them at all ads that have Brentwood in them. This is all due to an important system in our brain called the Reticular Activating System.  This system serves to help our conscious mind eliminate most of the garbage that gets thrown at us on a daily basis. Thanks to this system, anything we focus our attention on, we tend to get more of.

Have you ever noticed after buying an item, such as a new car, that you start seeing the same item everywhere? The same forces are at work when a buyer is scanning the newspaper for ads to call on. As they’re reading through the ads, their brain is looking for the word “Brentwood”. Anytime it sees this word, it stops. Otherwise, it just keeps on going. As soon as they see that an ad meets this first criteria, they stop scanning and begin reading it. Your first step has been accomplished!

Build Interest In Your Ad

Now that you have their attention, you have to immediately gain their interest:

BRENTWOOD – Lovely 3 bdrm family home. Quiet street, fenced yard, fireplace. Only $2,900 down. Call 24 hrs. 555-2354 www.EasyBuyAHome.com

The most effective way to accomplish this is by saying something about your property in a way that pulls a buyer in emotionally. “Lovely 3 bedroom” or “gorgeous family home” or

“beautiful executive home”.

You want to use a phrase that will appeal to the readers’ emotions enough to make them want to read further.

“New listing” and “3 bedroom cream puff” are not the most effective way to appeal to a readers’ emotions. Do these statements stir up your emotions and make you want to read on?

Build Desire Within Your Reader

Next, your ad copy must build desire within the reader to learn even more about your property:

BRENTWOOD – Lovely 3 bdrm family home. Quiet street, fenced yard, fireplace. Only $2,900 down. Call 24 hrs. 555-2354  www.EasyBuyAHome.com

Remember that the whole purpose of your ad is to get them to make a phone call. You want them to pick up the phone and call your automated hotline. The only way that they’re going to do this is if you build up so much desire within them that they just have to call and find out more.

When it comes to writing the desire copy of your ad, you’ve got to know what a buyer wants. To do this, you have to look at your property from the viewpoint of the buyer. Don’t even think about starting to write an ad unless you can visualize your buyer and the benefits of your home that you think would be most important to them. You can list features until you run out of ink, but all you accomplish is giving out too much information. The reader eliminates the ad because of one thing they “think” they don’t want, and the possibility of a phone call is gone.

The time for telling a buyer all of the features is when they’re in your home viewing it. That’s when the buying decision is being made. At that point, if they find out about a feature they “think” they don’t like, other positive features they see just may be enough to overrule that one negative feature. They may decide they can live with it.

Things like double closets, new roof, new furnace, and new paint are all features that do not appeal to the emotions of a buyer. They don’t create any feeling in a buyer. They don’t createa craving desire to know more.

Features alone will not cause a buyer to respond to your ad. Emotional buttons, however, create desire. These are words that grab hold of a readers’ emotions and stir them up. Unless you hit an emotional button (preferably several) they’ll skip right over your ad and you’ve lost them. All homes sell on emotion. Features may add value to a home, but you first have to satisfy the emotional wants of a buyer.

Great marketing is a subconscious emotional appeal. Very often, a reader does not consciously know why an ad sounds good to them. It just feels good to them. And it feels good because your marketing has triggered an emotional button

“1217 sq.ft.” and “double closets” do nothing to trigger emotional buttons. Neither does “nice yard” or “tool time garage”. Things like “quiet street” or “fenced yard” or “fireplace” all contribute to pushing a buyers’ emotional buttons. Who wouldn’t want to live on a quiet street? Or have a fenced yard for their kids to play safely in? Or curl up by the fireplace on a cold, winter night? Words like these make a buyer feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Words that trigger these emotions include:

• Privacy
• fenced yard
• French doors or sliding glass doors
• Fireplace Den
• Family room
• Master bedroom suite
• Quiet street
• Tree-lined street
• Trees
• Wooded
• Spacious
• 2 baths (anything more than one)
• New kitchen
• New bathroom
• Private deck or deck
• Vaulted ceiling
• Skylight
• Executive
• Elegant
• Luxury
• Private

You don’t have to fill a huge ad with a bunch of these words. Just two or three emotional words that best describe your property are enough to hook a reader. In fact, the shorter the ad, the better.  Again, you don’t want to give out too much information or you risk turning off the prospect and being eliminated.

In addition to stimulating their emotions, there is still one more important thing to include to get desire burning within your reader. This is the money factor. You have to talk to their pocketbooks by showing them how affordable your property is:

BRENTWOOD – Lovely 3 bdrm family home. Quiet street, fenced yard, fireplace. Only $2,900 down. Call 24 hrs. 555-2354 www.EasyBuyAHome.com

Remember the ad we talked about > Many people who are looking for a home, and many who aren’t actively looking, believe they need a minimum of 20% for a down payment. When they see a “lovely 3 bedroom” on a “quiet street” for only $2,900 down, their tail starts to wag.

People, in general, are lazy. You have to give them a really good reason to get up from whatever it is they’re doing and take that next step of calling you. They will not call on your  ad unless they see something of extreme interest to them.

By involving their emotions and their pocketbook, you have a much better chance of getting them to pick up the phone and make that call!

Get Your Reader To Take Action!

Finally, you want your ads to motivate them to take action. In this case, to pick up the phone and make the call to your hotline:

BRENTWOOD – Lovely 3 bdrm family home. Quiet street, fenced yard, fireplace. Only $2,900 down. Call 24 hrs. 555-2354 www.EasyBuyAHome.com

Salespeople are taught that there is really only one good way to get a prospective buyer to

take the action that you want. Ask them to!  In doing so, you also want to make it as easy and non-threatening as possible for them to take action. The easier and more convenient it is for them to do so, the higher the likelihood that they actually will.

What do you think is more likely to get someone to take action?

A phone number to a total stranger? Or a phone number for a 24-hour recorded message that they can call whenever they want? I think we both know the answer to that.

How Many Ads? How Often?

There really is no hard and fast rule regarding the placement of your ads. How many ads? How often? Where? The answer to all of these is it depends. On average, two or three classified ads per week are all you need. I would generally place one ad on Sunday, one on Tuesday or Wednesday, and one on Thursday or Friday. By this time, anyone looking for a home will have seen at least one of the ads, whether they look in the paper sometime during the week or just on the weekend.

Where you place your ads will vary greatly from region to region. Typically, home seekers will look through the largest of the online classified sites covering the area in which they want a home. So Post your house on Craiglist, Kijiji, Backpage, Vflyer, and any other classified sites.  The best thing to do is follow your own intuition. If you were a buyer searching for a home, where would you look?

FSBO Shopper Magazines

Another resource in recent years is the FSBO-only advertising magazine, which I mentioned briefly. These magazines are an excellent resource to use for marketing your property. If  you have any such magazines available in your locale, it is highly recommended that you look into using one or more of them in your marketing program.  These FSBO shoppers are magazines that are similar to the “Homes” magazines that real estate companies advertise in, however, these are magazines that have been created specifically for listing for-sale-by-owner properties.

These magazines vary from location to location, offering a different array of services at different rates. Many offer a number of added bonuses, in addition to advertising in their magazine, such as sales kits, real estate forms, signs, etc. Whatever they offer, one thing is for certain. These magazines work!

If you have these magazines available where your property is located, be sure and contact them for more information on advertising in these highly effective resources. If you do,  follow the same principles of effective advertising that we’ve discussed here.

Leave It Alone!

There is one more important key to successful advertising. It is simply this:

Once you know your ad is working, leave it alone!

Every day, a new round of prospects starts looking through the classified ads for a home. Every day, a new batch of prospective buyers is looking at your ad who have never seen it before. So, when you’re getting lots of calls and you know your ad is working, don’t change it!

Many people make the mistake of changing and rewriting their ads on a constant basis, because they think people will get sick of seeing it. The real reason is that they’re sick of seeing it, so they figure everyone else must be.

In reality, you will get sick of your ads long before anyone else will. In fact, due to the new round of buyers looking in the paper every day, you’re the only one who will ever have time to get sick of it.

So, create an ad that works and leave it alone!

Myth You Must Sell, Sell, Sell!

Reality: With Effective Marketing, You Don’t Have To Sell!

Only a small percentage of the population has any inclination at all towards selling. The majority (myself included!) would rather spend an afternoon at the dentists’ office than be forced to sell something to someone.  That’s precisely why it’s so important to have a powerful marketing system and effective  marketing material that sells for you, so that you don’t have to!

That’s how I managed to avoid having to sell, even as a real estate agent! When I first started out, I despised selling. I hated what I had to do every day. Then, that all changed one day when I started implementing the marketing system I am sharing with you now. When you get people to take action and come to you begging you to see your property, you don’t have to sell!

No marketing system is complete without marketing material. Brochures, flyers, handouts, and any other material that offers prospective buyers of your property an insight into the qualities your property has to offer. Not the dull, drab features, but a small taste of the juicy morsels to stir their emotions and prompt them to take action and call your hotline.

The rules we covered in regards to classified ads bode equally well here. You cannot sell your property in a flyer any more than you can sell it in an ad. Your sole purpose is to get the word out to prospective buyers that your property is on the market. Once you’ve made them aware of this fact, the home has to sell itself. Only when they are up close and personal, touring your property, can they make an informed and conscious decision.

If you should fall into the great minority of individuals who were born with the gift of gab and are an exceptional salesperson, by all means, go for it. Skip this whole chapter, altogether, if you so choose. For the rest of us, following are several strategies that have proven  themselves to be very effective in attracting interested, qualified prospects.

Home Business Card

In the world of business, you use them to sell yourself. In the world of real estate marketing, business cards can be used just as effectively to sell your property. They are very inexpensive when compared to many other marketing mediums, yet they can be extremely informative. They also tend to be held onto longer than any other marketing medium due to their compact and convenient size.

It goes without saying that a major key to successful marketing is keeping the product (your property) in front of a prospect for as long as it takes for them to act

Home Card Design & Layout The same rules apply to the design and creation of your Home Business Card as apply to the writing of your ads. Only, in this case, you have much more space to elaborate on the special aspects of your property.

In the case of a classified ad, every line is critical. In the case of your Home Business Card, you have a blank canvas on which to express the most desirable aspects of your property with far less space limitation. At the same time, the most important thing to remember when creating your card is not to go overboard. Your card must be clear, concise, and easy to read. In other words, not cluttered. Clutter will not get read. Clutter will get trashed.

To begin with, cut out several 2” x 3½” pieces of paper to draft your design on. Designing directly on the proper size canvas will give you a sense of what you have to work with in terms of how much you can reasonably include on your card. You can determine the text and visuals you would like to include, while at the same time ensuring that it remains easily readable and visually appealing.

Once you’ve determined a layout for your card, create a rough draft to provide a printer for reproduction. They will take your rough draft and typeset your information into a final proof for your approval prior to actual printing.

Illustration  – Home Business Card

In completing your rough draft for the printer, you’ll want to be as detailed as you can. For best results, create it directly on a computer and provide a copy of the computer printout to the printer.

• Master bedroom suite / Full basement w/ laundry
• Living room w/ natural fireplace ? Spacious interior w/ natural light
• Family room for entertaining ? Fenced yard w/ private deck
• Hardwood floors/ new carpeting ?Quiet, wooded street

Call (934) 555-0434 24 hours for free recorded message!

* 5.5% APR—30 years

FOR SALE

18923 Boston Avenue – Shelby Woods
Only $3,900 down ?$692/ month*

Home Card Distribution

Now comes the time to really get creative, because when it comes to distributing your Home Business Card, there are no rules! Your goal is to get as many cards as you can in front of as many potential buyers as you can. It’s that simple.

Pass them out to friends, family, co-workers, casual acquaintances, the grocery store clerk, the bank teller, and the parking lot attendant. Put them on apartment doors, cars, store counters, washing machines at the local coin laundry, and anywhere else they will be noticed. Anywhere and everywhere there are potential buyers, let them loose. Put your imagination and intuition into high gear and let happen what will.

If your property falls into the price range of the first-time homebuyer in your area, keep in mind that your highest response will tend to be in those areas frequented by renters. This would include coin laundry outlets, supermarkets, restaurants, and other retail establishments located in areas with a high population of apartments.

Home Flyer

For all intents and purposes, your Home Flyer is merely a larger version of your Home Business Card and should include the same information. As with your cards, you can complete a rough draft of your flyer on your computer and provide your local printer with a copy for reproduction. If you own a good quality printer, you can print copies off yourself and avoid the cost of a professional printer.

Flyers should be distributed mainly in areas that would benefit from its larger size. Areas where they are more likely to catch the attention of a prospective buyer, such as on bulletin boards in major retail areas.

Clearly, a flyer is more likely to be noticed pinned up on a bulletin board than a much smaller-sized business card.

Illustration  -Home Flyer

The disadvantage to pinning up your Home Flyer like this is that a prospect is likely to forget your flyer the minute they walk out the door, unless they’ve taken the time to write down the phone number. To get around this problem, it’s a good idea to tape several Home Business Cards to the bottom of your flyer before pinning it up. This way, interested prospects can peel off a card and take it with them if they’re interested.

• Features Include:
• Quiet, wooded street
• Master bedroom suite
• 2 full bathrooms
• Living room w/ natural fireplace
• Family room for entertaining
• Hardwood floors/ new carpeting
• Spacious interior w/ natural light
• Full basement w/ laundry area
• Lovely country kitchen w/ built-ins
• Fenced yard w/ private deck
• 2-car attached garage w/ workshop

Call (934) 555-0434 24 hours for free recorded message!

* 5 5%APR 30 years

FOR SALE

18923 Boston Avenue – Shelby Woods

Own This Home For Only $3,900 down , $692/ month!*

Two additional ways you can distribute your Home Flyer that are very effective are a fax-on-demand service and a flyer box. Many voice mail services offer a fax-on-demand service in addition to the voice mail. When a prospect enters a special extension or calls from their fax machine, a copy of your Home Flyer is automatically faxed to them.

A flyer box is a rectangular box or a round cylinder that you can hang from one of your signs and fill with flyers. This way, prospective buyers can stop and take a Home Flyer with them to review. No doubt, you’ve seen these used by agents and sellers alike on more than one occasion. Both of these methods provide you with a very effective way to keep your property in the mind of your prospects at all times.

Neighborhood Mailing

A fact that few sellers are aware of is that an average of 7%-8% of all buyers are found right within the neighborhood of the property being sold. To take advantage of this, mail every individual in the neighborhood of your property a copy of your Home Flyer, along with a couple of Home Business Cards. You may have a buyer for your property lurking around closer than you think.

Home Portfolio

While some marketing tools are used to draw in prospective buyers, others are used to keep your property in the mind of prospective buyers during the decision phase. This is the phase where they’ve already viewed your property and are making a decision on whether or not to make an offer. The Home Portfolio falls into this latter category. The Home Portfolio is merely a photo album or softbound book containing important information that would be of interest to potential owners.

This would include the following:

Location of local churches, schools, banks, shopping centers. Important phone numbers, such as police, hospital, local utilities, rubbish collection. Information regarding the property itself, such as square footage, number of rooms, room sizes, lot size, and legal description. Pictures of the property and the surrounding area. There’s really no wrong way to put a portfolio together. The important thing is to make it visually appealing and include all pertinent information that will be of interest to the future owner.

Seem like a lot of work? Perhaps even a waste of time?  Think again!  It’s actually an extremely effective selling tool that is well worth the effort. The purpose of  the Home Portfolio is twofold.

Psychological Advantage

It shows prospects that you’re a remarkably organized and thorough individual. On a subconscious level, this makes them much more trusting of you and much more comfortable in working with you.  It also makes them put more faith in the condition of the property, because you come across to them as someone who takes care of business. As I discussed before, this psychological mindset is very important to selling your property.

MAKE IT Feel Like Home!

Looking through the portfolio begins to plant pictures in their mind of them living in the property and in the surrounding area.  Sampling is an extremely effective component of your marketing strategy. A surefire way to  sell anything is to get prospects to picture  themselves happily using your product.

Eventually, the thought gets planted in their mind that they can’t live without it! Your Home Portfolio is a subtle, but effective, way of creating emotional ties to your property in the mind of the buyer. The buyer may not know why they have these feelings for the home, or even be aware of these feelings on a conscious level. But, they are there, nonetheless. Once a buyer is tied to your property emotionally, it’s that much harder for them to walk away!

The Home Portfolio typically transfers to the new owner along with the property, and is handed over to them at the time of sale. If you plan on doing this, make prospective buyers aware of this by placing a notice in the front of the portfolio saying such. It’s all part of the subtle way of saying to them that it all belongs to them.

The portfolio should be placed out prior to all Home Tours and private showings. Put it in a location that is sure to be seen by all individuals who tour through your property. Also, if you’ve obtained all of your inspections in advance, as suggested, place these out on the table along with your portfolio. Be sure to also include any contractor reports you’ve obtained, as well as your appraisal.

Home Brochure

The Home Brochure is another marketing tool that enters the picture during the decision phase of marketing. Like the Home Portfolio, its purpose is to keep your property squarely in the mind of your prospects during the time in which they’re seriously deciding on whether to make an offer on your property.

As opposed to the portfolio, however, the brochure is a reminder that they can take with them. This way, they’ll have a full recap of your property in front of them at all times. Due to this, your Home Brochure should be much more detailed than any of your other marketing material. They’ve already seen your property at this point and have already become as emotionally attached to it as they’re going to get.

They know all of the features and are fully aware of the good points and flaws regarding your property. Now, you want them to take information home with them that will remind them  solely of the good features of the home. All of the emotionally pleasing ones. The tendency of most buyers, after leaving a property, is to remember only the bad points.

The Home Brochure tends to keep their mind focused mainly on the good points. Don’t confuse the Home Brochure with the Home Flyer. Both should include significantly different information!

The sole purpose of your flyer is to give them just enough enticing information to get them to come and look at your property. On the other hand, the purpose of your brochure is to remind them of all of the details of the property, rather than just the emotional ones. Accordingly, do not give out your Home Brochure in your flyer box or use for your  fax-ondemand service. Only provide prospects with a copy of your brochure after a prospect has viewed your property!

Home Brochure Design & Layout

Your brochure can be produced in any size or format you wish. The most cost-effective is a simple, two page brochure on 8½” x 11” stock, printed front and back. This will provide you with plenty of room to include the information you need. Again, as with your flyer, you can run off copies of your brochure yourself or hand this job over to your local printer.

Following are some items you may want to include in your Home Brochure:

• Picture of the exterior of your property.
• Information about the community and its conveniences.
• Detailed information about the property.
• A listing of all of the special features (good points).
• What it will cost to purchase and own the property.
• A sketch of the interior floor plan.
• A map showing the exact location of the home in the surrounding area.
• Include anything and everything that will put your property in a good light and remind them of what a great thing they will be missing out on if they don’t purchase your property.

The key is that you don’t have to sell at all.

Your Home Brochure and other marketing materials are all subtle selling tools that do all of the selling for you, so you don’t have to!

Do You Need The MLS?

As discussed previously, the Multiple Listing Service is another marketing tool available for drawing in prospective buyers. Many real estate agents will list your home on the MLS for a flat fee, allowing you instant access to thousands of potential buyers. Once listed, most agents will be willing to bring potential buyers to you, provided you pay a commission in return. Due to this cost, this avenue should only be pursued as a last resort. If your property happens to be located at the end of a dead-end street where there is no traffic, or you find yourself in the middle of a serious buyer’s market, you may find this option a necessity.

A Few Side notes

SELLING FHA ..

Most houses being sold in 2009-2010 are being sold FHA! What you must know….

As a result, to qualify for FHA mortgages (a mortgage program offered by the Federal Housing Administration and tailored towards first time homeowners). The primary advantage offered to FHA borrowers is a greatly reduced down payment, often as low as 3%! The way it works is that the Federal Housing Administration informs lenders that they can offer a mortgage to all applicants who fit within the FHA guidelines, for up to 97% of the purchase price. Additionally, if the applicant’s default on their mortgage or lose their home to foreclosure, the FHA will insure the banks, repaying any lost money.

NOTE : Based on the latest data from the FHA via Handbook  Section 4155-2.4.7 entitled Prohibition on Property Flipping, the FHA rule plays out like this:

FHA Rule on Financing Flipped Property

If a property is re-sold 90 days or less following the date a seller takes possession of title, the property is not eligible for a mortgage insured by FHA.

FHA defines the Seller’s Date of Acquisition and the Re-Sale Date as follows:

• Seller’s date of acquisition: the date of settlement on the seller’s purchase of that property, and
• Re-sale date: the date of execution of the sales contract by a buyer intending to finance the property with an FHA-insured loan.

The only exceptions to the 90 day resale restriction described in HUD 4155.2 4.7.e are for

• properties acquired by an employer or relocation agency in connection with the relocation of an employee
• re-sales by HUD under its Real Estate Owned (REO) program
• sales by other United States Government agencies of single family properties pursuant to programs operated by these agencies
• sales of properties by nonprofits approved to purchase HUD owned single family properties at a discount with resale restrictions
• sales of properties that are acquired by the seller by inheritance
• sales of properties by state and federally-chartered financial institutions and government sponsored enterprises
• sales of properties by local and state government agencies, and
• sales of properties within Presidentially Declared Disaster Areas.

Any subsequent re-sales of the properties described above must meet the 90 day threshold in order for the mortgage to be eligible as security for FHA insurance.

SO what does this mean..?

Locate an appraiser who is approved for use by all, or at least most, of the banks and mortgage companies in your area. This way, the same appraiser can be used by the buyer in obtaining their mortgage.

By doing so, you should be able to get the appraiser to do your appraisal at a reduced rate, because they will also be able to do the appraisal for the lender. This is known as a pre-sale appraisal and most appraisers will be familiar with this.

You should also ensure that you get an FHA/VA approved appraisal if you are planning to allow the purchase of your property with an FHA or VA loan.  Accepting FHA and VA financing on your property can be of great benefit to you when you consider that a large number of buyers don’t qualify for a conventional loan and must go this route. Allowing this type of financing on your property will provide you with a much larger pool of buyers.