If you are fearful or standoffish about holding an open house during COVID, your not alone. In the end, you’re probably not going to find a buyer through an open house in the first place. I’m not just saying this to make you feel good, I’m speaking of data directly from the National Association of Realtors. NAR’s 2019 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers showed that just 6% of home buyers actually ended up buying a home they found by dropping by an open house. Some say an open house usually isn’t worth all the time and effort required because at the end of the day, selling your house as a result of the an open house is extremely rare.
For a long time, the open house has been a standard marketing tool for sellers (though its effectiveness has been questioned for quite a while too). But today, in the age of COVID, open houses, even if they don’t present an outright health risk, just don’t make much sense anymore. Still, there are many other effective things you can do to market your property. So let’s take a look at 6 ways to market your Raymore property without holding an open house.
1. Top-Notch Listing Photos
Whether you’re holding an open house or not, plenty of top-notch listing photos are still one of the top tools for effective marketing. It’s just that when you’re not holding an open house to market your Raymore property, they become even more important.
“Photos can make or break your home’s online listing and its social media presence. If you aren’t comfortable with your photography skills, your best bet might be to hire a professional photographer – preferably someone who has experience taking pictures of properties for sale.”
But if you do decide to take your own listing photos, here a few things to pay particular attention to:
- The photography equipment (at a minimum, a quality camera and a tripod for clear, focused images)
- The lighting (natural being best)
- Getting plenty of quality photos
- Using a wide-angle lens often
- Getting the composition right
2. MLS and Online Listing Sites
Another tactic that grows in importance when you’re not holding an open house is making use of the MLS and other online listing venues.
The Multiple Listing Service (really, a multiple listing service), or MLS, is “a network that gives brokers and agents access to information about homes for sale in a particular area. There are hundreds of MLSnetworks across the U.S., and the information found on them is different and much more comprehensive than the information available on [many other] websites.” Your agent will typically have access to these services and can list your property there.
And there are also many other online listing venues that can expand your marketing reach, some of the bigger ones being Zillow and Trulia. To find out how to best use these tools, contact a Raymore agent at (816) 695-7352.
3. Virtual Tours
Although they’ve been around for a while, virtual tours have really taken off since the advent of COVID. And for one simple reason: they work. In fact, when holding an open house is out of the question, virtual tours become essential.
“A virtual or video tour of your home can help buyers feel like they are inside the property without them having to leave the comfort of their couches. You can go about creating a video tour on your own, by walking through the house slowly, narrating what’s in each room . . . [A] virtual tour [can be] simply a slideshow of photos of the home. In others, it’s more of a 3D simulation that lets buyers feel as though they are actually inside of the home.”
You can create a virtual tour on your own if you have the equipment and some experience in this area. Your best bet, though, is to find an agent who has experience creating and deploying virtual tours.
4. The Power of Social Media
The power and reach of social media are huge, and this is something you absolutely must leverage in trying to sell your Raymore. Here’s what the pros recommend when it comes to marketing without holding an open house . . .
“Social media can be an effective and free marketing tool when you are trying to sell your home. You have a few options when it comes to promoting your property on social media. You can make a post about your home, including photos, and share it on your personal profile, on either Facebook or Instagram.”
Probably a better option is to hire a social-media-savvy agent. Your agent can help you create a page and then use it to best advantage. To discover more about this, call (816) 695-7352.
5. Traditional Marketing
While online marketing may be number one, the old ways still work and they shouldn’t be neglected. And one of these is yard signs – the old stand-by for-sale sign in the front yard.
Even better is to combine this traditional tool with today’s online marketing. You could, for example, direct people to your property’s social media page (described above) with the sign. One way to do this is by creating a code and placing it on the sign so that people can scan it and be then go directly to the social media page.
6. A Good Agent
As we’ve intimated throughout, having a good agent will be one of the most important things you can do when marketing your Raymore property without holding an open house. And that means you’ll need to do your research because not every agent will have the requisite experience and expertise.
So be sure to get references and recommendations from friends and family. Check out agents’ websites online reviews. And then interview prospective agents, being sure to ask them about their local experience, sales track record, listing-price-to-sale-price ratios, and so on.
You can cut to the chase, simplify and shorten this process by going directly to a trusted name in local real estate with experienced agents. Hire a seasoned local agent who knows the real estate market in your area. Don’t get stuck with an agent who is clueless about the neighborhood you want to live in.
Call Dan Edson if you’re ready to sell your Raymore property without holding a single open house. He will go the extra mail for you in our local market. Contact our team today at (816) 695-7352. We look forward to helping you with your real estate needs.