What It Takes To Sell A Home With Social Media

Real estate sales are dependent on broad publicity, so both buyers and sellers have become savvy on learning how to take advantage of the Internet, especially local sites such as Kijiji where you are able to post detailed information and photos. In order to truly take advantage of the ever growing Internet phenomenon, many tech savvy buyers and sellers are utilizing their social networking websites to create a bigger web of contacts than they might achieve by using local advertising. It is not simply that most popular social network sites quick to use and relatively simple to develop, they can be launched and supported with little to no expense - except for time, dedication and patience. The most valuable skill is determining a strategic keyword plan that will optimize your search engine ranking, making it possible for your listing to potentially get to the top of the most popular search engines.


Websites such as Word Press and Typepad offer you free pre-formatted pages where users are able to simply post details, add photos and link to various relevant sites, positioning blogs an ideal avenue to list and search for homes online. Once you create your blog post, it may become your main destination for all of your social media links. If you launch the right way, any time you add to your blog you will automatically alert your subscribers and other interested parties. Coming up with popular keywords is essential, and not only must they be added to the keyword tag box, they should be incorporated into the headline, the first and last paragraph and especially the introduction. If you're not getting the kind of exposure you expect, try a different combination of keywords. These tactics often work particularly well with popular condominium buildings such as Queen West condos as it resonates with those kinds of purchasers.

Because of the increasing use of Facebook, it has become a natural venue for marketing real estate sales because it offers an gathering area that embraces the free flowing swapping of ideas. Not only realtors but private sellers have discovered that by distributing listings with their Facebook pals, they are able to set up a personal network that soon has their property details in the hands of many perspective purchasers. It is crucial to add correct contact details so anyone interested in your property can reach you without delay. Of course, it is very important to stay on top of the correspondence that you receive, otherwise you might build a reputation as a flake who is simply collecting information and rapidly lose credibility.

Micro-blogging using the Twitter service may generate a ton of inquiries on your home, especially when it is updated regularly. You may develop a routine of sending short, attention grabbing news flashes, descriptive snapshots and fun stories through your Twitter service. Put Twitter posts to good use every time you update your property listing site, that will also automatically update your Facebook wall. Be imaginative and link your Twitter terms for your listing with local buzzwords, trending terms and trendy topics.



Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/5264347

Top 20 Social Media Marketing Tips To Sell A Home

Recently, a smart, savvy man named Kurt, a social media expert, decided he was going to sell his house. Not really knowing that it was going to go way above reserve, but using Youtube, Twitter and other media to connect with people who may just be in his target market. It was a brilliant strategy, and probably took a lot of time and a bit of investment on his part, but it certainly paid off with an extra $135,000 over the reserve price, what a great result.


If you are trying to sell a property or car using a social media marketing strategy, here are 20 tips on how to get started:

1. create a name that will suit all social media accounts (ie. brisbane4brhouse) maximum 20 characters
2. check if the name is available as a domain first, if it is check other media is also available
3. register your domain name fast when you find a fit
4. create a WordPress blog and a theme that suits your property
5. setup a YouTube account (channel) that shows video footage (for a prestige property pay someone to make it look really professional, other amateur is good as long as your lighting is right)
6. setup a Facebook account (if you already have one use it instead if you feel comfortable with that)
7. setup a Twitter account for tweets about features, open times, location benefits, and more
8. setup a Google+ account for top quality links to your posts and agent's site
9. setup a Picasa account for top quality photos
10. the blog is used to advertise features of the home, create posts, and compare other properties in the area
11. always provide a link to the page where your agent is advertising the property details
12. use descriptions to put in extra contact relevant to the property - such as 4 bedroom house for sale [location] and link to your blog
13. setup social media integration into the blog for automatic feeds into all social media accounts to share your posts
14. create a video of the property (either photos blended or an actual video) maximum 10 minutes long, or several to highlight different features in the home
15. link that video channel to your Facebook and Twitter account, and other social media where possible
16. find followers, groups, and friends
17. send out regular tweets
18. update Facebook with status updates
19. submit all your sites to search engines
20. ask your friends and family to share the links with their friends and family
There you have it, top 20 social media marketing tips for selling your home.

Another word of advice: SEO is extremely important. If your potential buyer is looking for a 4br house in Brisbane, they will come across all the big real estate sites, so you need to stand out, use keywords that people are searching for in your account names, descriptions, titles, and blog posts.

Just a quick suggestion: If you are doing all this yourself you might want to negotiate with your agent; as you are doing a lot of the work to get extra attention, he/she should reduce the commission. After all you are effectively doing what they are being paid to do, right!

This strategy is great if you are thinking of starting a business. It can be used as a good business idea to get up and running to compliment homes you have for sale. If you would like to setup your business using this concept and need advise please contact me. With a small startup investment for the package above and $500 each month until the property is sold. If you would like help setting up this social media strategy to sell your own property, I can help you with that as well.





Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6912501

Daily progress...

A dear friend of mine has asked me to help him sell his property in France. Along with listing it with agents in France I am beginning to create a presence for it on Social Media. I have now started a simple blog as though the property itself is speaking. I have also built a simple website which you can visit via the blog www.theoldgallery.blogspot.com I have also started a Twitter account, again as though the house has created it, which is @the_oldgallery I have also created a Picassa account and started to add all the photographs and videos I can of the house. It is a beautiful house as you can see www.theoldgallery.bravesites.com and as it doubles up as a holiday let so it is very attractive to a new owner that would like an investment as well. There is a slight difference to me advertising and opening up this house on social media than perhaps yourselves, as you are living in the house. My friend who is selling this property in France has now moved back to the UK. Whilst I have visited the house many times I can't give a running commentary of actually being in the house and at the moment I can't a build a regular picture of the surrounding area. So in this instance I may look to consider further options as well as the social media route. I would like to affirm again that it is sensible to adopt the usual avenues when selling a house as well as bringing the property to life on Twitter, You Tube and Facebook. By usual routes I am referring to an estate agent, finding a cash buyer on the internet or even auction. It all depends on your situation and how motivated you are to sell. However the most important thing to remember is the more you open your home and it's life, the more information there is for people to make an informed decision about buying. Whether that is through an agent or a cash buyer or a friend of a friend who finds you on Facebook. So the idea with my friends house in France is that I will open up as much of it as I can. To aim to do something each day is the goal. A tweet as often as you can, a blog post from the house maybe once a day if you can or at the very least a couple of times a week. To keep the flow in Facebook you will need to post there most days as well. Remember though you do not want to over do it on your own Facebook account. Your own friends may become a little tired if you are only ever taking about your house. This is why I recommend talking from the perspective of the house itself. That way you can make it funny if the house keeps talking. You can create a dialogue with the house yourself. Facebook is also about creating new networks as well. By joining groups and exploring you will find people outside of your own circles that will be looking for a house like yours. I will also be exploring the routes of finding out what our homes can offer a developer. This is important to beware of. There is no need to fear the property developer! In fact the property world is filled with very contentious people. The reason for that in my opinion is because property is a people's business. To get on with people you need to be nice and in my experience property development on a single unit scale is dominated by friendly individuals who would like to create a win for you as well as well as a win for themselves. But hey, we are all living in the real world and we know there are sharks in any business. There are also multi billionaires in the property world who can be a little other wordly and who control many people underneath them who also appear to be impossible to connect with. But they tend not to deal with single units such as one house. Unless your 15 acre garden is a prime development site, which is why it is important to know all aspects of what your property means to all people. So when you are assessing all aspects of your house it is important to research what opportunities there may be to a developer. This will of course open the market for you to a new audience and may well increase what you can ask for your property. But that is for a later post. For now I would like you to have a look at the progress I am making with the Old Gallery in France. You will notice the website I am using is free. It is hosted with bravesites.com which means you are using the domain name at no cost to you and the website is hosted for free so it has the name bravesites in the domain. The main reason in my mind to own a domain name is for a business that will be running for some time. In this instance you will need some security that the website will not disappear if the host goes down. When selling a house the website will only be relevant and needed until the house is sold. So it is less important to have a permanent domain name and hosting. So have a play. Start your blog on Blogger.com It is so easy to build one. The website is also very self explanatory to build. Why Blogger over Wordpress? Wordpress is great if you would like to build a complex site with gadgets and plug ins. A simple Blog is all that is needed and Blogger is very easy to understand and follow. I would love to know how you are doing. If you have any questions at all please let me know. To your sale and success.

Company enhances real estate marketing with high-definition videos and social media.

I really like the following article because it emphasises the importance of using video to sell a home. David explains how a video is like watching a movie trailer, to me this is the opportunity to turn our homes into little movies which make it all the more interesting for a potential buyer. Have a read and let me know your thoughts... In the dark days of house-hunting, only about 20 years ago, people would rely on real estate agents to photocopy or fax property listings, which usually offered short descriptions and a single photograph. Today, the resources available for homebuyers are vast and growing. Online in-depth listings, property tax and sale records, aerial and street-view photographs, and websites that estimate property values are all available to those looking to buy a home. Yates Dew has built a company around consumers’ growing demand for online real estate information. His Keen Eye Marketing offers agents high-definition videos, social media campaigns and “for sale” signs that allow people with smartphones to scan a code that directs them to online information. “I’ve been a commercial agent since 2003, and this company grew out of something that I saw a need for,” said Dew, 41, of James Island. “I just realized there was a better way to present the properties I was looking at. “I have, over time, turned this into a full-time job,” he said, noting that the company has four employees. Consumers have come to expect multiple photographs online when they look at properties, and video is the next step, as powerful computers and high-speed Internet connections have made it possible to stream high-definition video. “A video is like watching a movie trailer,” Dew said. “We try to keep it to two or three minutes, and create an emotional connection.” After producing a video to showcase a home, Keen Eye Marketing uses social media to drive viewers to the production, and ultimately to real estate agents’ websites, “We want agents to understand the importance of social media and viral marketing,” he said. “This is the new way to sell real estate.” “Every time we get a new video, we tweet about it, and put it on our Facebook page, LinkedIn and Google Plus,” Dew said. The videos also are distributed to agents, but the next big thing for Keen Eye Marketing is using QR codes to direct home shoppers from yard signs to online information. A QR code, it’s short for quick response, is a small black-and-white symbol, about one inch square, that can be read by smartphones and links to online resources such as websites and videos. Instead of typing in a website address, someone with a smartphone or tablet computer, with correct applications, can just point it at the code. Dew said QR codes present a great opportunity in real estate marketing. “Take, for example, a house on Sullivan’s Island,” he said. “You have a family visiting from Charlotte, and they’re thinking of relocating, and they drive by and see this sign with a QR code, and that gives them access to the house (information) and hopefully leads to them calling an agent.” The potential home buyer doesn’t have to write down a phone number or look for sale fliers. Just point at the sign and the information is on his phone or tablet. “It’s not a super-new technology, but we’re sort of waiting for clients to embrace it,” Dew said. “If they buy a branded video from us, we will put a sign in the yard with a QR code.” The properties that Keen Eye Marketing produces videos for are often high-end homes, which tend to take longer to sell. Dew said the company also has filmed homes selling for under $200,000. Prices for his company’s services start at $300. Dew hasn’t always been in real estate, and he took an eclectic career path to get there after majoring in music at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. First, he worked in computer software sales in Atlanta. Then, at age 27, he joined a group of friends who were looking for an investment, and in 1998 bought the Music Farm, a music club in downtown Charleston. “I had actually played at the Music Farm,” said Dew, a singer-songwriter who records under his own name. “It was a great time, a great business and we learned a lot about managing people and running a business,” he said. Dew and his partners sold the Music Farm in 2001. He briefly left Charleston for business school, and he got his real estate license in 2003. While selling commercial real estate, he and a friend bought a West Ashley bar and music venue in 2005, called Bait & Tackle. It closed in 2007 and Dew still owns the building, which is home to The Tin Roof. Dew made Keen Eye Marketing his full-time job about two years ago. “I’ve been having a lot of fun with it,” he said. “We enjoy what we do.” By David Slade

Using social media to sell a house

Home Owners Are Using Social Media to Sell Their Property in Abbotsford, Melbourne, Australia. Abbotsford, Australia, June 02, 2012 --(PR.com)-- Home owners Kevin Moloney and Janetta Stones have bucked traditional advertising trends with the sale of their luxury Melbourne home. As they prepare to move to rural Victoria, the couple decided to sell their Abbotsford home on the banks of the Yarra River but have employed a more contemporary approach to its marketing. “We’ve engaged an agent who suggested that we might consider marketing the property on facebook, Twitter and other forms of social media. Advertising in the major papers’ real estate section is very expensive and more people are turning to the internet when they’re searching for a home,” Moloney said from his beautiful terrace overlooking the river and Studley Park. Expert in social media marketing, Catherine Chenery from Gihon Media, was consulted and drew up an internet-based marketing plan for the sale of the house. Working with the vendor and agent, Chenery created a unique website www.yarrabankcourtabbotsford.com.au She also created a Twitter account, blog and facebook page and has linked all together employing clever search engine optimization techniques. “Within 24 hours we already had over 250 followers on twitter,” she said. Moloney tweets short reports from the home on a regular basis and lets his followers know all the best places around the inner suburbs. “Someone who isn’t all that familiar with the area wouldn’t know all its secrets. I’m happy to let them know. I’m a writer so I also write the blogs which go on the site,” he said. Real Estate agent Philip Middlemiss from Melbourne’s Stockdale and Lego office is delighted with the early results. “We’ve had a great response so far using the social media strategy and we’ve already had qualified inspections of the home by people from Kew and Hawthorn and even from a buyer in England. Providing potential buyers with all the information they need makes the task of selling a home more efficient and because this home is unique, we’re expecting a quick sale. That’s the world-wide power of the internet,” Middlemiss commented. For further enquiries go to: www.yarrabankcourtabbotsford.com.au

Are You Doing Everything You Can?

So you have your property on the market, it isn't selling and you feel powerless. The agent is assuring you he is doing everything he can to get the word out and he promised you he had lots of people on his list waiting for a property just like yours. Waiting to sell your home can put your life on hold and it can sometimes feel like a no mans land with the uncertainty you may suddenly get a call to say people are coming round to view it. So is there another way? There is a new movement on the internet at the moment that is giving homeowners some control again. It is giving their own home a voice using the wonderful medium of social media. This is a great idea and it's working! Homeowners are getting a frenzy of interest for their homes. They are getting people fighting with each other to get make an offer. In my opinion this is how homes should be sold. This is putting some warmth back into the process of buying and selling a home. I'm sure you have a Facebook account and a Twitter account. Let me suggest your home has as much to say about itself as you do about yourself. Give it a voice! Build a Facebook page for your home and begin to tweet about it. Make some videos and post them on You Tube. Start a blog for your house and write about what's going on in your home! Talk about life there, if you were going to buy it what would you like to know? There is no reason to doubt your estate agent cannot sell your home but if you feel you would like to contribute to something so important, you and your family are the perfect people to help sell it. It will also be a lot of fun... You can give the video camera to the kids for the day and ask them to show it all their best hiding places, what they love about the house and where they like to play the best. Why not go with them to the skate park and video them there with their friends? How about going into your local town or village and interviewing your favourite butcher or even your mechanic! Sound crazy? Well if they know you are moving they are going to want the business from the new owner of your house, aren't they? Moreover the potential new owner watching the video will be very grateful which will only increase the chances of them wanting your home. Your house is a living, breathing mixture of lots of different things. These are what a new owner wants to see, not just a picture in a window on a high street or a listing on Right Move. Go for it! Make a story for your home and spread the word on Facebook and Twitter. Each time you write a new post on the house blog or make a new video, tweet about it and post it on Facebook. You never know who knows someone that will be very interested to see the true life of your home and will be willing to pay well to have it. If you would like help selling your home please contact me, I would love to meet you. I have helped thousands of people all over the UK sell their properties without using an estate agent. You are not in breach of your contract if you find a buyer yourself. Speak to your agent if you are unsure. To your success :-)

Henderson home: Up for sale on Twitter and Facebook.

Selling a house usually means an ad in a estate agent’s window or a listing on a property website.
But one family has taken a more social media savvy approach to finding a buyer for their property.
Ed and Rose Henderson have turned to Twitter and Facebook to sell their four-bedroom detached house in Prestonpans. The property is going for £189,995 – a £10,000 reduction.
Mr Henderson, a 36-year-old web developer, is moving with his family to California in October and after a year of relying on estate agents, he decided to take a more proactive approach.
He blogged about the property, adopting a humorous first-person perspective from the house’s point of view. He posted the pitch on Facebook and Twitter – and whipped up a storm of interest on social media.
Mr Henderson told STV News: “I have no complaints with my estate agents but they can only do so much and about three weeks ago I decided to try something different. We’re moving to California in October so we’d like to have it sold before we go. Short of handing out leaflets on the street, there wasn’t much more I could do but then I thought: I have skills in social media, why don’t I write a blog about this?”
The “house’s blog”, posted on edhenderson.com, reads: ”I am sad, my family are moving away and while I would love to go with them, they can’t take me as its very far and I am too big to go on the plane. I am looking for a new family to live here with me and enjoy my quiet street, huge back garden, generous bedrooms and lots of storage space.
“What will it cost? The Hendersons would be looking for a very competitive price, £189,995, in return, I would love you as much as I love them. Plus Ed will leave a case of beer in the garden shed.
“I am a new build, in Prestonpans, East Lothian (very close to Port Seton & Cockenzie). I am only 5 years old and Ed, Rose, Jack, Toby & Noah (The Hendersons) are the only owners I have ever had, so everything is snagged and nicely setup for a brilliant new family to come and live here.”
Mr Henderson explained: “It’s ironic but I thought writing the blog from the house’s perspective sounded more human. It became fun to update it and add more jokes. I shared it on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn with everyone I could. I think it was liked and retweeted for two reasons: it’s a house for sale and that always gets people interested and because it was a novelty having the house talk for itself.”
So far, more than 3,000 people have viewed the blog post and Mr Henderson hopes it will help move the process along.
“We move to California in October. We hope this will help us sell the house but if not we’ll have to get ready to let it out,” he added.
Mr Henderson’s oldest son Jack is a social media star in his own right. The seven-year-old attracted acclaim with his website jackdrawsanything.com, where he displayed his drawings of everything from action heroes to footballers to raise money for the Sick Kids Hospital in Edinburgh, where his three-year-old brother Noah has received treatment for bronchitis.

By Stephen Daisley

How Facebook Helped Me Sell My House

    

There seems to be a trend brewing in real estate. More and more readers have told me they’re selling their houses themselves by promoting them on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and blogs. I have to admit I’ve always been dubious about whether that worked, especially in this tough real estate market.

So when I heard from Laurel of SoPo Cottage, who told me she sold her renovated 1900 Victorian within 3 days, I had to know more. Here’s how she did it, in her words:

We were trying to prove you can sell a house with Facebook and a blog. We put our house on the market and had an Open House Saturday and Sunday. We had over 100 people come through the place and are now looking at multiple offers.

I was planning on getting my real estate license and using the usual marketing channels. But I quickly discovered that when you’re working on a house 10-12 hours a day (fixing it up), you don’t have the time/energy to complete your license.

And as our margins started getting smaller, it became apparent that we needed to do a FSBO (For Sale By Owner) to make a profit.

 

Here Are 7 Steps We Took to Get the Word Out:

#1. We worked to build the readership of our Facebook page and SoPo Cottage blog. And it took some work! Given Facebook’s algorithms, to appear in their newsfeed we needed to be posting every day– ideally 2-3 times per day. It’s a challenge to come up with something clever multiple times a day (okay, so I failed on that one….not so clever…and only once a day).

#2. We put up a sign in front of the property, directing them to our social media for more information. My Facebook reach almost doubled within 24 hours of the sign going up in the front yard. Even though we also posted our phone number, we got very few calls. Most people went online.

                              

#3. We posted a ‘Coming Soon’ banner on the Facebook page as we got close to putting it on the market.  We put this up about 2 weeks before our Open House.  We made sure we did a ‘pin to top’ – that put it at the top of our FB page for a full week.

#4. We added 2-3 posts on the blog each week with more in-depth information and lots of photos of the house.

#5. We hosted an Open House. Word of mouth (virtual or live) is powerful, and the more people you can get in the door is better–if they like it, they’ll be letting their friends and family know. We posted an ‘Open House’ banner on our Facebook page, 4-5 days before the big day. Also, ask you friends that are well networked if they’ll ‘share’ your posting. We got lots of additional folks from that!

#6. We put up additional signs with balloons the day of the Open House. It ran both Saturday and Sunday and found a lot of people returned the next day or told their friends who came the next day.

#7. We posted on free sites like Zillow and included our blog address. We also used Zillow’s link to do a one-time MLS (multiple listing service) post, which helped generate additional traffic and got us wider exposure.

It didn’t hurt that their Victorian was all fixed up and looking its best

         

So how did all our marketing strategy pay off?  We had so much traffic come through the doors of the Open House, we don’t really have an accurate count. Our guesstimate is we had 50-70 people each day.

And because people had read about the work we were doing online, they already knew the house when walked in the door!  It was so funny to hear them say ‘Oh look, here are the Martha Stewart kitchen cabinets’ or ‘look at the Pottery Barn light fixtures!’

We had people want to make offers immediately, but we asked everyone to hold off until Tuesday.  That way, they had time to work with their bank and have all the necessary paperwork in place.

By Tuesday evening, we had multiple offers in hand, from some wonderful people who really loved the house. The hard part was having to call the folks that didn’t get it and deliver the bad news.

Would we use this approach again? Absolutely. It was a lot of fun and we got to meet a lot of interesting people, both online and in person. We’ll be continuing the blog and the Facebook page. But I’d really like to have the additional support of a real estate license for the next transaction!

By HOOKEDONHOUSES

    

Social media helping Inn get noticed

Ryan Quigley/Journal Pioneer

Bill and Mary Kendrick stand outside their bed and breakfast the Briarcliffe Inn. The couple, with help from their daughter, started a social media campaign to help sell the house.

FERNWOOD - Ten years after turning an old, forgotten house into a three-and-a-half- star bed and breakfast, the Briarcliffe Inn owners Bill and Mary Kendrick decided they wanted to move on to focus on their other business, Experience P.E.I.

After a year of trying traditional techniques to find a new owner, their social media savvy daughter, Ainsley, decided as a 40th anniversary and Christmas present, she would help them find a buyer by the end of the year.

She began the website helpmyparentsretire.tumblr.com and a Facebook page. The idea was they would give updates about the almost century-old house and have a contest. Whoever shared the website on their Facebook wall would have a chance to win.

The prize is a trip to P.E.I. to stay five nights at any of the Inns of Distinction, of which Briarcliffe is one, as well as three free excursions offered by Experience P.E.I. and $500.

The winner will be whoever’s Facebook wall the buyer says they saw the page on. The winner may also choose $5,000 instead of the Island vacation prize.

The idea caught people’s attention and soon enough the College of Piping had donated two tickets to the Highland Storm for the winners, Duncan Island Tours donated a free Island tour for two, and the city of Summerside donated two tickets to tour the Wyatt Heritage Properties.

The page has received over 4,000 views from all over the world and the Kendricks even had someone inquire from Ontario who saw the site on the Tourism P.E.I. Facebook page.

Though skeptical at first, Bill was pleasantly surprised with the results.

“Social media had not really occurred to us until Ainsley said, ‘You know we could do something with this.’ It turns out she was right,” said Bill. “We still enjoy innkeeping, we just want to move on to another phase of our lives.”

Though the Kendricks agree the home is going to be hard to part with, they said a six-bedroom house is too much for two people.

“If we’re not running a business, we don’t need this size of house,” said Mary.

They thought the problem with interest in the inn was exposure, said Ansley, who, along with her parents, updates the Facebook page and Tumblr site regularly.

“I thought, why don’t we try and put it up on Facebook. Then we realized why would people want to see it? Why would people want to share it? So we came up with a contest,” she said. “I didn’t know what to expect, it was just sort of I hope this works. I didn’t really have an expectation but it is doing what I hoped it would be doing.”

Bill and Mary both appreciate all the hard work their daughter put into the project.

“I’ve already had people say to me, ‘What a great thing your daughter is doing, she really must love you guys,’ and that’s a nice feeling that your kids want to help you in the right direction,” said Mary.

By Ryan Quigley

Sell Your Neighbourhood

Share what the neighbouhood has to offer. Include neighbourhood details in your home listing and go beyond the usuals such as the names of schools in the area                                       

With so many other properties on the market, you can make your listed home stand out — and improve your odds of bids — by "selling" your neighborhood as well. After all, the living experience extends beyond your property lines as buyers look for the proximity of parks and playgrounds, restaurants and even medical facilities. They want to live in an enjoyable, convenient and safe area filled with friendly neighbors who will create a terrific community for them and for their children.

You won't be able to talk with potential buyers at an open house, but you can convey the strengths of the neighborhood in several effective ways:

• Include neighborhood details in your home listing, and go beyond "the usuals," such as the names of schools in the area.

• Prepare an "About Our Neighborhood" document that lists enticing attractions. Your real estate agent can set copies of this document out with the official listing document at your open house for potential buyers to read and take home with them.
• Ask your agent about "Find a Neighborhood," which is a tool on the National Association of Realtors' website, listing in-depth details of your surrounding area. Some features of this tool include community history, such as historical landmarks and popular festivals that take place in your town; the demographics of your neighbors by age; weather patterns; school rankings; and awards won by your town, such as "Best Of" in your county. Realtor.com refers to a neighborhood's "hip factor" and mentions such attractive details as "distance to major sports franchises." A buyer may see a very enjoyable social schedule in his or her future.

When writing up your list of neighborhood perks, be sure to include the following:

• Nearby parks and playgrounds. Young families with kids — and newlyweds soon to have children — will like the idea of being able to walk or bike to quality parks and play areas. A new trend in the park topic is the mention of dog parks, so if you have a quality one near you, add it to your list.


• Nearby town activities that are inexpensive. This includes community pools and golf courses.

• Neighborhood friendliness. On your printout, mention the fact that the neighborhood hosts a block party every summer, that the neighborhood ladies have a book club or organic vegetable co-op from a local family farm, and that your wonderful next-door neighbors take in your mail while you're away. Mention that your neighbors are quiet, if that is true, because loud neighbors who host parties every weekend are a turnoff to buyers.

• Neighborhood safety. Write about the great neighborhood watch system, as well as how the township sends out emails to alert residents to any potential risks in the area. No town is 100 percent safe from crime, so if there have been car break-ins on the other side of town, you're better protected from being victimized with the warning to remove your GPS from your car and lock up.

"I also added that our town is excellent at snowplowing and salting the roads," says home seller Elizabeth Curry. "You never know what kind of trouble buyers had at their former residences with that kind of thing."

• Nearby transportation. If you live outside of a metropolitan area, mention how easy it is to hop a train just a few blocks away, to take visitors into the city, or how short your commute is.

• Availability of neighborhood baby sitters. This registers with buyers who have children, especially when you say you can provide a list of accredited sitters.

• Free fitness attractions. Mention hiking and biking paths, trails, public tennis and basketball courts, and other attractions for those who enjoy a healthy lifestyle.

"I added the fact that the church in town offers $10 Zumba classes on Thursday nights," says home seller Kayla Chiles. "It's something I really enjoyed, and takes the guesswork out of a new homeowner's search for affordable fitness classes."

• Holiday cheer. Write about how festive the neighborhood is during the holidays, with homes decorated, kids having sledding parties, progressive holiday parties for adults, and more. When you portray your neighborhood as a fun place to live, new residents will get excited about making new friends. It's these experiential details that can elevate your home above a competitive house in your town. When their listing only supplies the basics, yours stands out in comparison. And potential buyers will be able to tell in your write-up how much you loved living in your home and enjoyed your neighborhood.

By SHARON NAYLOR

Welcome!

Hi and welcome to this blog. First off let me introduce myself and let you know how I may be able to help you sell your home. I have been working with all aspects of the property market for over twenty years. How can that be if I am only 37 you may ask? Well I come from a family that included a project manager, a sales professional and a financial advisor, all of which had me in training from an early age. I quickly developed a passion for property, which was lucky otherwise it would have been a miserable time!

I have helped thousands of people sell their homes and I have never traded as an estate agent. All the homeowners I have worked with have contacted me directly. I have also bought and sold many properties in my time and I have moved house many times. I have made money from selling property and I have lost money selling a property. I have had to cope with vast amounts of debt in my life and I have had to cope with losing a home due to financial reasons and economic downturn as I'm sure you may have experienced.

Fortunately now I am in a stronger position and I have learned many important lessons about the ownership of property, how to sell property and especially how to do it without using an estate agent. I have close friends who are estate agents and I have contacts that I am not so close to who are estate agents. I do not subscribe to the thinking that estate agents are bad but it is the lack of control a homeseller has in the open market that has lead me to write this blog and also to to write the current products I am working on.

The actual process of walking out of a home for the last time and walking into another is nothing short of a cold and heartless process in my opnion, dominated by many situations that are not very pleasant. There is now a movement online to use social media to sell a property. There have been some great success stories. Not only is it bringing some control to the person selling their home but it is also putting some warmth back into the experience of buying and selling a home.

I hope you enjoy the following articles and I would really love to hear from you if you are currently selling a property or just thinking about selling your property. I would especially love to hear from you if you have any questions regarding selling your property using social media. Perhaps there is something I can help you with if you would like to give it a go or if you are trying it and you are stuck. To your success, Willow McIntosh