The majority of FSBO properties fail to sell because of ineffective real estate marketing strategies implemented by the seller. The main detriment to being an unrepresented seller is that the marketing responsibilities fall into your court; and frankly, if your home doesn’t sell there is no one to blame but yourself. Traditional methods of real estate marketing are expensive, have a low response rate and generally do not lead to a sale. Why, you ask? The answer is simple: Traditional methods of real estate marketing don’t target a specific demographic.

Anyone can place an ad in a newspaper, anyone can buy radio time and anyone can place a flyer in front of the post office. But, guess what? Anyone can turn to the next page in the newspaper to avoid your annoying real estate ad, anyone can tune in to a different radio station in order to avoid your annoying real estate ad, and anyone can ignore your flyer when walking into the post office to pick up their package. Notice a pattern here? These people are annoyed by your ad; it’s an inconvenience.

Let’s Talk Demographics

You need to start marketing your property to people who actually are interested in what you have to share.  Real estate marketing, and all marketing for that matter, come down to one thing: targeting the right demographic and presenting them with an opportunity that they can’t refuse. Make your home the opportunity they can’t refuse. This may sound simple, but it’s not. Narrowing down your target demographic is going to be the hard part. So, let’s get to work.

What’s Your Unique Selling Proposition?

In order to cater to your target demographic, you need to know figure out your home’s unique selling proposition. What do you have to offer that is different from all of the other houses on your street? What do you have to offer that will be beneficial to a select group of home buyers? Does your home have ample square footage and a generous amount of spacious bedrooms? If so, you can market your property as a potential bed and breakfast. Market your home to retired couples who may be looking for a little excitement and profit in life. Does your home host a professional grade kitchen that has been approved by the state for commercial use? If so, you can market your property as home-based bakery business ready. Market your home to stay at home moms who may be looking to bring in some extra income. Both of these are unique selling propositions. And most homes have them. If you feel that your home doesn’t have a built in unique selling proposition, create one. Creating a USP can be as simple as mirroring the walls of an entire room and adding a ballet bar. It’s truly as simple as that, now you’re unique selling proposition is an in-home ballet studio.

Let’s Get Down to Business

So, you’ve got a unique selling proposition, now what? The next step is to purchase direct mail leads to a list building provider. You can purchase direct mail leads from Experian.com. Experian allows you to narrow down your local direct mail leads by specialty, life style, occupation, consumerism and business, so you can create a pretty targeted direct mail lead list for your real estate marketing campaign. Expect to pay anywhere from $1.50 to $3.75 for a single lead.

You’ve figured out your unique selling proposition and have purchased a local direct mail lead list, are you done yet? No, now it’s time to create the marketing collateral. In this real estate marketing campaign, your marketing collateral will be postcards. Take high quality pictures of the front of your home, the backyard, the unique selling proposition and the kitchen. After you have taken a batch of photos that you are happy with, you need to create your property description. Click here, for a step by step guide to writing compelling property descriptions.

Once you’ve created the property description you need to hire a graphic designer to create your marketing collateral. You can find an experienced graphic designer for a reasonable price on Elance.com. When you have chosen a designer you would like to hire, send him your property description and photos and let him get to work. The designer should be done with your postcards within a four weeks and deliver your postcards via snail-mail within six weeks of the project’s start date. The next step is the easiest and most rewarding step of the process. Place a stamp on each postcard and address them to each recipient. Now, all you’ve got to do is walk over to the post office, mail your postcards and wait for the inquiries to start rolling in. Isn’t real estate marketing fun?!

Jazmin Espinal is a professional freelance writer and the owner of Capital Web Writing, a web content solution for businesses and webmasters. To contact Jazmin or to see samples of her writing, please visit CapitalWebWriting.com.

When you are trying to sell your home, it is crucial to spread the word around the real estate market that your home is up for grabs. Marketing your property doesn’t have to be an expensive endeavor in order to be effective. There are several marketing tips you can put into effect to make buyers aware that your home is for sale. This includes making use of online publicity, putting local marketing into play and making friends with real estate agents.

Make Use of Online Publicity

It may come as a surprise to many sellers entering the real estate market, but one of the most effective and inexpensive ways to market your home is through the internet. A substantial amount of prospective home buyers begin their search for real estate online, it only makes sense to increase your audience by branching your marketing efforts into the virtual world. Post your real estate listing on websites like Craigslist.com, Trulia.com, ForSaleByOwner.com, Owners.com, BuyOwner.com and Zillow.com. These websites have a high page rank; therefore they show up high in Google search results.

Issue a Press Release

If your home is sitting on newsworthy information, issue a press release about your sale. Contrary to popular belief, real estate can be interesting to the general public. However, newsworthy pieces of real estate are few and far between. An example of a newsworthy property is a home that was previously owned by a celebrity or former president. If your home isn’t press release worthy, don’t feel as if you have been undercut, this simply signifies that your home is amongst the masses.

Make Friends with Real Estate Agents

You don’t necessarily have to hire a real estate agent to reap the lucrative rewards. Simply befriending a few real estate agents, specifically buyer’s agents, can do wonders in driving traffic to your home’s open house. Get acquainted with a handful of real estate agents and casually mention that you will be hosting an open house soon. If the agents are interested, they will want to see photos of the property, or might even want to take a look in person. If your home is up to the standards of their clientèle, you will have built in traffic for your open house.

Advertise Locally

Make up a batch of flyers and post them in areas of your town that are known to receive a substantial level of foot traffic. Places that usually allow unsolicited flyers are hair salons, supermarkets, car repair shops, parks, medical offices, law offices, gas stations and movie rental shops.

When making your flyers be sure to include high quality colored photos of the main features of your home. Include photos of the kitchen, bathroom, master suite and exterior of the home. If your home hosts luxury amenities like a pool or sauna, be sure to include photos of those features as well. Also compose a basic description that showcases the home’s strongest selling points and make sure to include contact and open house information.

Home staging is becoming an increasingly common selling tactic in real estate. Home staging is often considered to be strategic decorating. However, home staging differs from decorating because the home owner’s personal taste is omitted. The décor choices made in staging a home are to appeal to real estate buyers, not the current homeowners.

Photo courtesy of REAL ESTAGING

If carried out properly, staging your home can result in multiple offers and ultimately drive up your home’s selling price. If your home is currently on the real estate market or you are considering selling your home, here are some tips to guide you through the home staging process.

Curb Appeal

Have you heard the expression “A first impression is a lasting impression?” Well, the same holds true in real estate. The exterior of your property is the very first part of your home that prospective buyers will encounter. It is imperative that your curb appeal, is in fact appealing. Make certain that the first impression that is put across by your home is classy and leaves buyers eager to see more. Often times, when the exterior of a home is drab and dated, buyers will expect the inside to be equally as unkempt. To ensure that buyers will be greeted with a pleasant first impression of your home, keep the exterior of your home tidy and updated.

Perform a maintenance overhaul on the front of your home. This includes planting fresh and colorful flowers; mowing your lawn; trimming overgrown hedges; laying sod on areas that cannot be rehabilitated in time for an open house; stashing bikes and scooters in your garage rather than displaying them on your front lawn; replacing dated mailboxes, porch lights and house numbers and if necessary painting the exterior of your home. These updates are relatively inexpensive and can be completed in a single afternoon. After all, this blog is called “Frugal Real Estate,” I would never send you on an exorbitantly priced renovation. When your curb appeal is up to par, it sets the tone for the rest of the home.

Kitchens and Bathrooms

If you ask a real estate agent which two rooms sell a house, he is likely to reply, “The kitchen and bathroom.” If you are staging your home to sell, updating your kitchen and bathroom is practically a necessity. When home stagers are contracted to stage a home for a quick real estate transaction, they focus the mass of their attention on these two rooms. Contrary to what you may believe, staging these two rooms doesn’t have to be a costly experience.

To inexpensively stage your kitchen, apply a fresh coat of paint on the walls in a neutral shade; install a back splash that complements the primary paint color; purchase new window treatments; eliminate clutter by storing your kitchen appliances in the cabinets and place fresh fruit in a decorative bowl on your kitchen counter.

To inexpensively stage a bathroom, replace a dated and bulky bathroom mirror with one that is modern and sleek; apply a fresh coat of paint in a neutral shade to the walls; purchase shower curtains in a color that will complement the primary paint color; apply wood stain to cabinet doors and place fresh flowers in a vase behind the toilet. Once you have properly staged your home, real estate agents will be giddy to show your home to their clients.

Selling your home in the current housing market is risky business. Throughout the last five years, the housing market has taken a deep U-turn and clearly turned in the favor of buyers. Before you get into the real estate game, you must be prepared to price your home to sell, and do so strategically. If this means offering pricey incentives and cutting corners in order to sell your home, so be it.

Incentives

To set yourself apart from all of the sellers in your local housing market, be prepared to offer near ludicrous incentives. Some home sellers are even going as far as offering a percentage off of their home to the first buyer that offers their asking price. While this type of incentive may be an effective way to sell your home quickly, it’s excessive. Think of offering both tangible and intangible incentives such as paying for an update, freeing the buyer of all closing costs, including some of the furniture, decor and electronics of the home in the contract and installing a new roof before the buyer moves in. These incentives are costly, but considering the state of the housing market, most sellers agree that the costs incurred are worth getting the property off of their hands.

Forgo Extravagant Renovations

Ten years ago, making extravagant renovations on a home was considered an asset in the housing market. However, since the economic crash has had such a negative effect on the real estate world, less is now considered to be more. Holding back on extravagant renovations is a smart idea. Unless your home is located in the Hollywood Hills, there is no need to expand the floor plan of your home, undergo a full kitchen makeover or creating a 8×10 walk in master closet. If your local housing market hasn’t been steady during the last two years, standard updates will suffice. Simple updates like a fresh paint job, updated kitchen appliances and refinished flooring are what sell homes in the current housing market. Save yourself the cash and forego extravagant renovations.

Consider the Alternative

The harsh truth is that sometimes selling your home in such a wounded economy is simply not worth it. A lucrative alternative that provides near instant gratification is placing a “For Rent” sign on your lawn rather than a “For Sale” sign. Of course, this is just a temporary fix. If you aren’t willing to sell your home for less than it is actually worth, waiting until the housing market returns to a healthy and active state before placing your home up for sale is a smart move. If you would truly like to turn your home into an income property, consider converting it into a double income property. In addition to renting out the main area of your home, consider converting the basement or attic into an apartment. Consequently, when the market returns to a healthy state and you are ready to put your home up for sale, you can price your home higher because it is an income property.