Marketing Techniques That Sell

When showing a home, it’s often easiest to run through the particular set of features within the home, but, you may be missing the best opportunity to show off differences that can help a home sell.

Benefit marketing plays a fundamental role in separating the good from the great in sales and real estate is no different. Just about everyone can walk into a home and see the features, but, home buyers are often trying to take everything in quickly when visiting a home so running down a list of features that they can already see does not help them discern why a particular feature may be important. This is where benefit marketing comes in to play.

As you walk through a home with a client, explaining the benefit of a feature can greatly improve the desirability of the home.

For example: a home has a tankless hot water heater. Many buyers today know that this is a new technology, but, not necessarily what it means to them. Taking a moment when highlighting the feature by explaining how that feature benefits the buyer gives a meaning to that feature. In this case, it means lower monthly utility bills and endless hot water for a shower. For a family of 5, this would be a significant benefit and could be the difference maker between two similar homes.

Another example of benefit marketing might be explaining why new windows in an older home are important rather than simply stating that there are new windows. “Green” building is one area where benefit marketing is important, but, it encompasses just about all read more

Posted by Ryan Ward on Jun 05, 2008 under Online Marketing, Guest Bloggers

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The Key to the Kingdom is Not the Keyword: Why You Must Market Offline

The Gospel According to NAR

I had read the Gospel according to NAR (National Association of Realtors)—77% of buyers use the internet to search for homes.

The NARstat is sacred dogma, incessantly chanted by mainstream media and the bloggerati. It provides the philosophical foundation for the agent congregation putting their listings on all manner of real estate websites, especially Realtor.com, the largest real estate church on the net.

The NARstat requires agents do penance and upgrade to the revered “featured listing” pews. To question the holy NARstat would be a blasphemy akin to questioning the earth’s roundness (actually, the earth is an oblate spheroid, but I digress.)

The NARstat also justifies, to a large extent, the agent’s participation and marketing in the new Web 2.0 world where the Google keyword prayer box promises to bring roaming client pilgrims to the agent’s blog or their Truzilfacespace profile—leading to blessed business and salvation for all. But, are we worshiping a false god at the Tower of Google?

The Internet Reformation

Last summer, I took a little RV cross-country trip with Rudy, my partner at the time. We set out to spread the Word of Web 2.0 to the masses, who we suspected were unbelieving techno-pagans. Our odyssey took us to over 30 cities—places like Boston, Philly, D.C., NYC, Atlanta, Orlando, Miami, Tampa, St. Pete, Chicago, St. Paul, Denver, Phoenix, San Diego, Sacramento, Reno, Seattle, Portland, Salt Lake City, Boise, San Francisco —- and all the Waffle Houses in between.

We interviewed real folks young and old, owners and renters—to discover how and where they looked for the places they call home. After 5 weeks on the road and 10,000 miles logged on this beautiful country’s highways and byways, it was I who began to question my internet marketing faith. read more

Posted by Joseph G. Ferrara, Esq. on May 28, 2008 under Realtor, Best Practices, Guest Bloggers

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A Visit from Agent Kelly Barnes

On Cinco de Mayo (May 5th), HomeGain had a special treat, as Kelly Barnes, a Realtor from Hawaii, came to visit us in Emeryville.

Mr. Barnes has extensive real estate knowledge within the Honolulu and West Coast mainland areas. He owns several multi-family apartment buildings in the Honolulu area and is accustomed to handling real estate transactions of tremendous value.

A BuyerLink subscriber for over a year, Kelly provided some great insight into what’s happening in his market as well as what HomeGain has done for his business.

“I feel confidant investing my marketing dollars with HomeGain, due to the simple fact that it works,” said Kelly.

Ryan Monsanto, Senior Sales Manager at HomeGain, stated, “Kelly had a great time visiting us and the feeling was mutual for HomeGain, as we are focused on building strong relationships with our clients.” read more

Posted by Jessica Gopalakrishnan on May 19, 2008 under HomeGain, BuyerLink

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Real Estate Poll: Marketing Budget

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Posted by Jessica Gopalakrishnan on May 14, 2008 under Polls

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