Robert Martin

 Selling a Home in Daytona Beach Fl: Successfully Marketing Your Home Online 

Selling a home in Daytona Beach, FL is always an important task that has a lot of risks and rewards involved with it.

With more than 89% of home buyers using the internet to research and view potential homes, the online marketing of homes for sale in Daytona Beach, FL is critical.

In this article we will look at the 3 most important factors in online marketing of real estate and how they can be used to better market your property and get more people to contact your agent and then physically see
your home.

According to the National Association of Realtors 2010 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, the 3
most important features of a real estate website for buyers are:

1.       Photos of your home

2.       Detailed information of your home

3.       A Virtual Tour of your home

The key to successfully marketing your home online is to get potential buyers off the computer and into your home is using proven strategies of online marketing that are so often missing in real estate!

The first goal is to get buyers to contact your agent about your home; the second goal is to get buyers to contact your agent period so that the agent can schedule a showing of your home with the buyer.

Marketing Your Home to attract buyers

1.       Make sure that good pictures of your home are taken so that when buyers see your
home online, that the pictures show your home to its’ fullest potential. Ensure that there is good outside lighting and that interior lights are turned on, that everything is picked up so that there is no clutter in the kitchen, bathrooms, living room, etc. and that multiple pictures are taken of every room so that the best of each can be selected for the marketing of your home.

2. Be sure that all the details of your home are given to your Realtor and that they use this in their marketing. More and more, buyers want information and data, and making sure your Realtor and buyershave all the information and data for your home is critical. If they can't find the information they want, they will likely just move on to a listing that does give them all the information!

3.       Bring both the great photos and information about your home alive by having a virtual tour created that lets buyers get a sense of your home in a way that is impossible except to actually be there themselves.

Get on the Buyers Short List….or at least get them to contact your agent! 

Buyers will look at hundreds of homes online and it is impossible for them to see every one of them, even ones that might be exactly what they are looking for. By the time even a short number of homes have been viewed, it is easy for buyers to miss the fact that your home is one they should schedule a viewing with to see!

This is where using the principals of online marketing can help sell your home. 

By offering buyers more information they likely want, your agent can get buyers to contact them and then schedule a showing with the buyer for your home. If the buyer never contacts your agent in the first place, then it is impossible for your agent to even attempt to schedule a showing of your property with potentially the perfect buyers! 

This is why offers of other important information should always be made in the Virtual Tour and
the other online marketing tools your Realtor uses.

Imagine a typical case of buyers looking at homes online in Daytona Beach, FL. 

Having looked at 25 other homes for sale in Daytona Beach, FL, a buyer sees your home online, but is tired from seeing so many homes and quickly glances at a few pictures and almost instinctively clicks the ‘next’ button. Does this sound familiar?!

A way to get the buyer to stop and make contact with your agent is to make a number of offers for other information that will then allow your agent to schedule a showing of your property with the buyer.

Offers such as a list of homes for sale that meet their profile in Daytona Beach, FL, a free list of foreclosed homes for sale (buyers in all price points love deals and do not realize the issues with buying foreclosures and most quickly give up the notion and buy listed homes for resale), a home market analysis (most people selling are doing so to buy another!) and so on.

By combining good photos of your home with all the information about it and creating a virtual tour and then putting that virtual tour all over the internet via the MLS and other online marketing channels available to Realtors combined with additional offers prompting buyers to contact your agent, the process of selling your home can be made easier and
faster than otherwise possible. 

And since so few real estate professionals market homes this way, you will be at an advantage over all the other sellers currently in the market trying to sell their homes!

The foreclosure rate in Daytona Beach, Ormond Beach and Port Orange is substantial; 1 in every 5 homes are in some stage of foreclosure. These homes will be on the market at foreclosure prices eventually. For the distressed homeowner, this can be devastating, and we understand that. For an investor though, or a first time buyer, a foreclosure can be the realization of a dream! Some of these homes have been well cared for, and are in move-in condition, or close to it; the owners often have continued to take pride in their homes, even when they are forced by circumstances to relinquish it.

Obviously, other properties have been completely abandoned, but it's less frequent then you would think. In fact, there are many luxury homes in Ormond Beach, Port Orange, Daytona Beach, Ponce Inlet and Ormond-By-The-Sea that are currently short sales, and soon many of those luxury homeowners will face a decision to turn the home back over to the bank. At which point homes that were valued at hundreds of thousands of dollars a few years ago will sell at a fraction of that price.

It seems unfair at times that one individual might gain from another’s loss; however, homeowners who are going through a foreclosure do have options! In Florida alone, as of February 2011, 24% of homes are at least one payment behind or facing foreclosure. That is the highest rate in the nation!

Though this may seem like the worst of times for those homeowners, it is possible to bounce back and overcome these financial straits, and even have an improved financial situation post-foreclosure. Though some homeowners will seem reluctant to even communicate with their Realtor as a way to avoid the inevitable, it is up to you, Realtor, to ensure that communication is effective and comfortable, especially in this complex situation.

We have found it is important to our relationship with our foreclosure and short sale clients that they understand the stigma usually attached to financial difficulties is offset considerably by the current economic climate. This often eases the tension to create a better line of communication between agents and distressed homeowners, to allow a potentially negative process to be as painless as possible. For some, it is possible to get a modification or to make arrangements for reinstatement.

The key for homeowners who are going through a financial crisis is for you, Realtor, to help them to look ahead at the future, to their options, and to recognize that this is an extremely difficult, sensitive time for them.

Source of statistics for major metro areas foreclosure rate: Agent Genius
Source for statistics about Florida foreclosure rates: Loan Rate Update