How to Sell Real Estate Online

The National Association of REALTORS® reports that 95 percent of all homeowners say that they began their real estate search online. This signals an unprecedented shift in real estate marketing, and highlights the importance of understanding how to sell real estate online.

Selling real estate online is more strategic than simply posting a low-quality photo and a generic property description in an online classified ad. As with any successful real estate sale, in order to sell real estate online home sellers must appeal to the right audience by highlighting key aspects of their home and incorporating them into a comprehensive marketing strategy.

Selling real estate online is all about implementing practical knowledge about the public’s general Internet usage into your home marketing strategy. Follow these simple tips to sell a home quickly and successfully using today’s powerful Internet tools.

1. Know the target audience. To effectively market a home, the sellers must understand and identify what audiences would be most interested in their home. Is the property close to great schools? Does it have a fenced yard for pets? Is the property located in a neighborhood or is it more rural and secluded? Questions such as these can help identify target audiences and lead to a specific direct marketing strategy.
2. Include lots of high-resolution photos. It is essential for the prospective homeowners to feel as though they are at the home as they explore details of the property online. That is why high-resolution photos play an important role in online real estate shopping. Also, while it is true that great photos have great lighting and are in focus, another key element of photography is staging. Taking lots of photos of a staged home—that is, a home that is fully furnished and decorated—allows prospects to better picture themselves in the home, and creates a more enticing shopping experience.
3. Stage a virtual tour. Virtual tours invite prospective buyers into the home’s online presence by giving them a detailed look at property that piques their interest.  Creating a virtual tour is easy; simply use photos of the property along with inviting audio in a slideshow that can be uploaded to the property’s online profile.
4. Be as detailed as possible. Details are absolutely crucial when selling real estate property online. Include as much detail as possible about the home itself, its surrounding neighborhood, community amenities, schools, nearby attractions, and convenient access points. This detailed information helps prospective buyers understand what the property offers and often helps them create a list of questions to ask the seller. The bottom line: details provide the basis for the prospective buyers’ decision to take the next steps in pursuit of the home.
5. Use social media strategically. Simply posting links on Facebook can be counterproductive to an online real estate selling strategy. Instead, incorporating every social media tool available to specifically target prospective audiences will yield better results. For instance, if the desired audience is couples in their twenties, a Facebook ad that targets young professional couples will appeal to that audience, who might take the next step and investigate the property’s online profile.
6. Include a lot of contact information. Remember, buyers will not contact a seller who doesn’t provide clear contact information. Furthermore, buyers might not continue trying to contact a seller who gives bad contact information. Therefore, providing multiple contact methods for prospective buyers to contact a seller is the most efficient way to get the process started.
7. Making it simple to bid. Don’t assume that a buyer will not bid online; that line of thinking could cost the seller money in the end. Provide a way for buyers to place bids or make offers online to maximize a property’s online profile and increase the odds of finding the right buyer quicker.

BidSelect: Online Tools for Successful Real Estate Sales

BidSelect incorporates the most effective online tools and services to help homeowners sell real estate online. For more information on selling real estate using online services, visit BidSelect.com. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter for more information within the real estate industry.