What is the secret for selling your Miami Beach Home? The COO of Zillow, Spencer Rascoff says, in an article on ABCNews that,
Sellers used to have to worry about curb appeal: How does the grass look, etc. Now a seller needs to worry about Web Appeal: When a buyer is browsing on the Web, what is their first impression.
I could not agree more and the article could not have come at a better time. We say it over and over again to our clients, sound like a broken record and it’s nice to get get a reinforcement. If 85% (some sources say almost 90%) of buyers start their search online, doesn’t it make sense for you, as a Miami Beach Real Estate seller, to take full advantage of online marketing? And when I say take full advantage I don’t just mean pretty photos and a couple of search platforms. You should be doing great photos, video, virtual shows, e-flyers, directories, blog posts and using as many available tools as possible to expose your property to potential buyers.
Rick laughs at me when I talk to him about online marketing because he says I speak a foreign language between embedding, syncing, html, css, syndicating, plugins, widgets……you get the picture. It does feel like I have a some sort of degree in Social Media after being immersed in the medium for almost 3 years….and to think that he’s supposed to be the “techie” 
.
Is there a magic formula for which search sites to use or what way to market on-line for your house to be noticed? I wish I could say yes, but the way I look at it, the more you do and the better you expose, the better the chances that a buyer may find your property. We go out of our way to learn about new platforms and new methods of marketing so our listings are found. It takes a lot of work to stay on top of technology, but it’s one of the services we feel is crucial for successful marketing of any real estate property.
A good web listing can help you sell your house during a down market
**photo credit: Dale Chumbley at ClarkCountyRealEstateGuide**
This post reminds me of Jim Collins’ point in good to great:
“There are no homeruns to success. Just a collection of many, many hits”
One tool (i.e. Twitter) may not be the determining factor in finding a buyer, but it may be “the guide” that will get that buyer to a single property website, a virtual tour or a blog post where the decision will be made. There’s definitely a process involved in selling in this new environment and providing maximum interrelated exposure is the way to go.
Great Post!
Erion….and imagine for those of us who use multiple “tools” and are always on the leading edge of technology….you don’t have to imagine, you’re there as well
To think that Twitter has become “the thing” now and I’ve been there for over 2 years…makes me smile
That would make you a super douper social media expert to the power of 140 (pun intended) by the standards of this post
Good for you guys for being so focused on online marketing. The real estate brokerages that do the best job of online marketing are going to be the ones who thrive over the next 10-20 years.
Spencer – thanks for visiting and I totally agree, I just don’t understand why so many agents don’t embrace online marketing and new media. BTW, are you just as “buggable” as David Gibbons (love picking on him)….Zillow just gained some brownie points in my book.
Ines,
Fell free to bug me anytime. spencer@zillow.com
AAAAaaaah! I don’t think you know what you’re getting into!! LOL
[...] Curb appeal or web appeal – Ines looks at web appeal, is it the new curb [...]
I think most agents dislike the effort of learning something new that’s why they don’t embrace web marketing. Dan Kennedy recounted how he was also hesitant to go into internet marketing because he didn’t want to learn how to operate in a new media.
Anyway, this is good for us then Ines, we have a clear advantage over others. Add to that the fact that you need to have at least 1000+ hours under your belt to be good at something; we should be light years ahead of the competition by now.
Cheers!
Nicole
Nicole – always like to be ahead of the game