Advertising Tips

We can't stress enough how advertising will play a big part in the successful sale of your home. Selling a home is similar to selling a car, except it's a very expensive car. If you don't advertise your home no one will know its for sale. Remember: Your creativity and resourcefulness is the limit to the successful advertising of your home. Unfortunately, the best asking price in the world will be of no help if no one knows about it. Advertise often and use the Internet, not only to enhance the impact of your newspaper classified advertising but also to connect with buyers from outside your local area.

Lawn Sign - Many home buyers will drive around the neighbourhood in which they would like to live, before purchasing. Unfortunately many homeowners feel lawn signs are not important or they don't want to be bothered with people knocking on their door. Lawn signs are very important, and not having can easily delay your home/property sale.

While Lawn signs are one of your #1 advertising musts, there are good signs and bad signs. Bad Signs are ones that are placed in a window with a small ph#. Good signs are ones that are placed in your yard and can easily been seen from a distance (~30+ feet) inside a vehicle. While it's not important to read all the lettering from that distance, it's necessary for the driver of the car to realize that it's a FOR SALE sign. All the lettering should be bold and easy to read from ~15' away. It's not necessary to place the asking price of your home/property on the sign (as the asking price may change) however if you'd like to avoid phone calls and doorbell questions like 'How much' or 'How many Bedrooms', etc., we'd suggest attaching a holder with Feature Sheets to your sign.

Sign text Suggestions...
For Sale By Owner
# bedrooms & # bathrooms (if more than 1)
Any important feature
Contact phone number
Your homes web site address or Internet company your advertising with

Feature Sheets & InFoPak - Do you want to avoid the simple questions like 'How Much?' or 'Is there a balcony?' or 'How many Bedrooms and Bathrooms?'. Feature Sheets not only help you avoid those questions by phone or by 'doorbell' visitors, but they are also extremely convenient for a buyer. You can design your own feature sheets or order feature sheets from BC Island Homes. The sheets should include the lot size, house size,
# of bedrooms and bathrooms, your asking price, a photo or two, and so forth. They should be attached to your lawn sign in a weather resistant holder. Previously sellers have told us they first used zip lock bags, but they do not keep out the rain and they'd end up replacing more feature sheets from wet weather than from potential buyer pickups. 'BC Island Homes' is a distributor for InFoPak, a weather resistant durable feature sheet holder. They can be attached to your lawn sign or another convenient location. The more professional your advertising looks, the more serious a buyer will take you.

The Internet - Could you imagine being able to show your home 24 hrs a day, 7 days a week to a world wide audience? Well, you can on the Internet! Whether its your neighbour looking for a friend or someone on the other side of the world, you'll be amazed at how the Internet can play a role in the sale of your home. Look at our Client Testimonial page if you have any doubt about Internet Advertising.

Once you are advertising with a web site, place that web site address on all your home advertising material is most important. A web site is an awesome advertising feature, but you do need to let people know you have one. Potential buyers won't know to look on the Internet unless you
tell them it's there. That's why it needs to be on your lawn sign, advertising and feature sheets.

Classified Advertising - The key to a sale is exposure. Newspaper offer a common and important form of advertising. Your ad should indicate that your home is for sale by owner and a few important details (sq.ft., #Bedroom, etc.). Preferably post your phone number with your home address,
this way you may get less phone calls of people wanting to drive by, this also helps if your going to be away from the phone for a couple hours.
You should also post your home's web address. Photo ad's usually get more attention and are more eye catching but are a lot more expensive.
If you have a web site for your home sale, we'd recommend running classified ad's with your web address instead of adding a photo.

Open House - An Open House may be effective, but in general they provide little results. If you'd like to hold an Open House then work out a day best for you, clean up your home, advertise in the local papers classifieds, on your web site or other advertising features and put up a sign. Have a guest book for visitors to sign so you can keep track of potential buyers in case you decrease the price of your home or features change. Last but not least, have feature sheets and information about your home readily available for visitors to take home with them.

Viewings - Pre-qualify any inquiry's regarding your home, or you may waste your time on showings that won't lead anywhere. One of the big differences between you showing your home and a Realtor showing your home is knowledge of the house. You know what there is to love about it. Being able to show your home and point out its great features is much more enticing to a potential buyer than being shown through by someone who doesn't know your home at all. You can answer any questions the potential buyers may have, a Realtor won't always have the answers. If you keep your viewing to 'By Appointment Only' in your advertising, it allows you the privacy and also the time to prepare yourself.