When Marketing Homes I believe that employing strong marketing techniques is just smart business. In Sellers Markets, good marketing can bring higher prices and, in Buyer's Markets, it could mean the difference between sold or expired.

Good marketing might not sell your house, but it will make the phone ring.

Because “If Buyers Don't Call, You Won't Sell!”

High Quality Pictures

Pictures speak a 1000 words and in today’s competitive home selling environment, having the best quality pictures of a well prepared house will generate more interest, create more showings and lead to more offers. We have spent a great deal of time making your home look just right, doesn’t it make sense that we want to capture those features and present them to buyers in the most favourable manner possible. This is the fundamental block in the building of your marketing campaign.

Lawn Sign and Riders

A prominent “For Sale” lawn sign placed in a conspicuous location on your front lawn is a great way to generate interest in your property. Statistics show that 21% of Buyers hear about a home “For Sale” from the yard sign and word of mouth generated from that sign. That combined with a rider with your homes own custom domain name allows people to view your slideshow on the internet right in front of your home. From there they are then able to email or call my office right away to arrange a time to view the home if we have captivated their interest.



Multiple Listing Service (MLS)/Internet

Ever more important is the listing of your home on the MLS internet systems. Geoff is a member of both the Realtors Association of Hamilton/Burlington as well as the Oakville/Milton boards. Therefore when he lists your home you are given two MLS numbers and thus have twice the chance of being seen by both agents and the public on www.Realtor.ca.

When the listing first hits the system, the listing shows up on the daily hot sheets and any Realtor with a search set up looking for a home in your area will be automatically emailed the new listing to himself and/or their clients in real time. This initial listing is where we want to generate the maximum amount of interest in your property thus our pictures and promotional links need to ready to go on the day your home hits the system.

Realtor.ca provides anytime, anywhere marketing for your home. Interior photos help us demonstrate the full value of your property, potential Buyers are provided detailed information about the property and if there is further interest they can contact me directly, or click on a virtual tour link or go to my website to learn more about your home. Open house dates are also listed on the MLS/Realtor.ca listing as well as OpenHouses.ca to let the buying public know when an Open Houses is scheduled for your home.

To compliment the MLS and Realtor.ca, Royal LePage has their own website as well as my brokerage. To further the exposure my web site also features your home and is search engine optimized for people looking for homes in the Burlington/Oakville areas.

Full Colour Process Brochures

A key element of the marketing effort is a comprehensive colour brochure promoting the many features of your home. This brochure showcases the strengths of your home and provides pertinent information allowing potential buyers to make more informed decisions about your home. It is also a tangible keepsake that can be taken home from a showing and/or open house to refer back to if interested.

Agent and Public Open Houses

I believe Open houses are a great idea to hold for a house “For Sale”. I don’t believe in putting any restrictions on my market exposure for a listing. Common sense says it's smart to expose your home to the largest number of buyers, and getting buyers and their agents inside to preview a home is a huge hurdle to jump. I sell a good number of homes through open houses and the successful real estate agents I know report that at least 20% of their sales sell through an open house.

Print Media

New to Burlington in November 2009 is a publication call the Home News which is a high quality full colour process magazine that is being delivered to every home in the Burlington, Bronte, Waterdown and Flamborough area. With a distribution of 55,000 homes per month I felt it prudent to my business and my clients to secure a full page in every issue. This is a huge boost to the exposure of your home in the Burlington marketplace, with links to their website and your property address on Google. I also use small targeted ads in the Burlington Post or other relevant newspaper publication's depending on your area to announce all open houses for your home. Our Brokerage has a standing order for the back page of the Burlington Post and I have had great success using the ads in this prominent place in the past.

Direct Mail

Just listed and Special Open House invitations are used in appropriate situations to stimulate interest in your neighbourhood. A professional post card is made up and distributed in your local postal walk route to offer a private viewing for those neighbours prior to a public open house. This is a great way to capitalize on word of mouth as people in your neighbourhood sometimes have family or friends who may be interested in your area.