If your house is being shown to prospective buyers … your agent is doing his job. Real Estate is a numbers game and everyone who looks at your house is one step closer to selling your house.

Sellers often equate effective marketing with classified ads in The Freeport News. This of course important, however, the most skilled realtors know their market well enough to know where the prospective buyers for your home are likely to come from. They will look for the best ways to reach those people through direct mail, the Internet telephone contacts, or specialized ads in international publications. They will also work to get other agents excited about your house, especially agents who are aggressive and successful. Believe it or not, realtors do work together. In the higher price homes, buyers are usually coming from offshore so my best source of buyers are comes from my local and international referral network.

When a seller lists a home with a real estate professional, a lot of brainstorming follows. Who are the potential buyers, where do they live and work? How can they be reached effectively with information that will attract them to this particular property? Professional realtors use a variety of marketing techniques tailored to the individual home they are selling. This may include different buyer lists to find potential purchasers, telephone, direct mail marketing brochures and more. Contacts will be made to other agents who sell homes in the area to encourage them to show the home to prospective buyers. Since we do not have an MLS (Multiple Listing Service) in the Bahamas it is important to work with other realtors to get the job done. A successful realtor does not mind working with other realtors and splitting commission because the goal should be to find a buyer for your house as quick as possible. Realtors combine proactive marketing with realistic pricing to spell results for their sellers.

Realtors who provide high quality service will usually have a written marketing plan tailored to fit your home and individual needs. A good marketing plan begins with pricing the home well, and will involve exposing your home to as many real estate professionals and qualified buyers as possible. The agent’s job is to get buyers through you front door; your job is to ensure that the buyers like what they see. Top agents are very active in finding prospective buyers, coaching sellers about how to enhance their home’s presentation and are professionals who know how to close a deal. The most important part of the entire selling process is closing the sale.

My job as a realtor is to get your home from “FOR SALE” to “SOLD”. Until Next week.