Marketing Tips for Philadelphia Home Sellers

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Our Home Selling Shark Series is designed to help sellers get top dollar for their homes. We have some hot tips for marketing your home and determining if your Realtor is savvy enough to create demand before your home even hits the market.

First off, SEO optimization is crucial. You want your home to pop up first when someone Googles “homes” in your area because there are so many other Realtors marketing other properties. There is a thing called “Pay Per Click,” where you pay for someone to click on your house.

On our team, we pay the money for that because it just makes sense to drive more traffic to your home. If you work with someone who sells five homes a year, you should know that three of those sales are buyers and only two are properties that the agent lists. That means they are probably not going to spend a lot of money on advertising. I have 100 homes on the market, so I can make sure that your home stands out.

You also want to get your home on every site that populates current listings on the MLS. Syndicating your listing allows sites like Yahoo, Realtor.com, and more to pick up your listing. Homes that use this marketing tool sell in an average of 30 days versus the MLS average of 90 days.

We have seen a little surge in the marketplace over the last few months but it is slowing down a bit now, so pricing is key. Keep in mind that you want to sell your home within 3% of the market price. Think of pricing as a grocery line: there are 10 other people in line, but you want to be up front. There may be 10 other homes in the area on the market and you want to jump in front of them pricing-wise.

You do have to put some time in and determine whether or not those competing properties are overpriced. You don’t want to underprice your home; you just want to make sure that your home price is right for the market you are in.

If you’re planning on selling your home, be prepared. Come to one of our monthly Home Selling Sharks seminars. We can help you sell for 18% more than other home sellers. Go to www.homesellingsharks.com for more information and to sign up for the next seminar. I look forward to seeing you there!

The Latest Trends in Our Local Real Estate Market

Buying a home? Click here to perform a full home search 

Selling a home? Click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation 

Call me at (215) 576-8666 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation

Summer is here and the market is hot! In fact, my predictions from last month seem to be gaining popularity with many other experts in the real estate field. I told you that we’re in a five-year pivot and on track to grow market sales strongly over the next five years, and it looks like that’s what’s happening.

If you look at pending home sales from January of 2016 to April, you can see that pending sales are dramatically increasing month to month. In fact, the April numbers far surpass the March numbers! There is tremendous demand for homes out there right now, and that demand will lead us to a phenomenal year (and a phenomenal 2017)!

I am not the only one who thinks that. Lawrence Yun, the chief economist at the National Association of Realtors, says, “In spite of deficient supply levels, stock market volatility and the paltry economic growth seen so far this year, the housing market did show resilience and had its best first quarter of existing sales since 2007.”

That’s right - this year we had the best first quarter in a decade! Freddie Mac agreed, stating that “Home sales typically rise in the spring and summer months, and we anticipate an acceleration in home sales that would surpass 2007 by late summer.”

For racing fans out there, we had a Triple Crown of April home sale reports - existing home sales, new home sales, and pending home sales were all very positive. Again, the fact that home sales have increased so much simply indicates how strong demand is in our market.

That said, there are some naysayers worried about home prices. The home price expectation survey asked a panel of 100 economists, real estate experts, and investment strategists to identify the primary driver of real estate home values in the United States right now. Of those, 50% pointed to low inventory while 20% thought low mortgage interest rates are driving the market. In other words, 70% of experts say the market is dictating home prices. It all boils down to supply and demand.

We’re eventually going to get enough supply to match the demand. In fact, we’re already starting to see that in our local market. Sellers that have been waiting for the market to settle are anxious to finally make their move. That is why I’m so sure that we will see a skyrocket in the number of home sales but not in home prices.

If you have any questions, please give me a call or send me an email. If you are thinking about selling your home, check out www.homesharkseminar.com. Our next seminar will be in October. I look forward to speaking with you!