Today’s Home Selling: Listing Agents as SEO Expert

Selling a home used toListing Agent Finding Buyer be characterized by three activities: putting up a yard sign, hosting an open house, and advertising in the paper.  Some agents did this extremely well.  If selling your home was that simple, no wonder so many people chose to sell homes by themselves.

These days, selling your home is a lot more complex and requires a new level of sophistication.  Listing agents need to be search engine optimizing (SEO) experts.  Most agents don’t understand this yet.  Brookline Realtors, Newton MA real estate agents, and Boston real estate in general often lag behind in these matters.

According to the National Association of Realtors, 88% of buyers use the internet in their home search, and I bet that number is even higher in the Greater Boston Area.  Where else would you begin any search for anything? When you are finding answers to your queries, it means someone has taken the time to put content together and optimize for you to find.

Home searches are not just beginning online, but they continue online as well.   Buyers don’t stop their search as they get closer to finding their home.  Photos, floor plans, videos and information is reviewed and used to make shorter lists of homes to see.  Online home profiles are used to compare and contrast homes and to make final decisions as well.

If this is how buyers choose to consume information, it is the listing brokers’ responsibility to feed that information accordingly.  A successful online marketing strategy for a home has two functions.  First, to be found by as many targeted buyers as possible.  To be easily found is great, but quality trumps quantity.  I would rather have five visitors to the home who are qualified, ready to buy, and are the right fit for the home than 25 visitors who are browsing and curious.

The second function of a successful online marketing strategy for a home is appeal.  Your home needs to look amazing online.  Professional photos, floor plans, complete information, and a video all help.  More than ever the preparation for a home sale is important so the photographs and videos inspire the buyer to schedule an appointment.

Incomplete information may have been acceptable in the days when the buyer’s agent was the gatekeeper of information, but no more.  Any listing agent who’s marketing plan focuses on open houses, yard signs, and advertising is missing the point, and a good chunk of good buyers for your home.

How did you find your home?  How long ago was that?

>