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The Guerilla FSBO Marketing Techniques
Some of these ideas will be new to you while others are a NEW
way of seeing the technique. The MLS is still the best tool out there but why pay 6% or 7% when you can pay for a low "subscription fee"?
Put the price at the top of the ad. This often times will get your ad to the top. Mention that you are offering terms or have financing already in place for the qualified buyer. 3. Develop your USP- Unique Selling Proposition A USP is what direct marketers call the main benefit of the product or service you are selling. Please understand that a benefit could be time saved or relaxation. A benefit is not a 3 bedroom 2 bath house. Easy - time saving - financing sounds more compelling than 7 1/4 % fixed rate. A benefit is not a feature. A feature is a big bathroom. A benefit is the luxury and relaxation that you will get from a big bathroom. Some well known and successful USP's include:
FEDEX : "Delivery overnight or its free" A good way to remember how to get to the benefit is to pretend that you are an interested buyer and ask yourself, "what's in it for me?" Do I care that the house has 3 bedrooms? Maybe, but many houses have 3 bedrooms. What about the 3 bedrooms makes it so special? Is your home spacious? OK great, so what's so big about it being spacious? Maybe it is roomy and has plenty of cabinet space for storage And the high beam ceilings give an airy feel. Hey! were getting somewhere! You get the idea keep asking a so what question- past what seems to be ridiculous. Do not be so presumptuous to think that people know what you mean by spacious. Many homes are spacious. But yours might be Airy with plenty of easily reachable storage space. I am not saying this would be your copy. But by taking this "so what approach", you will find several descriptor words that are rich with scrumptious benefits that invoke your readers appetite for more information. USP's, features and benefits fill the annals of marketing libraries. Communicating the USP is the mission of expert marketers. You don't have to be expert, just remember to sell the benefits of your home in all your communications. (ads, brochures, etc). Something else that will help you is to create a features and benefits grid. Simple write down every feature in your home. Next to the feature write down the advantages to the buyer if he or she owns the feature. Next to the advantage write down the the more specific benefits. 4. Develop your brochure. Remember to not only list your features ie. 3 bedrooms 2 baths. But better yet, describe the features with the advantages and benefits that each feature possesses. 5. All media (ads, brochures, phone calls, etc) support each other synergistically. The goal is a sale. Work towards the end with the beginning in mind. Every communication is working to bring you to that sale. Step by step. So a classified ad should compel a buyer to call. The message compels the person to leave his or her vital information. Your follow up call or email message should compel the person to come see your home. The staging of your home, the brochure, available financing, and hopefully your sales skills will support the person in presenting an offer. 6. Fax blast your brochure to broker offices and agents. Mention that you are willing to cooperate at x %. Offer 2 1/2% or 3% to get any interest. Have a fax on demand for interested buyers. 7. If you don't want to fax blast then use a service that drops flyers off at all the offices. You can also contact the title company and meet with the rep for your area. Usually they work for agents. But if you promise you will fight to use them for the title, they might put together a flyer and deliver it for you. Its worth asking. Same goes for loan reps and pest and all other affiliates that are involved in a transaction. 8. Build a web site. You can get your own website and have it hosted for free. Remember to put up your web address and your email on all communications. If you launch a website you can also host a virtual tour of your home. There are many free sites out there. If you need help, call or email me and I will point you in the right direction. 9. Put up a sign. But don't make it pretty. Make it amateurish. Really. People are immune to pretty advertising. So try it. See if it works. You can always go glossy later. But I like to think that results are more important than image. I'll bet you get more calls from the ugly sign.
10. Voice mail ad. 11. Get the proper contracts. Find out what contracts are typically used in your area. Find out the typical disclosures used. Go to the local board of realtors and ask to purchase these forms. They often times will sell you the forms. Get the purchase contract and the necessary disclosures. These are used by realty agents and are standard for the industry. They will help limit any liability. 12.Know your bottom line, before negotiating. This is negotiation 101. Without knowing your bottom, a skilled negotiator will create a bottom for you. Justify your price with an appraisal , BPO, OR CMA. (see below) 13. Don't use appraisals to justify price. Sorry. But appraisers are in my opinion the last people to "get" the marketplace. They usually are behind an active marketplace that is moving up or down. A Computer Marketing Analysis (CMA) is a list from the mls that is from most recent sales and property for sale. Most brokers will give you these for free. Especially if you make them think you might list with them. They are free and often times worth what you pay for them. An over aggressive agent may attempt to buy your listing with an unjustified high opinion of value. They do this in the hopes of "buying" your listing. A listing is always a possible sale to a broker. Who knows maybe the market will rise and maybe you will be persuaded later to lower your price. After the broker has you under contract! Thus the Brokers Price Opinion (BPO) What is it? A cross breed of an appraisal and a CMA. It is where you pay a fee for an agent's opinion of value. There isn't usually a conflict of interest because you are paying for the opinion, without the possibility of a listing. 14. List your home on as many fsbo sites as possible see the list. 15. First impressions count! That means lose the cooking smells. Lose the dogs, cats, hamsters, diapers and smells! Lose the whiney kids-let Grandma and Grandpa watch them for your showing. Would you go into a job interview smelling like you just ran 10 miles? Would you bring Fido your dog along with Tommy your 3 year old? Well think about it! Neuro psychologists use an acronym called VAK to describe the 3 main senses. VAK means Visual, Auditory, and Kinesthetic. Employ the senses in the staging of your home. The look, the sounds, the feel and the feelings a potential buyer gets all play into that decision to render you an offer. And remember the power that smell and taste play in our motivations. Can you imagine the smell from a dirty diaper? What feelings did that give you? How about the smell of brand new carpeting? That gives me the feeling of a new house. How about you? Does Guns N Roses make for a rich experience? Or does does Mozart? What does the smell of a freshly painted room with new carpet do for you? A fresh summer breeze delivering the hint of jasmine through the open windows? Manicured lawns, flowers, order and cleanliness. Details Details Details... The stove, the fridge cabinets. The presumption will be a meticulously clean home is a well kept home. And let's face it. No one wants to see the remnants of last weeks pot roast, stained across the oven. Make you home look like a show home. Do your doors squeek? Do they feel sturdy? or rickety? Some of these things may not matter to you. I can tell you most do not matter to me. But most people cannot see (or hear or feel) their way past negatives. That someone may be a real buyer, until they get sick from the smell of Fido's dander.
18. Set up a phone hotline. A line for prospective buyers to "qualify" themselves. Your message does all the selling for you. 19. Have a local lender write up three or four loan programs that feature various purchase scenarios. You should be able to get them to do the printing for you as long as they get to show their name. Get them to provide cost estimates for your prospective buyers. 20. Is the Price Right? Make sure you get a price that is right for not only your market but your area. There are many ways to get an estimate of price. In the end though, that is all it is. An estimate. What really determines price is the sweet spot between what a buyer is willing to pay you for your home and the price for which your willing to settle
Guerilla secret: price your home reasonably below your fellow competitors for sale and a bit more than the comparable sales. This technique should be used when you want a faster sale. 21. Demand your buyers to be pre-approved. You can also demand your lender contact to help with pre-approval process. 22. Use the Secret Influencers. Social Psychology has decided that there a few extremely powerful influencers that motivate us so much, that often times we not only don't know that we are being influenced-- but we relish in the process. I will name a couple for you now.... Scarcity- "only two days left", "24 hours and we close are doors forever" Typically we are drawn towards the scarce item or people. We use it all the time. The pursued lover makes herself perhaps more popular than she really is in order to expedite the pursuit. A way to make this work for you is to stage your home so that it is popular. You will make your showings all at the same time. As people all show up in line this creates a perceptual shift of value as it has become a scarce commodity. It is good old fashioned competition. This works because given the time we all will look for a reason not to do something like buy your home. The crowd of people will put positive pressure on each serious buyer. Consensus-If someone important lives in your area make note of that in you presentation. Don't ruin someone's privacy. Just mention something like a Doctor and Architect just bought the house down the street because they love the view and wonderful schools. ( assuming it is true of course). We as humans , when in doubt, like to look to others for decisions. This is why salespeople and marketers like to use testimonials. We want to hear that others made the right choice too. The above example also uses authority. We are motivated by "important" people's opinion. 23. Post your ad on the many fsbo websites. The FSBO resource page has tons of fsbo posting sites for you to use. 24. Post your ad on your own website. Create your best opportunities by staging your home with the natural forces of psychology , human nature, and marketing in your favor. Remember you want to create urgency in your prospects and not show any on your part. I hope you enjoyed this article. You can get this kind of expertise when you work with our for sale by owner partners. Of course if you totally go it alone then check out the BEST SELLING Real Secrets 2002. This is written by an ex Broker who spills the beans and tells all on how to market your home without an agency.
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