3 Ways to Increase Home Buyer Traffic

How many of you agree that first impressions are important? Most of us make judgment calls on first impressions.

Drawing home buyers to the property is three fold: online presence, outside presentation (i.e. curb appeal) and interior presentation.

The primary objective of the ads are to get home buyers to the property. The objective to the curb appeal is to draw them inside the property and finally the objective of the interior presentation is to draw homebuyers to make an offer.

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From Newsstand to Net News

Newspaper advertisement is out and internet is in, no new news there. However, for some of us reading news on a monitor isn't the most enjoyable mode of reading. For me, I like the feel of paper, the newspaper experience - flipping through from cover to cover, scribbling notes, highlighting and cutting out articles and then they get recycled. On the other hand, as it pertains to real estate, placing advertisement online has been more advantageous, productive and more lucrative (better advertisement dollar spent) than newspaper ads.

In the past, many of my clients have asked that their properties be advertised in the newspaper because of familiarity. From the sales side it promoted no potential buyers or with very little to no responses from these ads. There were more responses from online ads, with occasional calls from property flyers and sale posts than from newspaper ads. The face of commerce has become so integrated, our economy so interwoven internationally, travel more accessible, and jobs crossing national and international boundaries that properties without an online presence would be foolhardy.

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Closing Dilemma

In the heydays of zero down loans, the turnaround time for closing was fairly quick...even had a quote to close in eight hours with a buyer in good credit and healthy savings. In today's market we can expect closing to take longer than 30 days. Closing may depend on loan types, underwriting guidelines and changes to them, bank loans versus loan brokers, and other appendage factors, i.e. business hours, communication. Too many cooks in the kitchen can lead to a lengthy closing...too much red tape (bureaucracy), broken communication, emotional brawl, verbal tussle and just strong raw human reactions...almost sounds like an episode of the National Geographic.

Paint Squabble

A long break from work does a great deal of good – helps reboot the human ambition.

I visited a friend of mine whose parents had been “discussing” paint color for over the past 20 (twenty) years...yeah you heard right…TWENTY years. Neither of them had come to an agreement until now.

This friend…we shall call her “Jane” as she prefers to remain anonymous…she and I took a trip to a nearby store. She asked some questions about what paint colors would do well to sell a house. I gave her some suggestions about bright, light, and cheerful colors (neutral colors with brighter tones). Our conversation hovered between green and yellow. Her parents had strong preferences. Her father was adamant that the paint color did not resemble anything coming out of a baby’s bottom and no yellow as it reminds him of his neighbor. Her mother on the other hand wanted something more blue.

In short, “Jane” had to use her good sales skill to sell a color that would appeal to both parents and at the same time choose a color that would help sell their house.

Here are a few questions to consider when choosing paint colors:

1. Are you painting to selling the house or are you painting to give your house a face lift?
2. Are you painting to match history or to emulate history?
3. Does your neighbors’ opinion matter? Will conforming to the neighborhood’s color palette be important?
4. Are there HOA (Homeowner Association) paint color restrictions?
5. Are you painting the interior or exterior of the house?
6. Does paint durability matter?
7. Will paint maintenance matter? Glossy, semi-glossy, or flat paint?
8. Can you live with it?