According to the National Association of Realtors® Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers new home Buyers use a wide range of resources in searching for a home.
- 90% use a real estate agent
- 77% use the Internet
- 51% go to open houses
- 50% use the newspaper
"Use of the Internet in searching for a home has risen dramatically along with the level of Internet penetration," according to David Lereah, NAR's chief economist.
With more home buyers shopping on the Internet is critical to have the best presentation of your listing as soon as it goes on the market. This includes having multiple photos, engaging text, and as much detail as possible so the buyer and agent can make an educated decision to preview your home.
Prior to his real estate career, Roger Walker worked intensely for two years developing an Internet marketing business model. Roger has an in-depth understanding of Internet users including both visual preferences and website functionality. Roger was also the lead team consultant for ERA Tradewind in helping to completely rebuild the company’s website in April 2005.
With nearly 77% of new homebuyers use the Internet to search for properties, the need for a strong Internet presence has become critical to success. The Tucker-Walker Group will post your listing in as many areas available to best showcase your home to buyers and agents. In addition to the MLS, your property will be listed on the following Internet real estate destinations:
Realtor.com is the world’s #1 real estate destination for buyers searching on the Internet. The Tucker-Walker Group has made an extra investment for our sellers to be part of the ‘Showcase’ product that allows for more photos, virtual tours, enhanced remarks and the Showcase banner highlighting your home. Our service also provides you a weekly report on the number of visits to your home’s listing, keeping you aware of the market’s interest in your property.
ColoProperty.com is Colorado’s Front Range public destination for homebuyers on the Internet. When your listing is posted on the MLS it is automatically downloaded to ColoProperty which can accommodate detailed remarks, multiple photos and virtual tours.
REColorado.com is Colorado’s Denver Metro public destination for homebuyers. All properties from Broomfield to the South Denver area will be featured. When your listing is posted on the MLS it is automatically downloaded to REColorado, providing detailed remarks, multiple photos and virtual tours.
TuckerWalkerGroup.com - The Tucker-Walker Group website is continually on the cutting edge to offer the most up to date technology and information for our clients and visitors. Our Featured Listings show our current inventory, plus we offer direct links to search properties on Realtor.com, ColoProperty and REColorado accessing both the Denver & Boulder MLS systems. Our Service Directory is a popular destination for our visitors looking for qualified professionals to help in all areas of home ownership. The Tucker-Walker Group makes every effort to advertise and spread the word of our website to generate the most traffic for our listing clients.
Craig’s List – More and more people are also searching the real estate postings on Craig’s List to find their next home. The potential for buyers who do not have a buyer’s agent may be greater for shoppers on Craig’s thus saving our seller thousands of dollars from paying a buyers agent commission.
Through our web developer we are able to create a unique destination website showcasing your home on the Internet. This website can include multiple photos, custom copy, maps, school info and whatever else is valuable to your buyers. We will purchase a unique, easy to remember, domain name for your property and the website address will be advertised on Realtor.com, the local MLS, property flyers and on a sign rider for the listing sign in your yard.
Some examples of custom websites we have done are:
An important marketing service to consider is especially helpful for homes that are vacant. Many times potential buyers have a hard time imagining what the home will look like without furniture and can not see beyond the bare walls. We can arrange for a professional interior designer to evaluate your home and ‘stage’ the home for a set fee with quality, name-brand, furniture, tables, place settings, carpets, plants and everything necessary to make your house look like a home. The designer can also work with your existing furniture to make suggestions, adjust furniture and add accents to make your home more saleable.
Anyone who has searched for property on their own on the Internet can appreciate homes that have really good photos versus homes that have really bad photos or no photos at all! The Tucker-Walker Group is committed to getting the best visual presentation of your listing as possible. As part of our service we will hire a professional photographer to take multiple interior, exterior, and neighborhood photos to encourage agents and buyers to come see your home. To see some of our listings go to www.roblarsen.com/re/tuckwalk/.
A new video service has also proven successful to attract buyers to our listings. More effective than virtual tours which link together multiple photos to assimilate movement our videographer shoots a live video complete with text captions to introduce different areas of the home. Appropriate background music accompanies the video to create a welcoming package to all viewers. The video, which easily streams on almost all bandwidths, is then posted on the MLS, Realtor.com and ColoProperty.com for all to see. Two examples are:
We have the ability to email ‘blast’ all of the agents in the Boulder area with an announcement of your new listing. These are full 4-color emails, with photos, comments and pertinent information, totally customizable to your needs that will arrive in every agent’s mailbox.
The Tucker-Walker Group has had tremendous success in securing buyers from open houses. In fact, nearly 50% of our listings from the past five years have sold as the result of an open house visitor. Most importantly if we secure an unrepresented buyer, you as the homeowner can potentially save thousands of dollars by not having to pay the buyer’s agent commission.
Public open houses are best attended on the weekends and usually last for two to three hours. The open house will be advertised in the weekend Daily Camera in the Open House calendar. We will also position directional open house signs at key high traffic areas to attract buyers from the road.
If we decide to do public open houses your listing will appear in the Daily Camera weekend Open House calendar. The Tucker-Walker Group can also design a feature ad for your property to run in the Daily Camera.
Since the advent of the Internet, the importance of expensive advertising in print media has diminished significantly. Virtually all high-end buyers who are actively seeking a home use a real estate broker to arrange their viewings of homes, so if a proper marketing job has been done with the brokers, the necessity of print advertising is further lessened.
Anyone seeking a home in the Boulder/Denver area will almost certainly be aware of your home from the Internet, their realtor and the Daily Camera. Our previous experience has been that these resources are adequate to move our properties quickly.
However, multiple impressions are certainly a benefit, and if the above efforts are not successful in the first 60 days, we would suggest that you consider overlaying your marketing effort with a quarter page ad in the Boulder Homes & Land free magazine and a classified ad in the Southwest Edition Real Estate section of the Wall Street Journal.
We will place a listing sign in the most prominent area of your yard to offer the best visibility. We will provide a direct contact number of your Tucker-Walker agent as well as a 24-hour number for agents to call to set up showings.
We will provide you with a continuous supply of 4-color flyers so you can restock when the supply runs low. We can also create a sign-rider that lists a unique web address so realtors and prospects who see the sign while driving by can visit the property online.
The Tucker-Walker Group can create professionally designed mailings that will be sent to neighbors, potential clients, agents and other valuable contacts notifying them of your newly listed home or other related news. These mailings can include just listed postcards, open house announcements, broker open house events, and more.
As part of our MLS system each time an agent shows your property they will receive an email requesting the buyer’s and agent’s feedback relating to their overall impression, price and interest in your home. We will also directly contact the agent to get more detailed feedback. All showing activity and feedback will be immediately relayed to our client so that you stay current with what the marketplace is saying about your listing.
We can set up an automated email monitor through our MLS system that will notify you of any activity in your neighborhood including houses that sold, new listings, under contracts and price reductions.
Aside from the above mentioned advertising and marketing services, the Tucker-Walker Group is committed to helping you get your property in the best condition prior to going active. We understand that you may not have the time and energy to do all it takes to get your property ready, so as part of our service we can help coordinate and pay for any two of the following additional services to get your house in top showing condition:
- a pre-inspection by a qualified home inspector to identify any critical areas that need repair to avoid any surprises during the under contract period
- window cleaning – interior & exterior
- house cleaning inclusive of floors, cabinets, appliances and bathrooms
- professional carpet cleaning service to clean all carpeted areas in your home
- two-hour home staging consultation by a reputable home staging service
- furnace cleaning and certification
- fireplace certification
- moving truck rental for one day
We are so committed to achieving your goals that if for any reason you are unsatisfied with our efforts and results you may terminate your listing contract with us at any time during the listing period at no obligation.
Our previous clients will attest that we go far beyond what other agents are willing to do to get your house sold. Our rates are competitive with other agents while we provide our clients far superior value through our dedicated customer service - and by selling homes faster and at the highest price, thus saving our clients time, money and stress of being on the market longer than necessary.
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