Discover Seb Frey’s Marketing Plan
Seb Frey developed and employs an effective and comprehensive Marketing Plan. The plan has these primary objectives:
- Get you to net the most possible money at closing
- Get the home sold in a time frame that is most convenient for you
- Keep you informed, every step of the way
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Our marketing plan includes many features which you won’t find in a typical real estate marketing plan, including:
Designed to Please: Your satisfaction and delight are crucially important to us. Because of this, we are compelled to offer our clients several key advantages over typical real estate marketing plans. These include a written variable commission, an “easy-out” clause (fire us at any time if you become unsatisfied), and a communication commitment (you’ll always know what’s going on with the marketing and sale of your home).
Home Inspection and Termite Inspection: Whether you decide to sell your home “as-is” or “as-repaired, move-in ready” – you’ll want to get a termite inspection and a home inspection before you put your house on the market. I’m such a big believer in getting these inspections done up front – because it’s one of the best ways to ensure you get maximum price for your home – that I will pay for these inspections out of my commission upon the successful close of sale.††
“For Sale” Sign: When we receive phone calls on listed properties, much of the time it is in response to someone having seen a “For Sale” sign posted on a lawn. With your approval, a sign will be posted on your property, telling the world 24/7 that it is on the market.
Property Flyers: The “For Sale” sign includes a flyer box, and we will deliver to you an ample supply of flyers so you can refill the box the moment you see flyers are running low. We don’t list the price on the flyers – we want buyers to call or visit the web site to inquire, so we can work on getting the buyers in the door to see your property, which is the best way to get it home sold.
Print Advertising: even in these high tech times, print advertising continues to reach enormous numbers of eyes. To ensure maximum exposure, a coordinated print campaign will be employed to help market the property. The campaign consists of:
- Mailing “just listed” cards to closest neighbors
- Mail “just listed” cards to buyers interested in such property
- Full-color add in Coastal Homes and/or Homes Magazines
- Advertise open houses in local Newspaper of Record
Posting on the Multiple Listing Service: your property will be listed with the local Multiple Listing Service (MLS) – complete with color photographs of the most attractive features of the property. This is an invaluable service in the real estate business. The MLS system is used by every Realtor® in the five-county area (Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, San Benito, Monterey, and San Mateo), and over 11,000 Realtors have access to the system. When a Buyer’s Agent goes to look for properties to show a client, the MLS system is the first place to be checked.
Electronic Key Box: No-hassle access to a property is crucial to getting it shown, and sold. With the owner’s approval, we will place an electronic key box on the property. This will make it much easier for other Realtors to show the property to prospective buyers – thereby increasing the number of showings. More showings will usually yield more offers, and more offers will often mean a greater price. A property without an electronic key box may mean that the right buyer never sees the property, because it could not be shown when the buyer was hot.
Internet Advertising: the listing will be submitted to several high-traffic web sites, including:
- Realtor.com – National Association of Realtors
- Mlslistings.com – the Multiple Listing Service
- Homes.yahoo.com – Yahoo Homes
- Trulia.com – Trulia
- Zillow.com – Zillow
- Craigslist.com– Craigslist
- SellForSure.com – our custom landing page for buyer lead capture!
Facebook: We have multiple Facebook fan pages, and over 1,000 personal friends on the platform. Using promoted posts and special offers we will drive traffic to your home’s listing on the internet, and from there to the open houses.
Craigslist: all listings are advertised at least twice weekly on Craigslist to make sure the most eyeballs are on the property. Additionally, all open houses are advertised on Craigslist.
Virtual Tour: Hire a professional firm to photograph your property and create a high-quality Virtual Tour of it. This tour will be linked from all of the above web sites. This is an invaluable sales tool, since the professionals that put these tours together showcase your home in the best possible light! It helps to get buyers interested in your home, calling to inquire, and then actually in through the front door!
E-Mail info to other top agents: As a real estate professional, I am in frequent contact with other professionals in the area. I will send electronic brochures of your property to agents who I know are likely to have clients who may be interested in your property.
Craft a “Love Letter” for your house: I will help you create a “Love Letter” from you to your house which will be presented to the prospective buyers, helping them see and feel the best aspects of your home to connect with it on a personal, emotional level.
Schedule Multiple Listing Service tour: Also every week, local agents hold a “Broker’s Open Tour.” This is an opportunity for all the thousands of agents in the area to see your property, and be able to tell their buyers about it.
Open House: holding a house open is one of the best ways to meet the right buyer. We will ensure that the property is held open so that it can be appreciated first-hand by a large number of potential buyers. The property will be held open on the weekends, the time when many buyers are out looking at property.
Obtain buyer/agent feedback: We will solicit feedback from all agents who show the property as regards to pricing and the impressions the buyer and the agent had about the property, and communicate that feedback directly to you.
Keep you informed as to all neighborhood activity: The real estate market is very dynamic, and it is important to know what changes are happening in your neighborhood. We will set up an automated system to send you updates in near real time as new listings come on in your area, when properties go under contract, and when they sell.
The Strategy Behind the SellForSure Plan
The plain truth is that the best chance most sellers have to get maximum price for their property is to ignite a bidding war among buyers, and the way to get a bidding war going is to price the property correctly, prepare it for sale such that it has the widest possible appeal, and aggressively market the property as quickly as possible. The strategy to achieve this result is simple, and is as follows:
- Prepare the property for sale – using the steps outlined in the Guide to Preparing, Maintaining, and Showing your Home to Sell in Seconds. This includes getting inspections, doing repairs, cleaning, landscaping, and staging.
- Prepare all the marketing material – including virtual tour, web site, “love letter” to the house, postcards for the neighbors advising them the house will soon be for sale, etc. This includes placing a “For Sale” sign on the property.
- Put the home on the sale on the MLS towards the beginning of the week. A “just listed” e-mail is sent to hundreds of local brokers, alerting them of the new listing. During that week, agents from my office will come through the property to tour it. Also during that week, the Broker’s Open Tour will take place on Thursday, allowing brokers to preview the home for their clients.
- Hold an Open House, on either Saturday or Sunday, or both days, as is convenient for the homeowner.
- Review any offers on Tuesday after the Open House.
- If there are no offers at this point, hold a broker’s open house again that week, and another round of open houses on the weekend, with the expectation of reviewing offers the following Tuesday.
The key to this system is two-fold: set the right price for the property, and promote it with an aggressive marketing campaign. A well priced property, properly marketed, is sure to receive tremendous attention from the buying public, and is likely to receive multiple offers, assuming that there are no issues with access and sufficient buyers are able to tour the home preparatory to writing an offer.
The goal of the marketing campaign is to generate multiple offers, and sell over asking price. It is a far better situation to have multiple offers to chose from, and to work those buyers against each other to get the best price, than to have only one offer on the home – this puts the seller in a much weaker negotiating position than if there are other buyers clamoring for the property.
†† Home and Termite Inspections: the listing agent will agree to credit the seller, from the listing agent’s commission at close of sale, the costs paid by the seller for the home and termite inspections obtained at seller’s expense, up to a maximum combined cost of $650. This money is to be credited back to the seller on the closing closing statement, and is contingent upon this being permitted under the terms of any short sale agreement, if applicable.
