Downsizer's Bridge To The New Marketplace
Between former expectations and the current expectations of that family looking to make your house their loving home, there can be a huge marketing gap. The Watty Way is here to help you get over this gap smoothly, with the Downsizer's Bridge to the New Marketplace.
When you are looking at marketing your home for sale, AND especially when you have been in your home for over ten years (yes, just ten years), there will be a large gap between how Buyers used to shop for homes, and how they shop for homes now. Buyers for homes like yours don't shop for homes anywhere close the same way as they used to. If you haven't bought a home in over twenty years, then I might as well start typing in Egyptian hieroglyphics – everything has changed.
Realtors No Longer Have A Listing Book
The way you bought your home, and your expectations of a Realtor from that era (other than their personal character) DO NOT MATTER. If a Realtor can get away with doing all that you would've needed to attract your interest twenty plus years ago, then they are getting off easy – and that's precisely what a lot of Realtors will do, why not? They're happy, you don't know any better, and that Buyer or their Realtor that digs a little deeper gets a GREAT deal. And you never know, your own Realtor might even have their own Buyer – how easy is that? (my tongue can not get any deeper in my cheek).
You want your home advertised in the Real Estate Magazine? Depending on which one you want to use, then that can be accommodated, as listings in a magazine are always nice on a Realtor's ego, and lets our own contacts know that we're still selling nice houses. If you want your home advertised in the local newspaper? OK, well maybe in the Saturday morning homes section, and if we're lucky we might get one somewhat interested buyer to come to the open house based upon the one exterior picture and 40 character shorthanded property description – "Big 4br 3bth 2storey w/ lrg fenced yard, close to Empire school, new roof (2016), front windows (2010), furnace/AC (2013) – Won't last!!!"...
Attention Is The New Currency
The move-up Buyers that I work with, the ones that are making the type of money to buy homes like yours, are not reading print advertising. These young urban professionals of my generation all have a degree of attention deficit disorder; they work to their strengths and play within their strengths. To these Buyers, being a jack of all trades means they are masters of none. They have been getting bonus points and sparkly stars for being themselves and special little angels for as far back as they can remember, and some even call their parents by their first names. Though I make light of what may seem to be imbalances, they are exceptionally proficient at what they do, because that's all they do, and thus that specialist skillset is rewarded with a nice, tidy income. They are not interested in playing anyone else's game but their own. That's why I'm earnestly trying to convince you to either play in the Buyer's court, or not bother playing the game. We can't actually win, if these Buyers aren't even showing up to play.
...And It's NOT JUST The MLS
These Buyers for your home have become accustomed to Google, YouTube, Instagram and Facebook monitoring their people, patterns and preferences, and in turn adjusting advertising content to their interests. These buyers only see advertisements for products and services that would be of interest to specifically them, all in a way that these marketers know will be appealing. Keeping this in mind, when these Buyers are already outside of their comfort zone, tediously struggling to navigate through the www.realtor.ca website (which most of them have accepted as a necessary evil) and see your golf/luncheon friend's listing with 10 poorly lit pictures from their phone camera, with standard bricks and mortar bio – these Buyers are quick to swipe anything boring away on their tablets, phones or touchscreens.
Customized and catchy social media campaigns with an extra 5000+ impressions in the first week (over and above the MLS) cannot be undervalued. Especially when it's the wife who suggests it is time to look at this house (as certain things have not changed one bit).
Be where the fish are, if you want to catch the Big One. The Watty Way can take you there.
Hopefully you are just in the initial stages of thinking about a downsize, so you have time to visit the Real Estate Planning and Lifestyle Marketing pages, not to mention Buying a Lifestyle (which would probably be of value to you as well). If it has been a long time since you have bought and sold, then visit all the pages, especially I like Coffee or better.
