How to Sell Your Home in Lakewood Ranch
These days, selling a home in Lakewood Ranch, Florida can be a daunting task, to say the least. Lakewood Ranch homes are now selling for over $100,000 less than just 2 years ago. This is great news for anyone buying a Lakewood Ranch home (the deals are outrageous), but devastating for those trying to sell a Lakewood Ranch home.
However, it is still possible to sell your Lakewood Ranch home, but only if you do your best… only if you do everything you can to go above and beyond what every other home on the market is doing.
First though, you need to understand this basic concept… Selling a home is like selling anything… it’s a business… and like any business, you want to bring as many customers to that business as possible. This is called “driving traffic.” Regardless of what you sell, the best way to make a sale is to generate the most traffic for your business. No traffic = no sale. The same goes for real estate, especially in this tough market. If you want to sell a home in Lakewood Ranch, you need to drive traffic to that home.
Here are several tips to help you generate traffic and sell your home in Lakewood Ranch…regardless of whether you are a FSBO (For Sale By Owner) or using a real estate agent.
- Get listing ~ Obviously, if you are using a real estate agent, then the agent will list you on the MLS. However, if you want to sell your Lakewood Ranch home, it MUST be listed on BOTH Sarasota MLS Y Manatee MLS. This will greatly increase the number of real estate agents that will see your listing and therefore increase the amount of traffic you get. If you are No If you use a real estate agent, you can use a flat rate listing service. You can find a flat fee listing service that will get you listed on both Manatee MLS and Sarasota MLS for just $299. Remember, it’s all about traffic… if you’re not listed on MLS, you just won’t get the traffic. Don’t stop there though…be sure to get listed in other places people might be looking for homes too, like Craigslist, Yahoo Real Estate, Zillow, Truila, Sarasota Herald Tribune and others…
- Use a signature file ~ A signature file (short for “signature” file) is something you can add to the end of EVERY outgoing email you send. Each email service will have a different way of setting up a signature file, but once set up, you’ll never have to think about it again. If you’re using Outlook Express, simply go to tools>>options>>signatures and then type something about selling your house, like “Sit by the pool and drink margaritas while your friends up north freeze. Buy my house in Lakewood Ranch and get a free golf cart.” You can even add a photo of your house. This is a great passive way to promote your home. Every time you send an email, your message will automatically be attached to the bottom. You can set this up for your home email as well as your office email. If you’re one of those people who sends (or forwards) jokes, think about how many more people will know that your house is for sale.
- Create a website ~ Setting up a website these days couldn’t be easier. It costs next to nothing and makes it much easier to market your home. Just think, for any listing you create, you can add your web address, like “Buy this house @ www.[Insert Street Address].com.” Now anyone can visit your website AND once on your site, people can easily add their contact information.
- Think outside the box~ What other ways are there to generate traffic? How else can you get people to notice your house? How can you stand out from all the other homes for sale in Lakewood Ranch? Here’s an idea… try giving something away with the sale of your house. How about a new barbecue? Don’t want to spend money on a new barbecue? Don’t worry… Both Lowes and Home Depot have a 90-day money-back guarantee. Go get a new grille and park it in front of your house with a “free with home sale” sign. If no one buys your house in 90 days, simply return it for a full refund. This kind of “outside the box” thinking will make your Lakewood Ranch home stand out and drive more traffic to your home.
Once again, when it comes to selling a home in Lakewood Ranch, the old methods, while good, just aren’t good enough anymore. If you really want to sell your home in Lakewood Ranch, you MUST stand out from the crowd, you MUST drive traffic to your home. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket…everything helps and it’s the people who go the extra mile that can sell a home in Lakewood Ranch.