Friday, October 12, 2012 1:46 PM

Marketing your home can be an expensive outlay, so making sure that your property is getting value for the money spent is important. So what are the best ways to market your property and what are the new and innovative marketing media being used? Over the next few weeks, I will give you my insights into the various marketing tools I use, and what are the most appropriate for different types of properties.

Marketing property is not a case of “what fits for one fits for all”. Targeting the marketing to your buyer is the most effective; therefore we need to know who is going to buy your property before we begin.

As a homeowner, you will probably already know who the buyer will be. They would be similar to you at the time that you purchased the property. Writing a small account of why you purchased your home and the things that you love most about living there, gives your salesperson a great insight into the potential buyer and the aspects of the home to focus on when presenting, and writing marketing material.

Now you have the target market established, you need to decide on where and what do they use to view available properties. Let’s look at the various marketing tools starting with signs.

A great sign can be the most cost effective form of marketing, especially on a busy road with hundreds of cars going by. A good sign should tempt the buyer, a beautiful photo, some crucial information about the property like the number of bedrooms, size of land and added benefits, like swimming pools etc. Don’t clutter the sign, let the property speak for itself and tempt buyers to ring for a viewing or advertise the open home times if they are consistent every week. If you have priced your property, don’t be afraid to list the price on the sign, but make sure it is realistic. Price reductions on signs tend to devalue rather than enhance the property. Only have one sign on a property, more than one could be illegal and it starts to look cluttered and unattractive, and could indicate desperation by the seller. If you live down a right of way, you may need to put the address on the sign, or possibly look at getting permission from your local council to have it erected on the grass verge so it is more noticeable. Don’t leave a sign up for months, they start looking faded and tatty and clearly indicates to the market that the property has been on the market for a long time.