Advertising property online is the way to reach the highest number of potential buyers. More than 90 percent of people who set out to buy a piece of property use the Internet to conduct their search. The competition just to catch readers’ attention can be fierce, so property sellers need to learn ways to make their advertisements stand out. Writing effective ads, taking great photographs, and listing property in the right places are all necessary. If a seller has the time and the skills, advertising property online can even be done for little or no cost.
Word choices often play a big part in whether buyers examine a property further than reading an ad about it. Sellers should use specific descriptive words when advertising property online. For example, readers don’t respond as well to generic adjectives like "pretty" or "amazing." Instead, sellers should try to use more specific terms like "oak" or "granite" to describe parts of a home, because this is often more effective. A seller should include the best features of the property in his or her description. If the property is being listed in an online MLS board or another classified site, the ad may be limited to a finite number of characters. If necessary, appropriate abbreviations, such as W/D for washer and dryer or A/C for air conditioning, should be used.
Buyers are much more likely to examine a property further if the ad contains photographs. If the seller doesn’t have the necessary skills or a high-resolution camera, he is usually better off hiring a professional photographer who has experience in advertising property online. The house should be perfectly clean both inside and out; toys should be picked up and put away inside, and the exterior of the home shouldn’t have garbage cans, cars, or other items in view. A tripod should always be used for interior photographs so that the walls don’t appear slanted.
The seller should research the top sites in her region for advertising property online. This can be done by examining the number of homes sold through a particular site and tracking the amount of time that properties have been listed and what the various sites’ conversion rates are. Many of these sites will require a fee, so the seller should choose ones that are most likely to attract a high number of viewers. Sellers should also take advantage of sites that allow free classified ads, especially ones that accept photographs.
