The successful sale of your home requires a marketing strategy that is changing every day.  By far the most important consideration right now is how to deal with the current Covid-19 Pandemic.  As a REALTOR® on the leading edge of technology, I strongly suggest the use of a video tour of your home as a “first look” for prospective buyers, a proactive agent will suggest a 360° virtual tour.  This may add a few days to the process, but it will be better for everyone as a result.  If you’re an investor that is selling a property with tenants currently within the home, it cannot be shown per the Governor’s mandate.

Marketing your home is much more than just snapping a few pictures and throwing it on the Multiple Listing Service.  You should be advised as to the current market and requirements for the various types of loans, the processing and timelines of those loans and any requirements they might have.  Cash is always the simplest and fastest way to sell a home. A cash sale can happen in as little as a week from listing to sold!  Each type of loan has different advantages and limitations, with most homes sales being open to all forms of payment, be it FHA, VA, Conventional, Cash or 1031 Exchange.  Below you will find some general thoughts about each, These are basic points and should not be considered legal or financial advice, speak with your accountant or a qualified loan officer for more details.  By allowing as many types of payment as possible, you will be able to offer your home to the largest pool of buyers possible.

CASH:

The fastest, no maximum value and no appraisal required.
PRO
Fastest close possible!
No appraisal required

CON
Cash buyers usually expect a lower price

1031 Exchange:

PRO
Nearly as easy as cash
No appraisal required
No bank approval required
If a buyer selects your property it will be one of 3 possibilities (Pro or Con?)

CONVENTIONAL LOAN:

Depending on the lender 20 days or more are needed for the paperwork, which will require an appraisal.
PRO
The buyers have a strong financial history
In general faster processing than Government-backed loans
Less regulation on selected properties

CON
An appraisal is required
Loan limitation, just over $500,000 in Clark County

VA LOAN:

A VA loan also has loan maximums, but Veterans often buy comfortably well beyond those limitations. In addition to the appraisal a termite inspection will be required. These loans can move as fast as a conventional loans although 40+ days is not uncommon.
PRO
Buyers can finance the full price
You can help support those that have served for us
No limit to the purchase price, if the Service Member has strong reserves

CON
Sellers must pay for a pest inspection
Slightly longer processing time
Loans in Clark County limited to just under $500,000
The required appraisal also has inspection requirements
Amendatory clause regarding appraisal

FHA LOANS

A buyer using a FHA loan will need about 30 days to complete the transaction, there are however limits to the maximum loan value.
PRO
Many more buyers qualify
Grant programs help buyers

CON
Loan amount limitations under $350,000 for a single family residence
Processing time of a government loan
Once an appraisal has been done, that value is locked for 6 months
Amendatory clause regarding appraisal

Market Position Strategies

One of the most important things you can do is check your Calendar.  Sometimes your schedule will define your marketing strategy, let’s take a look at some of the basic strategies.

Quickest:  iBuyer programs.  No need to paint or fix things and on your schedule, usually at an expense to your net proceeds.  It’s a way to go if you just want out quick.

Traditional: Start by contacting a local REALTOR® to review the estimated current value.  They should provide you with a market summary including at least 3 homes of similar properties, including information on how fast they sold.  Some markets are faster than others, but this will help you to understand the position of your home in the current market.

Price High: If Your home has special features or other upgrades, you might want to list a bit above the “average sales price”, but you want to be realistic.  A marketing plan like this should include a scheduled price reduction until the home is sold or the listing canceled.

Price Low:  After considering the value of your home you know you want to sell it as quick and painless as possible.  This matches well with the iBuyer programs, but limits marketing your home possibly resulting in a lower sales price.  On a basic level a lower listing price will result in a faster sale and might better fit your timeline.

Listing Images

Now that you know what types of payments you will consider and the marketing strategy that fits your needs the best, it’s time to look into the appearance of your home.  Our current marketing trend has most people searching for homes on their phone or at least viewing information about homes, while out shopping. Because of that having top quality pictures is more important than ever, and having them will help you to develop a buyer’s interest in viewing your home! The reality is that if you don’t have professional quality images, your home may not be added to the maximum number of lists that potential homes buyers are looking at.
Before having the images or video taken there are a few things you can do to make your home look more inviting.

Tidy Up
Declutter, clean windows, scuffed doors and spots on walls and flooring, change burnt out light bulbs, trim overgrown landscaping.

Curb Appeal
As the buyers drive up what will they see? Most buyers have a gut instinct anywhere from turning the corner onto your street to about 2 minutes after they entered your front door. Make sure they have a good feeling at first look. If you have a landscape service already working you will look good, but at a minimum you or someone else should make the yard look its best.

Daily Duties
Little things like dishes, laundry or even looking after pets can stack up in a hurry when we get busy. Keeping on top of daily chores will help your visitors notice your home, not you! Looking your best might mean a few extra loads of laundry, but it will be well worth the effort.

Security During Visitation
Opening your home to be visited by the public is the best way to sell it, but that comes with potential risks also.  Before allowing anyone in your home, you should make an effort to safeguard things such as anything fragile, money,  important paperwork, firearms, pets, jewelry and anything you consider valuable.  Should anything turn up missing or broken, there will be a short list of people to speak with, but it is far easier to avoid potential loss by taking a few extra
steps to protect your investments before any visitation.

With regard to Covid-19, there has been a shift to virtual visitation utilizing either a walk-through video created by the listing agent or a live streaming video of your home.  Live streaming will allow your listing agent, the buyers’ agent or even you to use Zoom, Facebook, Face Time or other live streaming services to allow buyers to ask for a detailed view of things that are important to them.  This is a safer approach to a “first look”, but in the end most buyers will want to see
your home with their own eyes to get a feel for the property before writing an offer. If you are living in your home as it’s marketed, requesting a 24 hrs notice is easy to work with in most cases.

360° Virtual Tours

Covid-19 has changed the way we buy and sell homes, the use of a 360° tour and or a video walk through is almost a necessity!  I’ve recently added this to my marketing and look forward to offering more information on this soon.  If your not familiar with a 360° virtual tour,  please take a look at a recent listing, that utilizes this new technology by clicking the following link  360° virtual tour.

Agent visits

By far, having your home available to be viewed at any time helps the buyers agents schedule a visit.  Your listing agent should address the need for sanitizing your home following any showing, not only for your safety, but for the next visitors as well.  The Las Vegas MLS has a system that can schedule appointments called Showingtime.  Using Showingtime  will schedule blocks of time that your property can be seen, allowing buyers” agents to work around your schedule.  Again, if you are living in your home as you market it, requesting a 24 hrs notice is easy to work with.

During the current pandemic, use of streaming video is a great first step in allowing  everyone to see your home, without having everyone visit.  A live tour can be scheduled via Showingtime,  allowing your listing agent, the buyers agent or even you to utilize any number of streaming services like face time, Face Book live or even Zoom to live stream a viewing.  This will likely be how open houses will be conducted for some time.

Open house:
Currently, due to the Governor’s directive, the activity of an Open House has been stopped, in an effort to curb the spread of illness.

Social Marketing:
Many agents are using platforms like Facebook and Instagram to promote their listings.  After working on the Internet since 1998, I can say that this may generate a few additional views to your property, but currently it is a bit more Sizzle than Sale.  The reason behind that is most buyers know the size of the home they are looking for, in and the area
they are interested in.  Most, if not all, of these social marketing opportunities have no way to search for these specifics.  It falls along the line of even a blind squirrel can find an acorn.  It is far better to have an agent that understands Search Engine Optimization or SEO and how to leverage exposure within the larger real estate-based websites that will display syndicated information about properties available.  If you found this website via a search of your favorite search engine, you have already seen that I am capable of doing the same for your home.

International buyers:
If your home is in a higher price bracket, syndication of your listing on an international level is offered through most brokerages.  Speak with your listing agent to verify this part of the marketing.  Marketing on an international level means that your buyer is likely going to make a decision based purely on the images and any video available, making it that much more important that you have top notch professional images to make your home look it’s best!