Where do homebuyers come from? Not geographically – but how do buyers learn about the homes they ultimately purchase?

 Let’s consider some of the obvious ways homebuyers learn about the home they purchase.

 It makes sense for you as a seller to take full advantage of all of the “weapons” at your disposal to locate a homebuyer as quickly as possible. There are many surveys which attempt to distribute credit to the different segments listed above. Let’s forget about the distribution because it really doesn’t matter. All that really matters is for you to develop strategies and implement the tools available to you. When you implement all of the tools possible, selling your home becomes much simpler. That means that you can net the most money possible. Maybe more important, once you’ve sold your home it takes a lot of pressure off so that you can go on with your plans.

 As you look over this list, most are obvious as to their importance in any strategy to sell a home. The one, which may not be so familiar, is the last item “Direct and Indirect Referral Marketing”.

 What Is Direct and Indirect Referral Marketing?

 You know Kevin and Traci Jones. They have been looking for a house in a neighborhood where your son’s friend lives. It’s someone that you know at work. They’ve just moved into the area and haven’t been able to find the right home in the neighborhood. One of your friends from church tells you about their friends who have been transferred and decide to sell their house. It sounds like a house that might suit Kevin and Traci. The next day at work, you tell Kevin that he might want to take a look at the house. Kevin and Traci set up an appointment to look at the house and, sure enough, it works just right and they decide to buy the house.

Sounds kind of like “word of mouth” and something that’s just “luck”. Everybody knows that you can’t control luck.

 No, you can’t control luck but there are several proven strategies, which will help you to increase your possibilities to reach homebuyers through Direct and Indirect Referral Marketing.

Who cares that you are going to sell your house?

 Believe it or not, you know lots of people.

Make a list of the people you know who might be able to influence and reach out to prospects that you don’t know. Include neighbors, friends, family, associates at work, church, civic organizations, professional organizations, let your imagination run wild! The point behind this exercise is that there are literally hundreds of people you may know directly and indirectly who might know someone who is looking for a home and might just be interested in you home.

In fact, studies indicate that people who are familiar with your house might be favorably disposed to recommend that one of their friends or contacts strongly consider buying your house. It’s also very common for neighbors to want to get close friends move into their neighborhood. From my own experience, I know that every time a house goes on the market in my neighborhood, I’m always thinking through my friends trying to think of someone who I’d like to have living down the street from my family. You can easily get a list of your neighbors from such resources as homeowners associations or reverse directories.

Why not follow the steps many real estate professionals use when they list a home?

If you live in a neighborhood, you receive postcards from the agent who’s listed the property for sale. Most of the time, these cards tend to be designed more to appeal to the agent’s vanity than to sell the house. (You know “… Multi-Million Dollar Producer…President’s Club, Etc.”).

Let’s forget the vanity approach because you aren’t trying to sell image. You’re just letting friends, neighbors and business associates know about your house!

 Create postcards that you can mail to your neighbors or friends. Include important information and a photograph of the house. Remember, you’re not promoting an image only trying to make people aware of the value you are offering. 

Click to view a sample postcard

 Drop these cards in the mail to the list of people you put together.

Create a several business-sized cards which you can hand out when you meet someone or run into somebody you may not have thought about. They are convenient to carry and contain the information folks will need to learn how to contact you to gain more information.