The Game Plan - Organic Growth

Continuing the Game Plan, your home would already be prepared to go on the market. As the seller, you should have a signed contract, a fixed, cleaned, and staged home, and professional-quality photographs (if not, go back). You should also have a detailed and thorough description written, room features and dimensions already taken, and all the supplements necessary to get the home sold.

Now that your listing is promotion ready, it is time to begin an Internet marketing plan to knock out the competition. In an effort to achieve organic growth on a small scale, there are some key websites that will get the word out there more effectively than others. Most are common knowledge, but some might be new to you. Those that are not so common, set my business apart from the rest. Despite my disclosure of all my 'little secrets', there is still an innate understanding of how these websites work together that differentiates myself from the Realtors in town.

So, now that we understand how important the Internet is, where do I go as a Realtor or a seller, for the most impact?

• MLS: The Multiple Listing Service is the comprehensive list of homes and their properties, exclusive to agents in their particular location. In more detail, it is a database where Realtors can upload their listing for other Realtors to see;
• Zillow/Trulia: In some areas, putting the home on the MLS automatically syndicates (or feeds) it to Zillow and Trulia. Worth noting: these two companies are now one single entity. If your broker or MLS does not allow listings on these websites, a tool such as Postlets (below) can be used to syndicate to these websites, and many more;
• Social Networks: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Vine, LinkedIn, etc. etc. I have written tutorials on how to use some of these social networks, and how to set them up for your use. In a nutshell, you should pick the social network you use most, or where you have the biggest following, and focus on that one, or those two (See what I did there?). Spreading yourself too thin works against you in social media, unless you have a million followers, or someone managing it for you;
• Postlets: Postlets is a tool that transforms your listing into an optimally designed representation of the home. It then allows you to expose it to multiple real estate websites, most prominently Zillow/Trulia, but also Yahoo Homes, Hotpads.com, and more. This website also automatically creates the HTML code (all you have to do is copy and paste) to put the listing on Craigslist;
  
• YouTube: If you make a video, your channel on YouTube will be an additional medium for marketing the listing. You can create a virtual tour, or get a camera and get creative with video and programs like iMovie on Macbooks. Either way, something 1-3 minutes is a nice way to stand out from your competition.
  

This is by no means all-encompassing. The Internet is a vast playground, and if you seek, you shall find. I have taken this marketing plan and brought it a step further, by learning the nuances of real estate analytics on this small scale. That can be covered in another blog post in the future.

I would also suggest combining this with a physical marketing plan, including open houses, direct mail, and other ads that further promote you and your listings (or your home).

Learning how to work these websites together, takes practice, but is a small hurdle for a Realtor new to technology, or this Game Plan.

This article is the last one of several about Listing Real Estate - The Game-Plan. If you want to continue to learn more about Listing Real Estate, there will be more to come from your's truly.