The 2 primary factors that determine if and when your home will sell are Exposure and Price. Exposure that counts is exposure that reaches buyers who are the most willing, ready, and able to buy. Setting the right price is crucial because under-pricing is like giving money away, and over-pricing is just a waste of time because nobody buys over-priced homes.

The best possible exposure is MLS and websites that display MLS listings. This is where the vast majority of buyers are looking for homes, and where the buyers are the most ready, willing, and able to buy. MLS and public MLS websites ARE the real estate market. FSBO websites tend to attract investors looking for a steal and buyers looking for owner financing.

MLS
MLS (Multiple Listing Service) is the network that Realtors belong to that gives them access to show and sell each others listings, and comprises 90% all homes on the market nationally. There are over a thousand individual MLS’s across the country, each with their own local databases that are accessible only by local member agents. Only licensed Realtors have access to MLS.

Public MLS Websites
Many individual local MLS’s make their listings available to thousands of websites that display MLS listings. Listings for public display omit certain information that Realtors can see in their local MLS, such as owner contact information, commission amount offered, and showing instructions. Some MLS websites are local and display listings from only one MLS, while others are national and display all listings nationwide.

Online Shoppers
The internet has become the primary search tool for most home buyers today, and over 80% of all home buyers use the internet in their search for a home. Among younger buyers, the number is over 90%. Of all online shoppers, 98% browse local or national MLS information websites.

Importance of Quality Photos
The most critical ingredient in marketing a home online is providing quality photos for buyers to see. Buyers browse hundreds of listings and those with multiple photos usually catch their attention. Most local and national MLS websites display photos that are on the local MLS while Realtor.com only displays multiple photos if the Realtor pays for it. This is why many listings on Realtor.com only display 4 photos.

Comparison of Marketing Alternatives

MLS Public Websites that display MLS Listings
The majority of buyers still use real estate agents when buying a home, and 99.99% of all real estate agents use MLS. What is changing is that over 80% of all buyers today are using public MLS websites in their search process. Most buyers today search online and provide a list of properties for their agent to schedule showings. Many search online and call listing agents for more information and showings. The bottom line is that the MLS is the real estate market, and listing in MLS is essential for selling a property for the best price in the shortest time frame.

Yard Signs
A simple sign on the front lawn is a cheap and effective advertising tool, and should be part of any home marketing plan. If you have time and are patient enough, you can sell your home eventually by doing nothing more than putting a sign in the yard. The average time period for a house to sell using only a yard sign is 6-9 months, and will vary based the amount of traffic on the street and the price of the home.

Newspaper Advertising
Newspaper ads can get expensive, and sellers who are not interested in owner financing will have to weed out unqualified buyers. The majority of homes sold with newspaper ads are by professional investors. Newspaper classified ad columns tend to be filled with investor ads. Investors typically inflate the home prices and give the buyer/tenant (who can’t qualify for a loan) a lease option. Credit challenged buyers gravitate towards newspapers because of the prevalence of these kinds of ads, and because they know they would be expected to qualify for a loan if they dealt with a Realtor and MLS listed homes.

Open Houses
The value of holding an open house is vastly over-rated. The first people to go to an open house are the neighbors who are thinking about listing their house, and the Realtors want to meet them in the hope of getting another listing. Buyers who go to open houses are typically just looking. Serious buyers would have seen the yard sign and called the phone number anyway.

Realtors like to meet prospective buyers who may be in the market to buy at some point in the future. Holding an open house is also a great way for Realtors to give their clients the impression that they are actively marketing the home when they are actually just promoting their own business. If you are convinced that holding an open house will make a difference, you can do it yourself. It can’t hurt, and it doesn’t require any special knowledge.

Free Real Estate Magazines
Commonly found on racks in supermarkets and convenience stores, these publications exist to either promote a real estate company or sell advertising. They contain very little useful information for buyers, and due to the time lag between printing to actually being picked up and read (minimum 6 weeks), the listings are already out of date before they are ever seen.

Posting on Craigslist
Many sellers post their homes for sale on the very popular http://craigslist.com. The benefit is that this site is free, but the downside is that you will get tons of unsolicited email from Realtors, mortgage companies, and many others. Very few “serious” buyers are actually searching for homes on this site.

FSBO Websites
For-Sale-By-Owner websites get an insignificant amount of traffic from buyers. Buyers who do take a look get discouraged quickly by the limited selection and from the lack of a response from sellers when they try to make contact. Many of the ads are outdated and the homes are off the market, so sellers often don’t respond. Try Owners.com or ForSaleByOwner.com since they are the most popular.

Miscellaneous
There are various things Realtors will tell potential listing clients to get a listing. Some of these things sound good, but accomplish nothing more than promote the real estate company. Example: “We’ll send out 300 mail pieces to all the homes in your neighborhood!” This is a way for the real estate company to advertise their company and generate listings. Neighbors are more likely to become sellers than buyers, and if a neighbor or somebody they knew were interested in buying your home, the yard sign would let them know.

Another unproductive method some agents like to tell their clients about (as though it had value) is mass emails to agents informing them of a house for sale. Agents have access to MLS, and don’t need to be spammed with such information – it’s just an annoyance. The first thing the typical agent does when checking emails is delete the “House for sale” spam emails from other agents.