When you’re trying to sell, marketing – that is, drawing attention to your house – is one of the key things you have to do. The problem now is that the coronavirus pandemic has altered the real estate marketing landscape in some pretty significant ways. In addition, drawing attention to your for-sale house during the coronavirus may be a more important task than it has ever been. Let’s see, then, how to draw attention to your Ventura house during the coronavirus.
Deploy Virtual Marketing
The consensus among real estate pros is that if you want to sell your Ventura house during the coronavirus, you absolutely must embrace and deploy virtual-marketing strategies and tactics. “Since most people who want to buy a home are hunkered down in their current home to avoid contracting the coronavirus, sellers must show off their properties virtually. . . The current situation has really accelerated the need and use of these tech tools.”
Some of the most important virtual-marketing tools and tactics are:
3D HOME TOURS
Quality listing photos have always been important, but 3D images do an even better job. And during the coronavirus, more and more online home shoppers are clicking on listings with 3D images and 3D tours. Zillow data shows that “listings with 3D home tours saw 50 percent more site visitors and were saved about 60 percent more frequently.”
You can hire a videographer to create these tours, but you can also do it yourself. You just need to use one of the apps designed for this purpose that provides instructions on how to shoot the video, as well as suggestions for best angles and lighting tricks. Doing this will allow you to tell your home’s story effectively to buyers who never have to step inside.
VIRTUAL OPEN HOUSES
Selling your Ventura house by means of the traditional open house is pretty well out of the question during the coronavirus. So you need an effective substitute, and that is the virtual open house.
A virtual open house typically proceeds along these lines . . .
“On the day of the virtual open house, [sellers and/or their agents] upload the tour and provide a digital walk-through of the home and property for everyone tuned in online.” The goal is to “walk [potential buyers] through the property as if . . . touring . . . in person, explaining each perk and part of the property. Virtual staging, or using computer-generated images of couches and coffee tables and rugs to dress up a room properly, is another good sales tool.”
AGENT-LED VIDEO TOURS
Another strategy for drawing attention to your Ventura house during the coronavirus is the use of an agent-led video tour. And here’s why . . .
“It’s one thing to view a video that shows an upscale kitchen. It’s quite another thing to be able to ask an agent in real-time via online video when the chef-quality stove was installed and if the counter is marble, granite, or quartz. In this case, video isn’t the only medium to deliver a message; an agent can offer additional content via the spoken word. Sellers and their agents are really getting creative to make sure homes are acceptable and viewable even if buyers don’t want to, or can’t, see them in person.”
Just make sure your agent has experience in the use of 3D home tours, virtual open houses, and agent-led video tours. To learn more or to find an agent with this experience, call 805-232-8503.
Consider an Off-Market Campaign
Now, this may sound completely counter-intuitive, but another strategy to draw attention to your Ventura house during the coronavirus is to take it off the market. Off-market campaigns are proving effective during this pandemic.
The reason for this is that, with all the economic and market upheaval and the lockdown, properties may stay on the market longer. This “creates the risk that homes languishing during lockdown will appear stale. For sellers of such properties, it may be best to go off-market for the time being.”
To avoid the undesirable situation of your house languishing on the market, you may be better off pulling your listing to draw better attention. This way, your agent can conduct an off-market marketing campaign, and you won’t risk passing the critical 100-days-on-the-market threshold.
Be Authentic and Strive for the Human Touch
During this pandemic and the consequent lockdowns and quarantines, many people are starving for human contact and social interaction. So a good way to draw attention to your Ventura house during the coronavirus is simply to be authentic and to strive for the human touch during all your marketing efforts. The goal is to try to connect with potential buyers in a more personal way.
You have a host of options here, but this could include taking your own photos and making your own videos and injecting as much of yourself as you can. “Showcasing property using a selfie video,” experts say, “will actually be more appreciated than a really well-cut, glamorous property video because right now the entire world is looking for human moments that we can all share.”
Hire a Good Agent . . . Now
If you really want to draw attention to your Ventura house during the coronavirus, don’t leave out the most important ingredient. And that is hiring a qualified local real estate agent who knows exactly what will work in your market. Find out today how our agents can assist you during this critical and unprecedented time. Send us a message or give us a call at 805-232-8503.