The #1 thing that home sellers want from their real estate agent is a killer marketing plan for their home. According to the NAR’s Buyers and Sellers Generational Report, the service sellers want most is help marketing their home to potential buyers. Having a real estate listing marketing plan is critical for agents. We looked at the data and added a dash of creativity to whip up the secret sauce for marketing listings.

The 3 Most Valuable Ingredients

The NAR’s Real Estate in A Digital Age Report interviewed home buyers to find out which web features are most valuable to buyers. The three top digital features included:

• Photos (87%)
• Detailed Information About Properties (85%)
• Floor Plans (52%)

Photo Secrets

By now, every listing agent knows that having a professional photographer is key. For a good laugh, check out these agents who didn’t and ended up with listing photo fails.

But many agents don’t realize how they can get the most out of their photographer. To get Instagram or frame-worthy photos, agents should be sure to ask for:

• a sunset or sunrise photo session
• post-production filters or presets
• wide-angle lenses

Asking for these small tweaks are the secret sauce for over-the-top listing photos.

Description Secrets

Listing descriptions are the cornerstone of any great listing. It is where prospective buyers turn to learn about their potential, new home. But not all descriptions are created equally. To see the worst of the worst, check out the Broke Agent’s description bombs.

There are some tried and true methods to create strong descriptions, though. These include:

Highlighting neighborhood/community features:

This type of information helps buyers picture what their new life might look like and is often not available anywhere else on the internet.

Knowing which type of words to avoid and which to use:

Zillow gathered the data and put together a list of words sure to help or hurt listings. Top words to avoid include “nice,” “potential”, “investment”, “cosmetic,”and “fixer.” These words scream “crappy house” to potential buyers.

If applicable, words that buyers respond positively to include “captivating,” “impeccable,” “stainless,” “granite,” and, “landscaped.”

Word count:

When it comes to writing listing descriptions, more is more. Home buyers are looking to gather as much information as they can about a home online before they contact an agent to see it. Most listing descriptions average 60 words, which is less than an average paragraph. No one would make a major purchasing decision based on less than a paragraph of information.

Taking the time to describe a listing, its features, and community in detail are key to hooking buyers. To bulk up the word count, agents should focus on creating a picture of what it would be like to live at that home. And, they should maximize the home’s best features.

Floor Plans

Floor plans for older properties can be difficult to come by, but they are vital to home buyers. Agents don’t have time to learn CAD software. But, free lightweight software like Home Sweet 3D is perfect for mocking up floorplans. It is quick and free and allows any agent with room dimensions to instantly mock up a floorplan for any listing.

Because online homebuyers value floor plans so much, it worth utilizing this free software.

Interactive features

After building a strong listing foundation with the 3 most valuable ingredients (photos, detailed descriptions, and floor plans), agents should add a dash of creativity.

Looking back at the NAR’s Real Estate in the Digital Age Report, 76% of all home buyers found the home they ultimately purchased online. Additionally, 73% of all buyers used mobile devices or tablets to search for homes. The internet is the #1 place home buyers are shopping for homes.

While the internet has changed the way people shop for homes, it has also created opportunities for buyers to creatively experience homes before stepping foot inside. Interactive features including video and virtual tours are the best features to invest in.

Video

Inman reported that 85% of home sellers want to work with an agent who uses video. That statistic is staggering. But roughly only 10-15% percent of agents are using video as a marketing strategy! That is insane. Most agents don’t use video for two reasons:

1. They don’t know how to create them
2. They don’t want to pay for them

But it is a huge marketing opportunity to miss out on, especially for listing agents. Videos should be a part of any real estate listing marketing plan.

Video Secret: There are services out there that populate listing automatically. This includes Single Property Sites. SPS automatically builds and populates free listing videos for agents when they create their listing websites. Agents can check out a live example, here.

Virtual Tours

Virtual or video tours are becoming a hot marketing tool, too. Jason Fox reported that listings with virtual tours got 87% more views than those that did not. After a strong foundation of photos, a killer description, and a floor plan have been laid. Virtual tours are a powerful tool for moving inventory more quickly. Realtors can check out a review of the best virtual tour software, here.

Virtual Tour Secret: Most agents avoid virtual tours because of the investment and low amount of views. But virtual tours move inventory faster and attracted serious buyers. Check out Inman’s report on why virtual tours are actually creating a good ROI for agents.

Secret Real Estate Listing Marketing Plan

The secret to a successful real estate listing marketing plan includes the 3 most important ingredients: professional photos, detailed descriptions, and floor plans. Adding more creative elements like video and virtual tours can lead to a greater ROI and are often not as difficult to produce as some agents think.

And, for agents looking to bring all their ingredients into one dish, Single Property Sites are a great way to show off every virtual tour, video, photos, floor plans, and detailed descriptions on one, high-quality real estate website.