We ask the question- what is it that will be the differentiating factors that will sell your home? Is it gated, swim/tennis, walkable to shops, a lake, river, trail, etc? An amazing space or immense natural light and privacy behind? Is the school system a top one to where this needs a photo and remarks? Is the topography a selling point? Of course, everyone wants the home itself to look great but the amenities and area attractions/location are often overlooked as realtors often do not pay attention to this or are willing to spend the extra in marketing costs to properly market these aspects. With the amount of relocation into Metro Atlanta, these items are all extremely important to properly market a home.
We also pay the additional cost of having whom we feel is the best residential real estate photographer in the city. She spends hours shooting your home as a work of art with the proper lens and angles as well as knows the emotional photos to take- a twilight shot, tripod shot or up close of a gas light or custom tile work.
The editing is intense and colors are tweaked, skies brightened or grass greened if need be. We edit out sparse grass or bring light to dark porches. Often, there will be an empty room that for some reason we decided not to stage as in person, it was not needed but often, in photo, we decide it is. A dining room is typically a space like this or a master bedroom or even a basement needing a fun pool table- both our photographer can do this or our Sotheby’s program called Curate. We also have a special person that can add a pool to the backyard and it looks real- obviously with a note that it is digitally imposed on the yard but it does give vision and what style pool/location would be best. Aerial photography is one of our favorites as well to add in to showcase your home, land and even surroundings. Sometimes we even add a map image if things are walkable and near with pinpointed locations to those selling points near. Every once in a while a home will show great in video and we add in a lifestyle video. More times than not, video makes rooms look smaller and darker and the photography images are the clear winner but, we of course, offer video to anyone interested as a marketing option.
We offer staging consultations and for every listing. 1 out of every 20 homes does not need this consult but most homes need some form of help with declutter, a paint update here or there, furniture reconfiguration or adding of a few key accessories to give warmth or a color pop. Often it’s changing porches, entry foyers, new things on kitchen countertops or dining areas, two chairs to a living space, new rugs or entirely redoing bookshelves for a designer less cluttered art-like feel. Many times, I will take over a listing of another agent that has been sitting on the market for quite some time. This is one of my favorite things to do as people are often exhausted and they get excited for a new feel to the home and marketing push. Spaces can feel drastically different with proper staging. Sometimes, the home just needs to be slightly tweaked to sell quickly, better photos and lifestyle marketing and the owners are excited to move on with their next step in life. We encourage anyone to speak with many of our past happy home owners that we have helped through this multiple agent- longer listing time situation. They are always our happiest! With the help of my stager and/or designer, and marketing team, we spend days or sometimes even weeks, getting the home right to sell. We then relist it and almost always, it sells within days or a 2-3 weeks and we pop the champagne. If this is your scenario, I would love to help.
One last item in the area of results is the ‘friend or family’ talk that I often have with people whom are looking to buy or sell a home. Everyone has a friend or family member in real estate and especially now with the market back up and everyone jumping into the business or back into the business. On a $1,000,000 home, the proper marketing could yield you an extra $50-$100k on your home so improper marketing, therefore could cost you $50-100k on your home. For a $2,500,000 home, the proper marketing could yield you an extra $100-300k on your home, therefore could cost you $100-300k on your home. I always say then you must like this friend enough to write them a $100k check, as that is essentially what you could be doing by ‘trying your friend’.
