DIY Marketing Tips for Home Sellers

Recent Posts on Sweet Digs Seattle:

• Five Price Drops, One Price Increase (and a Partridge in a Pear Tree)
• Open House: Original Owners Say It’s Time to Part Ways…
• Open House: Kirkland Home, Pre-inspected and Ready to Move In
• Open House: Comes With Magazine-worthy Garden
• Open House: Remodeled Redmond Home Comes with $20,000 Price Reduction

Selling a home is like selling anything else so marketing can have a big impact on how well your product competes. If you’re a do-it-yourselfer and want to have an edge in the marketplace, consider creating a blog about your home.

Read on for some tips from Karl Nelson who is selling his Pioneer Square condo using Redfin and blogging about it. His swanky pad is open this weekend.

Open House Date and Time:
Saturday, October 20th, 1-3pm
526 1st Ave S #222
Seattle, WA 98104

Q: Why did you set up a blog for your listing?

A: There were a couple of reasons. First, I felt a little constrained by the limits imposed by the standard MLS marketing remarks — 500 characters just isn’t enough space to tell the story of this property and the neighborhood. I wanted more room for photos and links to my favorite neighborhood business and more detail about the place. But, even more than that, I really wanted to be able to answer questions that potential buyers might have.

Ever since we moved in, whenever we told people where we lived, we’d get peppered with questions. People are often curious about what it is like to live in a downtown area like Pioneer Square. (They are also jealous, but that’s another story!) They wanted to know about the area, where we shopped, what parking was like, and so on. So, a big motivation for the blog was to help answer these questions. When we moved in, we needed to figure this all out for ourselves. I wanted to share what we learned, and, of course, make it easier for someone to buy the condo!

Q: What sort of material are you posting?

A: I try to stick to four main categories: FAQs, features of the condo unit itself, information about the neighborhood, and other interesting tidbits of information. As I said, we get a lot of questions, so the FAQs section gives me a chance to answer those. I’ve also been able to go in-depth on some unique features of this unit, like the built-in office space and the kitchen. The most fun to write are probably the neighborhood pieces. Over the years we’ve been here, we’ve collected a bunch of favorite spots in the neighborhood, and this is a chance to write about them.

If anyone has a question they’d like me to address, just leave a comment on the blog and I’ll write a response.

Q: How did you set the blog up?

A: I used a service called Wordpress.com. Wordpress is one of the many services that will give you a free blog. (Blogger.com is another great option.) I just signed up for an account, picked an attractive-looking template, and started writing. These are great services because you don’t need any technical knowledge to get a nice looking website.