Video tours are a great idea for some listings

We're starting to use professional home video tours for our listings because the quality of the product offered by Whirligig Online Marketing is excellent. Video tours are a great fit for homes with quality upgrades and professional staging. They give buyers a closer look at what each listing has to offer. Because of this, we're happy to invest in professional tours as part of our marketing plan.

For example, take a look at the video tours for these 3 new listings (click the "video" tab along the top menu).

• 1714 Bellewood Drive, 5 BR/4.5 BA, Waunakee Parade Home - $995,000
• 1407 Blue Ridge Trail, 4 BR/4.5 BA, Waunakee Parade Home - $765,000
• 3317 Westview Lane, 3 BR/2.75 BA, Madison Arbor Hills - $299,000
  

For a list of over 25 marketing ideas, check out our online marketing plan. You can view it here on the how we help you page at DaneCountyMarket.com.

Dan Miller, Realtor, Certified Distressed Property Expert, Keller Williams Realty and DaneCountyMarket.com

Does your listing look great online and in person?

Over ninety percent of home buyers use the internet to find their home. And in many cases it's the online photos that either help a home "make the cut" or "get cut" from a buyer's list.

That's why we hire an interior designer to assist all of our clients with the staging of their home. Then we bring in a professional photographer to take the photos and create the virtual tour that will be posted to the internet.

Take a look at the three homes below. All of these homes look great in person, but just as important they look great online, too.

Fitchburg, Swan Creek, 4 BR/3BA, $299,900+

Verona, Westridge, 3 BR/2.5 BA, $299,900

Middleton Hills, 4 BR/2+ BA, $475,000

For more marketing ideas, you can check out how we help you sell on the selling real estate page at DaneCountyMarket.com.

Dan Miller, Realtor, Certified Distressed Property Expert, Keller Williams Realty and DaneCountyMarket.com

Parade of homes is June 13th through June 28th

This year's parade of homes sponsored by the Madison Area Builders Association runs from June 13th to June 28th. The parade route includes 14 different homes in Middleton, Bristol and Waunakee.

Tour hours run from 3:00 to 8:00 PM Monday through Friday, and from 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM on the weekends. For more information on the tour, check out http://www.paradeofhomesmadison.com/.

We'd also like to take this opportunity to get the word out about this custom-built, parade-quality home set on 46 acres just outside of Madison. We've inserted a few photos from this listing below. They provide a great example of how staging and professional photos can create a great online appearance. This link from the same listing provides a good example of how a professionally produced virtual tour can help online buyers get an even better feel for a property. As we've mentioned before, 90% of all home buyers shop online, so creating a great online appearance is a must for every good listing.

Have a good night,

Dan Miller, Keller Williams Realty and DaneCountyMarket.com

Where's Rex?

You'll see from this listing photo he's watching TV in the living room.

With 90% of all home buyers shopping on the web, a home's online appearance is a critical part of any marketing plan. That's why we and other Realtors offer staging, professional photos, and a virtual tour as standard listing features.

Here's our standard marketing plan. You'll find many more marketing tips and ideas on the selling real estate page at DaneCountyMarket.com.

Dan Miller, Keller Williams Realty and DaneCountyMarket.com

Boost your listing idea #2: Invest in professional photos

We've covered this idea before. With more than 90% of home buyers viewing real estate online, photo quality can make or break a listing. This is especially true in our current market, where buyers can afford to be very selective.

Take a look at these photos, all of which were taken by a professional photographer.

This Parkwood Hills tudor on the west side of Madison has received a lot of buyer interest this fall, in part because of how the photos show off the features of the home. Note how the photographer uses a wide angle lens to capture all of the details of this family room from front to back, top to bottom, and side-to-side. This photo shows off the ceiling beams and the stone fireplace. It captures the over-sized window overlooking the back yard as well as the pass-through into the kitchen. With a single picture, this photographer captures all of this room's features along every dimension. She also gives us a glimpse of how this room flows into other areas of this house. Not bad for just one picture. This listing had 18 parties show up for the first open house, and four parties have scheduled second showings. A good start for the fall season.


Here's another example. This Middleton listing by Shawn Kriewaldt just went on the market. The kitchen and dinette space is modestly-sized in real life, but the photographer does a nice job of capturing its depth and the open floor plan. This home received 8 showings in 5 days, which resulted in an accepted offer on the 6th day. It is scheduled to close by the end of the month.

Here's one more photo of another modestly-sized kitchen and dinette space. Once again, the photographer does a very nice job of capturing the entire space, giving it plenty of depth and making it appear as bright and spacious as possible. We listed this home this summer. It received 14 showings and 2 offers in 14 days, and an accepted offer on the 17th day.

All of these homes have a few things in common. First, notice the absence of clutter. All three of these homes are spotlessly clean, and all three of these sellers consulted with a home stager prior to putting their homes on the market. Each of these home owners invested a lot of time and energy into making their homes look their best. We, like other realtors, invested our money by hiring a good photographer and a good home stager as part of the marketing plan. Time and money well spent.

We'll cover a few different home staging tips in the near future.

This post was co-authored by Shawn Kriewaldt.

Cute photo from a recently expired listing

I happen to like dogs, but some people don't. It's best to keep pet photos out of your listings. Have a great holiday.

Ten photos, ten reasons not to buy

All of these photos are from active listings on the South Central Wisconsin MLS. Do any of these make you want to buy?

I didn't think so...

You can read more about why quality photos matter here.

Don't let this happen to your listing

Have you seen this before?



Unfortunately this is how some listings make their debut on the internet. If you're planning to list your home, make sure your listing agent is planning to include photos when your home hits the MLS.

These days many buyers receive instant email notifications as soon as homes matching their criteria hit the MLS. First impressions matter, and you don't want buyers to see this when they view your listing on the internet.

Why quality photos play a vital role in every good marketing plan

Times have changed. Over 90% of all real estate consumers now use the internet as part of their home search. This means many homes now either "get cut" or "make the cut" based on their online appearance. Poor photos drive buyers away, while great photos can generate loads of showings.

For example:

Check out these photos from a listing on the west side of Madison. This property spent a total of 11 months on the market, back in 2004 when the market was hot.

Now check out these photos. These photos are for the same home, for a listing 4 years later. Shawn Kriewaldt and I hired a professional photographer as part of our marketing plan for this listing. These photos helped to generate 14 showings and 2 offers in 14 days. The sellers accepted an offer on the 17th day and will be closing later this month. Not bad for a slow market.

Notice how the rooms for each photo in this listing appear brighter and more spacious. Our photographer uses a wide angle lens and adjusts for lighting to give each photo maximum impact.

Hiring a professional photographer increases our financial investment in our marketing plans, but it's worth every penny. First, the costs are relatively inexpensive. Second, the benefits are tremendous. Professional photos help our homes to sell more quickly, and our clients love the results.

You'll notice the above listing also benefited from new paint and new carpeting, as well as the services of an interior designer (which we also included as part of our marketing plan). We'll cover staging ideas in future posts.