TOP 5 TECH TOOLS FOR HOME SELLERS
By: Aaron George | Realtor
Whether your new to the home selling process or you have sold before, it can often be a challenging process. In today's world of DIY and HGTV, the modern buyer is more specific than ever, no matter the market. That means sellers have to be more prepared than ever, to go above and beyond to prepare their home and get it show ready before they sell. Beyond finding the right agent to properly market your home, there are a number of great online tools and mobile applications that can help you sell faster and for top dollar. So below are the top 5 tech tools to help you.
1) HOUZZ.COM
Houzz.com is a website and online community centered all around interior design, landscaping, architecture, and design. Houzz also has a very user friendly mobile app available for both IOS and Android users for designers on the go. Visitors can browse over 10 million photos to inspire amazing new ideas and new trends on every room in the house and yard. Whether you're looking to renovate, redecorate, or properly stage your home. Houzz.com has everything you need to improve your home. Another great site along the same lines is Pinterest.com, Pinterest also has a large community of people sharing ideas of home décor and design, to name a few, to inspire and help get you ready for selling successfully.
2) HomingIN - What's Your Home Worth??
As a homeowner, thinking about selling you home, probably the first thing you want to know is "How much is my home worth"? That information is crucial to set expectations, goals, and allows you to budget for you new property. Well there is brand new app that just hit the market called HomingIN. Its an app in which the homeowner can get a free, quick, and very reliable estimate of their from real agents with just a few steps on your phone or tablet. All you need to do is download the app, give a few details about the home, then take a few pictures. Then real local agents will look at the local market conditions and direct comparable homes, then sends you a very accurate value of your home. This app does have a few extra steps, but has solved the shortcomings of the "Zestimate". It does allow you as the homeowner to keep yourself fairly anonymous and satisfies that quick gratification that we are used to in this tech centered world we live in.
3) HOMEWYSE.COM
Your REALTOR can be a great resource when it comes to the recommendation of different renovations and updates to your home before you sell. Often they are the ones working with the majority of qualified buyers, so they have a solid understanding of what today's buyers are looking for and expect in a new home. Many agents have a good understanding of general costs, but often they are not experts in that exact field. That is were tools like Homewyse.com comes in. Homewyse is a site, along with a handy app, homeowners can use to get estimates for different renovation costs. It really has a treasure trove of information and tools to help you get a solid idea of the general scope of a specific project. Homewyse has tools such as cost calculators, references guides, and blogs, just to name a few. Its completely itemized, so you can estimate materials, installation, and maintenance, then have the ability to compare.
4) Local Brokerage Sites
Some of the best resources for the local real estate market are the web sites of the local brokerages in your area. Here in the Cincinnati, OH market in which I work, have brokerages such as: Coldwell Banker West Shell, Sibcy Cline, and Comey & Shepherd. These are major brokers in the area and all have there own sites with extremely valuable information and resources. Each of these sites have an excellent search option with an IDX feed, that pulls listings directly from the local MLS. So they will have all the available listings in the area from all the brokers, not just homes listed by that particular company. These sites also have many tools to ease the home selling and buying process. Tools like; mortgage and title insurance calculators, neighborhood profiles, video tours, upcoming open houses, local event lists, and free home valuations, just to name a few. You can also have the ability to search and find an agent to act as a local expert and act in your best interests on each site. You can research and read profiles to help find the right agent for you.
5)Social Media
Social Media has really become such a driving force in our everyday lives. Its a tool we use, often several times a day, to keep in contact and share details about our daily lives with all our contacts. It goes with out saying that it can be a perfect tool to help market your home and connect with potential buyers. I can tell you as an agent, I use social media to help advertise my business and listings on a regular basis. Its helpful if my clients are at least somewhat "social media savvy" because they are able to share with their friends and family my posts and expose their home to an entire new group of people. You never know where that buyer is going to come from, it may be someone you already know, or a friend of a friend. So its extremely useful to spread the world via social media. The big social media sites are; facebook, twitter, google+, linkedin, and youtube, just to name a few.
Aaron George | Realtor
Coldwell Banker West Shell
513.488.3372
