Good Bye LBI?
Yes, it’s tough to say good bye to LBI. Tougher yet is handling all the different aspects of the sale and that is where we come in. As Broker/Owner of Sand Dollar Real Estate, Pat Sepanak has over 35 years of LBI real estate experience. From the marketing to negotiating and getting to the closing table, Pat offers you the experience, attention and ‘can do’ attitude to make sure the process is smooth and successful.
Advertising/Marketing
The heavy use of the Internet by purchasers has really changed the dynamics of our advertising and marketing plans. With more than 90% of purchasers starting their home search online, the listing photos are your new ‘curbside appeal’. If you want purchasers to stop and ‘preview’ your home further, your exterior photos need to be sensational. The use of aerial (drone) photos and twilight shots are essential. A virtual tour or video marketing has a real impact with potential purchasers. We want them to stay awhile and ‘feel’ the essence of your home and most importantly, we want them to call us for a ‘real’ preview.
Print has passed into a much less successful category to drive purchasers to your house. You might like to see a picture of your home and a short blurb, but your purchaser wants to see a whole lot more and we can only do that via the internet and digital photography. Not only more information about your property but the ability to attract a lot more potential buyers to your property.
Sand Dollar Real Estate has placed an ad in the national publication, Coastal Living Magazine which will run from June 15th to August 10th directing potential beach buyers to this website to find out more about LBI. These are excellent demographics for our high end properties and LBI has been prominently featured in several issues.
It is important to post your home on all the standard major internet portals (Zillow, Trulia & Realtor.com to name a few) but we also need to post your home in those portals that cater to the higher end purchaser. This is a unique group and a much smaller group of purchasers and we need to get front and center of them.
Your listing will also be placed in Estates & Homes, a division of Homes and Land. Your listing is automatically uploaded to high end real estate portals, such as: The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and duPont REGISTRY. You also are in print ads in the Monmouth edition. Over the years, my research showed this area has a lot of interest in LBI, to vacation and to purchase.
Who has the largest pool of LBI Purchasers?
Collectively, it is LBI Realtors! This is an often overlooked or even worse, a neglected group. In reality, over 75% of the sales on LBI are accomplished by co-operating companies. I have over the years welcomed the showing of my listings by other agents. Whatever can be done to make the showing easy, supplying all the information they need to ‘make the sale’ and encourage a ‘team’ approach rather than an ‘adversarial’ position has proven to work very well for me.
Broker Open Houses easily lets my fellow realtors see your home, make comments and suggestions which we need to hear to be sure we are on target. No one works in a vacuum, at least not very well.
Realtors are one of your greatest resources and my marketing includes and encourages them to bring you a buyer.
Of course, the advertising and marketing is just one facet of the process of getting your home sold. Click here to see my Comprehensive Business Plan for Selling Your Home.
Maybe you are not ready to list yet and are just curious about current LBI market conditions or would like to get an idea of the value of your LBI home? That’s fine, I can offer you two great programs that are unique to Sand Dollar Real Estate.
Just click on the title of the program for more details and/or to sign up.
LBI Neighborhood Tracker – This is a great way to keep track of what is happening in your LBI Neighborhood. Notifications are sent via email with a link to your personal ‘virtual listing cart’ for any new listings, price changes and sold properties, as they happen. This link is from our local MLS and is more timely and accurate than any other real estate portal site.
Online Market Evaluation – Fill out a short form about your LBI property and you will be sent an email report of information about the LBI sales market along with detailed analysis of comparable properties to your property. You will also be given a price range of value with explanation. This is not a Zestimate, it is a personalized and researched report.