According to NAR, 87% of home searches begin online. Can YOU be seen where your next client is looking?

It's a well-known fact that 87% of home searches begin online.  So what does that tell you? You & your listings need to have an online presence.

Here are just a few ideas for leveraging home staging as part of your marketing plan and increasing your presence on the web:

Use pictures: A good before and after picture is worth a thousand words and money in your pocket. There's no better way to show prospective clients how you are truly a real estate expert than by featuring photos of your listings which have been staged in your marketing efforts. Use photos of your beautifully staged listings everywhere you can: in your printed marketing collateral, press releases, your blog and your website.
 
Talk about staging during your listing presentation:What better way to show that you are an expert than by sharing a few home staging statistics and tips during your listing presentation? By integrating the topic of home staging during your listing presentation, you can set yourself apart from the competition AND build confidence with your prospective client. Highlighting the fact that you work with a professional stager will certainly be a value add for your client, and it will most certainly set you apart if they are interviewing multiple agents.

Tell a news-worthy story: Let's face it, with hundreds of homes being sold each week in any given market, and thousands of Realtors in the marketplace, it's not that interesting of a story to just announce that you sold a listing. What isinteresting is to highlight a staging success story (complete with photos and tips, of course). HGTV has created a whole line up of shows around the staging concept: The Stagers, The Unsellables and Design to Sell just to name a few. Heck, even Interiority Complex was featured in a series of show segments on Fox 7's Good Day Austin! Why? People love it, it's entertaining, it's educational --- it's info-tainment! Use that to your advantage.

Social media & staging:If you are working with a professional home stager, it's not only important to check out their portfolio, their references, their insurance coverage, their training & experience and their people skills, it's also important to make sure your stager has an internet presence and marketing savvy. Your stager can help create or strengthen your online presence, and vice-versa. You can reciprocate and partner together in writing blog content, tweets, facebook updates, social media and more. In fact, you and your stager can and should partner together in creating marketing events and activities which will grow your presence, strengthen your relationships and increase your value in the market place.

It's amazing that so few Realtors leverage home staging to the fullest, even though they all believe in the efficacy of staging. Separate yourself from the pack -- integrate staging into your business and marketing plan today!

For more information on how you can integrate home staging into your real estate business here in the Austin area, be sure to check out our TREC-approved MCE Course called The Secrets of Staging to Sell.  By the way, Interiority Complex is proud to be a sponsor of  #REBCATX (ReBar Camp Austin) on Thursday, March 11, so please come on out and say hello!