How To Sell Property Quickly – 7 Marketing Tips For Sellers

How to sell property quickly is one of the key concerns for most of the sellers. I keep receiving this query from my clients. It’s a known fact that property is a high-value illiquid asset. On an average, it takes around 3-6 months to sell property in high demand pockets. In low demand pockets, it may take up to 12 months. Some of the recent queries on my blog forced me to write this post. The readers mentioned that their real estate investment is dead and they are not able to sell property from last 2-3 years. Secondly, readers complain that i don’t share too many posts for sellers :).

It’s a no-brainer that you can offer a discount to sell property quickly. But this post is not on discount or distress sale. To share an example, a property worth 1.10 Cr was sold for 87L within 15 days. The seller was in a dire need of money. The property investor, in this case, was on a look out for distress sale or discounted property. Don’t worry i am not going to suggest this in my post. We will discuss 7 marketing tips to sell property quickly at market price.

How To Sell Property Quickly – 7 Marketing Tips For Sellers

1. Target Buyer who is shifting/shifted recently to the city or stay in some other city:

Based on my experience, i can say that a seller can quickly sell property if the potential buyer is not from the same city or shifted recently. There is a set of people who don’t prefer to stay on rent. In case they change city then normally they will buy a property and then shift base. Alternatively, they stay on rent for initial few months and meanwhile finalize the property. There can be multiple reasons for the same.

A buyer who is a localite will take long to close the deal. Mostly, he will check more than 50 properties before closing the deal. Needless to say that each property has it’s own merits and demerits. It’s a human nature that local buyer will focus more on demerits. On the contrary buyer from outside will focus on merits. Thus it is easy to sell property to the buyer who is an outsider.

This marketing tip works 8 out of 10 times. This is based on the experience of my clients i.e. to whom i gave this tip :). Now you must be wondering how to target the buyer who is shifting/shifted recently to the city. I will share it in one of my future posts.

2. Visual Impact / Video Ad:

From a marketing perspective, Videos are more effective marketing tool compared to pictures & pictures are better compared to text ads. I do understand that it is not feasible for everyone to record the video to sell property. In my opinion, you can always take help of someone who knows basics of video recording. Even on smartphones, it’s a cakewalk.

Basically, the whole idea is to shoot max 3-4 mins video of the property. You can shoot the same on your mobile. While shooting you can explain/market the details like furnishing, benefits, facing, attributes etc.

Some of the do’s and don’ts for video ad are as follows

(a) The introduction should summarize the key advantages of project and locality. For example, the society is near school, malls, market, amenities etc.

(b) Record the Video Ad during day time

(c) There should not be any background noise

(d) Your voice should be audible and clear

(e) Don’t exaggerate the facts

(f) Don’t forget to share your contact details at the end

You can circulate the video ad through Whatsapp and request friends to forward the same to other groups. You can also post on your social media profiles. I have a lot to share on Video Marketing but i will definitely share my thoughts in a detailed post on the same subject.

3. Personal/Emotional Touch:

Normally, every seller has some good memories associated with the property. The whole idea is to market these good memories through personal and emotional touch/appeal depending on the profile of the buyer. This is bit tricky and i am not telling the sellers to tell a lie to sell property.

For example, one of my client’s potential property buyer was IT professional. Coincidentally the seller was also IT professional. The seller was on offshore assignment for 3 years. Therefore, i suggested my client to make a sales pitch that property is lucky for her :). After the purchase of this property, she got an opportunity of offshore assignment. The sales pitch clicked with the potential buyer and believe me he immediately handed over the token money to the seller.

4. Buyer Profiling:

Before you make a sale pitch to a potential buyer, it is critical to find out more about him like family, profession etc. In other words, the buyer’s profiling is very crucial. You can take help of social media or brokers. The objective is to strike the right chord with the potential buyer to sell property.

In one of the cases, the buyer’s mother aged 70 years was planning to stay with him. Secondly, the buyer told the broker that his mother will be co-owner as she would like to invest some X amount in a new property to save capital gain tax. I suggested my client that he should highlight that their society has senior citizens club and how they organize programs and engage with the senior citizens. Therefore, in this case, the mother of a buyer was convinced to buy.

In another example, while doing buyer profiling, my client found out that wife of a buyer is a fitness freak. Therefore, we designed sales pitch accordingly and highlighted how the society is well equipped for fitness freak buyers. We also shared the benefit of staying in society because of Zumba class in vicinity, gyms nearby etc. Again by striking the right chord my client was able to sell property in just 25 days time.

5. De-sell other choices:

It is okay to de-sell other projects until the seller is not telling a lie or misleading the buyer. This is a famous marketing technique to de-sell other products. For example, if you draw a line A then there is NO reference point for comparison. Therefore, it is similar to marketing your flat/apartment i.e. line A is your flat. Now, if you draw line B smaller than line A then line A will start appearing long and line B will look short. In other words, the comparison is always relative in nature.

How to use this marketing technique lets check out. Mr. Y was planning to sell his flat. He was in an urgent need of money for the higher education of his daughter. I told him to check with the potential buyer which all apartments/projects he is evaluating. After that, i suggested him to make a list of negatives of each of these projects. For example, Project A had an issue of STP smell, the parking of Project B was small etc. In short, highlight apartment specific factors responsible for the property devaluation.

During next meeting with the buyer, Mr. Y highlighted these negatives to the buyer and cautioned buyer to check these negatives before purchase. He never sounded negative but maintained a tone as if he is trying to help the buyer and obviously marketing his flat. Finally, the buyer decided to purchase a flat of Mr. Y.

6. Personalization:

It’s a human nature to think that what we like, the others also like the same. Whenever you are selling the property, it is important to remove any kind of personalization on the property and take a neutral approach. Here i am not referring to any structural changes/wardrobe change etc. I mean to say that undo any changes in the property that are personal in nature.

To share an example, i like dark blue color which is offbeat and personal choice. As a thumb rule, the paint of the house should be neutral say light cream. Many people don’t like the dark blue color and may not like the house because of the color scheme. To market your property well, you should take a neutral stand in all the aspects.

Another real life example is of one of the friends. He had 2 and a half BHK. He converted small room to a study room. Though small room could have been used for the father of the buyer as a bedroom and the flat should have been marketed as 3 BHK. The potential buyer did not like the concept of the study room and it stuck in his mind that small room can be used only as a study room. Therefore, the deal was called off.

7. Reason for sale:

Last but not the least, unknowingly the reason for sale is a crucial marketing technique to sell the property. You must be wondering how? Normally, some of the common reasons given by the sellers are we are shifting out, we are in a need of money etc.

In my opinion, the best reason to quote is that we are upgrading to bigger or premium property. It gives a lot of positive vibration to the potential buyer. It is perceived that the property was a lucky mascot for you as a seller. Now you must be wondering i am telling you to tell a lie. Okay, i agree but you are not hiding any fact/cheating w.r.t property in question. This is your personal reason and not necessary for the buyer to know. If you tell i am in an urgent need of money then trust me you will get 87L for 1.10 Cr property as i shared earlier. Please understand that as a seller you can’t share a reason that will snatch your negotiation power.

Words of Wisdom:

Marketing is both an art and a technique. Therefore, if you are planning to sell property then it is important to understand some of the critical marketing tips. I am again clarifying that here i am not suggesting you cheat or lie to the potential buyer about the property. Marketing is all about how effectively you can sell your product.

Currently, the real estate market is going through a bad phase. Therefore, a seller might face tough competition as 30 other properties are competing with your property for wallet share of the same buyer. It is not a monopoly market and without marketing techniques, you may struggle to sell property quickly. I have a lot more to share but i will share in my future posts.

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