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(Part 1)
Hello. This is Greg Harrelson with Century 21, The Harrelson Group in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
The market seems to be shifting in Myrtle Beach as well as other areas such as North Myrtle Beach, Charleston, and even in markets outside of South Carolina. Things seem to be more positive and this is when owners try to sell their properties on their own. There are some people who have done For Sale by Owner that have had success recently. I thought this would be an appropriate time to give you some information on how to sell your property on your own. It's For Sale by Owner advice. I hope I can empower you with information that will help you. In the event you ever do need the services of a professional real estate agent I hope you will consider me or any of the agents at my company.
Marketing is the main thing I am going to focus on. There are two websites where you can market your property for sale and you can market it for free - Craigslist.com and KIJIJI.com. KIJIJI is an online advertisement platform or website similar to Craig's List. They are both at no cost, and you can post pictures, descriptions, videos or whatever marketing material you would like on either or both. These websites receive a lot of traffic.
When posting your property on Craigslist or KIJIJI, you need to post it between 9 and 10 a.m. in the morning. At 8 o'clock people are arriving in their office, checking their e-mails, checking their voice mails and getting organized. Around 9:30 to 10 o'clock they check their e-mails again, return some calls, organize their day, and then they start searching the Internet. This is the time when they are searching non-business or non-work related topics and you are likely to get the most exposure.
The other time that is very profitable and returns a lot of calls is between 3 and 4. There is a lull in the afternoon at work, and potential buyers start surfing the Internet again. They start looking at properties on Craigslist or KiJIJI to see what else has come up for sale and this is a also a good time to post your property.
If you are very aggressive and you are going to post your property a third time, in the evening after dinner between 7 and 7:30 pm is when they start searching again. Ideally, you would post it 3 times a day at these times.
You have to invest some time in marketing your property. You want to get the biggest return off of your time, and you are going to do it during those hours on these websites. When you are doing this, you are exposing your property to potentially millions and millions of people, and you are going to have a lot of lookers. You are going to have people that are qualified and you are going to have people that are unqualified. You are going to have people that need to buy today and you are going to have people that are just dreaming and they may not buy for another five years.
That is a positive thing since you will get exposure to your property to a mass amount of people, but you have to be able to weed through these leads to determine who is quality and who is not quality. Who is looking to purchase in your timeframe and are they qualified with the banks?
I recommend that you align yourself with a professional mortgage banker - a lender, and ask them if they would be willing to prequalify all of your needs. When you post an ad on Craigslist at 9 o'clock, and you receive an e-mail from someone with questions, you will e-mail them back with your answers. You should take a telephone number from this particular buyer prospect and give the telephone number to the mortgage lender. You have the mortgage lender call them to see if they are qualified or can be pre-qualified. If they are qualified, invite them over to look at your home. If they are not qualified then do not invite them over. You do not invite unqualified buyers to walk through your property, as it is a waste of time and can be discouraging.
See the next video for more discussion about Qualifying the Buyer.
I'm Greg Harrelson with Century 21, The Harrelson Group. I want to sell your home or condo and I would be very happy to help you, but in the event this information helps you sell it on your own and you save some money that is fantastic. If I can help you please contact me, Greg Harrelson with Century 21 The Harrelson Group. Have a great day.
Summer, 2013
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Myrtle Beach For Sale by Owner Tips