Bend Sellers You Deserve Better!

I am surprised more often than not at the lack of marketing done by agents on homes that failed to sell in the Bend market. I grew up in South County (Proud to say La Pine) and for years La Pine has been the area I mainly focused on. But life has changed and I am now a Bend girl (also Proud to say). There is no place as special as Central Oregon is, the love we have for our area makes being a listing agent a lot of fun.

The average buyer in Central Oregon does not yet live here!  This means the internet marketing your agent does is vitally important to getting your home sold.

Think about it – what and where are you reading this right now?

Living The Dream!

We have all heard this common phrase with a little sarcastic tone added to it… but don’t you think we have the opportunity to live the dream every day? Central Oregon has a lot of awesome things to offer every age group, we are lucky to have been able to achieve the dream. When I talk to people on the phone, in person or by email and even on Facebook of Twitter more people than not want to live where we already have the privileged to live. I am always amazed at the number of people from near and far that their goal is to be able to live in Central Oregon. With all of that being said, I am saddened by the lack of photos, video and marketing done by many agents in Central Oregon. It’s not their fault though, they don’t know any better or they don’t know how to create some of the best online marketing available.

Where Do They Search?

We all know how powerful the web is and there are statistics all over that will tell you anywhere form 82% to 90% of all home buyers start their search online. This is no surprise is it? Even agents that have possibly failed their sellers know this, but they are unaware of how to get that property seen on the web. Putting a property on the MLS of Central Oregon (MLS = Multiple Listing Service) will push your property out to places like Trulia, Zillow, Realtor.com and other sites we refer to as VOWs (VOW= Virtual Office Websites).

This week I was searching for a mountain view property in Bend for a buyer, he had emailed me asking for assistance because every time he did a search the search would have the same list of homes but he could not see the views. Why? Because there were no photos of the view! It made me wonder if the seller and the listing agent knew that in ANY market a home with a view is worth more than one without a view. You can build the same house over and over, but only so many homes have a view, same holds true for riverfront home of course.

I was also surprised by the lack of video, oh there were a lot of virtual tours most of which were slide show with the same exact photos that the MLS had, which is also the same photos that Zillow, Truila and the likes have. Many times a buyer will be looking at a lot of these different sites so why would you not change things up to showcase different highlights on different sites attracting a wider pool of buyers?

I am Taking Listings!

If you are thinking of selling your Central Oregon home, I currently have room to take on a few new listings. Let’s get together and talk about what would help get your home sold!