{"id":2696,"date":"2008-03-03T09:55:35","date_gmt":"2008-03-03T16:55:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=2696"},"modified":"2008-03-03T09:56:40","modified_gmt":"2008-03-03T16:56:40","slug":"dress-up-that-custom-weblog-youve-built-to-help-sell-your-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2696\/dress-up-that-custom-weblog-youve-built-to-help-sell-your-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Dress up that custom weblog you’ve built to help sell your home"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is my column for this week from the Arizona Republic<\/i> (permanent link<\/a>):<\/p>\n

 
Dress up that custom weblog you’ve built to help sell your home<\/b><\/p>\n

Last week we built a custom weblog to help you sell your home. This week, let’s dress it up a little.<\/p>\n

Some of the things I’ll be talking about are free, but others cost money. Your Realtor may have a marketing budget, so that could be a source of funding. But even if not, with only a few buyers chasing a very large number of homes, stinting on marketing costs may not be your best strategy.<\/p>\n

Here’s something you can do for free: Go to Google Maps and build a map to your home. At a minimum, you should also provide driving directions from the nearest freeway exit. But, if you sign up for a free Google account, you can link to an elaborate custom map for your home.<\/p>\n

Highlight parks, playgrounds, schools and shopping. Saying anything at all about churches might invite Fair Housing complaints, but you can draw attention to other nearby amenities. Even better, you can attach pictures and internet links to your map markers, so that buyers can really get a feel for the neighborhood.<\/p>\n

Online real estate sites like Zillow.com and Trulia.com want to know that your home is for sale. You can add photos to those sites and link back to your custom weblog, which will bring you more traffic. On Zillow.com, you can “claim” your home, updating details on any upgrades you have made to it.<\/p>\n

We like to use floorplans. You might be able to get one to scan (or better yet, an Adobe PDF file) from your home’s builder. We use a company called FloorPlansFirst.com because they make interactive web-based floorplans. Buyers can move their furniture into the home to see how it will fit. This costs money, but it sells houses.<\/p>\n

For virtual tours, we’re switching to Obeo.com. Their tours cost more, but they offer a category-killer feature: Virtual redecorating. Your buyers can discover how much they’re going to love your house after they’ve remodeled the kitchen and repainted the exterior.<\/p>\n

And the only stronger Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is my column for this week from the Arizona Republic (permanent link):  Dress up that custom weblog you’ve built to help sell your home Last week we built a custom weblog to help you sell your home. This week, let’s dress it up a little. Some of the things I’ll be talking about are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,6,5,19],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2696","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-blogging","7":"category-marketing","8":"category-real-estate","9":"category-technology","11":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2750,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2750\/how-do-you-get-visitors-to-come-to-your-homes-custom-weblog-shoe-leather-works-well-search-engines-not-so-much\/","url_meta":{"origin":2696,"position":0},"title":"How do you get visitors to come to your home’s custom weblog? Shoe leather works well. Search engines? Not so much…","author":"Greg Swann","date":"March 11, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"This is my column for this week from the Arizona Republic (permanent link): \u00a0How do you get visitors to come to your home's custom weblog? Shoe leather works well. Search engines? Not so much... Okay, so you've built a custom weblog to help sell your home, and you've dressed it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2669,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2669\/wanna-see-how-to-win-the-bloodhoundblog-black-pearl-divers-contest-youre-not-selling-us-youre-selling-you\/","url_meta":{"origin":2696,"position":1},"title":"Wanna see how to win the BloodhoundBlog Black Pearl Diver’s contest? You’re not selling us, you’re selling you . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"February 27, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Mike Farmer wrote a sweet note this morning about using single-property weblogs in his marketing, but his post was not an entry in the BloodhoundBlog Black Pearl Diver\u2019s contest. What's the trick to writing a winning entry? Think your benefit, not ours. How can you write a post about an\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2658,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2658\/a-custom-weblog-can-be-your-homes-24-hour-real-estate-salesperson-on-the-world-wide-web\/","url_meta":{"origin":2696,"position":2},"title":"A custom weblog can be your home’s 24-hour real estate salesperson on the world-wide web","author":"Greg Swann","date":"February 25, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"This is my column for this week from the Arizona Republic (permanent link): \u00a0A custom weblog can be your home's 24-hour real estate salesperson on the world-wide web I have an unshakable faith in the three P's of home marketing -- Price, Preparation and Presentation. If the home is priced\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":527,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/527\/real-estate-weblogs-and-the-google-sandbox-of-doom\/","url_meta":{"origin":2696,"position":3},"title":"Real estate weblogs and the Google Sandbox of Doom . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"October 11, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I have a new domain going live tonight, the first custom web site we have done for a real estate listing built as a weblog instead of a static web site. When we talked about this before, Free the Drones wondered if custom web sites might get lost for a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":273,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/273\/the-custom-web-site-we-built-to-sell-your-home-might-not-google-well-but-it-doesnt-have-to\/","url_meta":{"origin":2696,"position":4},"title":"The custom web site we built to sell your home might not Google well — but it doesn’t have to . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 1, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Free the Drones, a saving and investing weblog I read every day, has a post today discussing our practice of building a custom web site for every home we list. 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