I am a newer agent (licensed in march of this year). I live in central Illinois and have a new listing in the upper end of our prices. What is the best way to advertise. Most likely potential buyers will have to come from out of town. 60 to 80 is about average sales price and there are some in 125 to 185 range then it slows down alot over 200, this one is 360. Other than realtor.com is there better ways to advertise to reach more potential buyers?

thanks himey

first you need to do your homework and figure out how much it is truly worth in todays market. you may just have to lower the price.... id advertise it in the newspaper and then id send out "Just listed" postcards to the surrounding neighborhoods once a week. send the listing to everyone in your contacts via email. tell everyone in your office about it. offer a 4% commission to the buyers agent on MLS. this will catch most agents eyes and they will try to convince their buyers to pick your listing. you should talk to your client about raising the commission to 7% (3 to you and 4 to the buyers agent) or just take a loss and have 2 for you and 4 for the buyers agent. but that really does attract the agent and when you attract the agent you attract the buyer. make sure that house is spottless at all times. make sure it is the nicest house in the neighborhood. and that it has great curb appeal.... i have also herd that if you decorate the front yard for the season it attracts the buyer. for instince since we are coming into novenber a nice decoration would ba a wreath on the front door, a couple bayles of hay nicely arranged in the front yard with a couple of pumpkins on them. ive never done that but i have herd that it helps attract the buyer these things should help you alot but that price seems very high compared to the others in the neighborhoods.

On the mls there have only been 6 houses sold in that price range in the last 3 years. Although there have been several sold from the builder. This house was sold last june from the builder and he has 2 more sold this summer and one pending. He built all the homes in this sub division. We live in central Illinois, I was thinking of advertising in a bigger town about 45 minutes from us. Is there any multi state ways to advertise and would that even help?

im not sure about multi state??? but if the house has great curb appeal then it should sell. its just gunna take longer. it would be a good idea to market in a bigger town. attract more people. does the house honestly look like it is worth $360000? whereabouts in illinois is your listing? my grandma is in downersgrove.

i live about 35 miles south of champaign. yes the house worth 350-360. it was built a year ago and the builders did an excellent job. alot of originality and details. we live in somewhat of a depressed area, but there are some people with money. i am new and a little nervous about listing this house.

Based on your info here is what i would do.

Take a reduced commission in exchange for the seller paying for all advertising costs or just settle on an amount to negotiate the contract only.If the property is hard to move you do not want to pour endless advertising money into something that is hard to sell,you do not want this type of business.

You could refer the listing off to another agent for a refferal fee when it closes this way they have all the risk if it doesn't sell you didn't spend time or money on it the other agent did you reffered the listing to.

On the decorating the house for the season this can help but remeber one important thing.In our mls it does not give the date the agent listed the property because we could us that as a negotiating position against the listing agent and the seller.Sometimes people decorate for christmas or halloween the agent takes the pic and puts in the mls,the agent never updates the listing photo so i can see a picture of a decorated house and it's february now i know the house has been sitting on the market for months.

Also if you drive up to the house and the yard sign has faded in color from the sun you know it's an old listing that hasn't sold.

It's all about DISQUALIFYING prospects the fastest. Don't get caught-up in the expensive and time-consuming trap on how to effectively reach "qualified" buyers.

Your marketing should efficiently DISQUALIFY potential buyers before they even respond.

-------Edited-------------
I stand corrected and have removed this post. I don't want to get anyone in trouble re: discrim or equal housing laws.
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Are you trying to get him sued?

No kidding!

Are we talking in '000s or '0,000s? Like $60,000 or $600,000? Is the home that you are listing $360,000 or $3,600,000? That is amazing that the average home price where you are (where are you exactly?) is $60,000 if that is the case. I believe that the average price of a home here is just over $320,000.

I doubt that my response helped, but good luck! Just keep your head up and spirits high and you should have no problem with it. If it is in the higher range of homes, go into it realizing that you will not get as much activity on the property no matter how you market it. Do as much as you can, but tell you client up front that it will take some time and a lot of effort to get the home sold, but that he/she has your full commitment doing the best you can!

Good luck!!!