Written by Don Martin. For his updates go here.
We know you, as independent homesellers, are interested in doing your assignment properly, while spending the least amount of money possible. In the interest of that pursuit, we are beginning a series of articles concerning sites where you can get free exposure for your house.
In the weeks ahead you will find a number of resources that will help you here. Come back frequently, or better yet, subscribe and receive them in you inbox in a timely manner.
1. Facebook
Facebook is a website that really needs no introduction. In addition to being the dominant player in social media today, it has also grown into a very active and effective place to buy and sell real estate. Whether you choose to post properties for sale in the Facebook Marketplace or in one or more a local “For Sale” Facebook Groups in your area – this social platform offers a TON of opportunity to get more exposure.
With a website like Facebook, most people are already spending time here every day. They are not here only for the purpose of the real estate listings. There’s a great opportunity to catch the attention of buyers through a different (and hugely popular) avenue of the internet.
If you can get your property information posted in the right groups and include some great, high-quality pictures and basic property information, it’s a fantastic way to increase your chances of finding a buyer for your property.
You must have an account. You can upload 42 images, map, link to other sites and promotions.
If you include a longer property description with these kinds of ads, users will have to manually click “See More” to read everything – so really, the primary selling point that catches most people’s interest is the pictures. Perhaps aying a little extra for a good photographer to take good pictures can go a LONG way on Facebook.
Facebook makes it easy to link to an outside website (like your own website, for instance) so you can always include the more detailed listing information there, as long as you can draw your buyer’s attention with good pictures and enough information to entice them to click through.
Another nice thing about Facebook is that once you create a posting, it’s very easy to post it in multiple Facebook groups (if you happen to be a member of more than one group that will find the information relevant)… which means you don’t have to “fight the system” to get more exposure, like you would with a website like Craigslist and some others.
2. Zillow
Zillow is another massive online platform designed specifically for the real estate crowd. Rather than serving the needs of many different types of buyers and sellers like Craigslist, this website is focused specifically on being the number one marketplace for buyers and sellers of real estate.
A great thing about Zillow is that it’s one of the few online real estate marketplaces that also allows property owners to post real estate listings For Sale By Owner for FREE… and this is actually kind of a big deal.
There are hundreds of millions of people passing through this site each month (with many of them coming from syndicated outlets like AOL, Yahoo, Trulia and more) and most of them are there with the sole purpose of looking for real estate to buy and rent. It’s also worth noting that many buyers start their search with Zillow (instead of looking only at their local MLS listings), so it’s a good way to get exposure to a large (and targeted) audience at no cost.
Some actually think Zillow listings are some of the best when it comes to compiling the information. Not only do the listings look pretty nice, but they also have a lot of supplemental data built-in with their various drop down items, which can help prospective buyers learn more of the story behind each listing.
You must have an account. You can upload images and video, map your house and link to outside sites.
3. Fizber
Fizber is another helpful website for listing properties, and it’s a platform with a targeted audience for real estate buyers.
Fizber also offers sellers the ability to list their properties on the MLS for a flat fee (without signing a contract with a real estate agent), like mlsDon.com in Tennessee, which is another feature that most real estate listing sites don’t offer.
The only real complaint with Fizber was that the site doesn’t allow sellers to list properties priced less than $25,000 (which seems like a random number). For most sellers, this won’t be an issue – but if you’re selling something really cheap (like a vacant lot), this pricing bottom will obviously be a problem.
After you open your free account you can upload images but not video, map your place, and link to an outside site.
The listings on Fizber are pretty basic, and they’re geared towards properties with houses. The site gets a respectable amount of traffic (given that it’s focused solely on the real estate crowd), but it’s not quite in the same ballpark as Zillow or Craigslist. Overall, it’s not a bad option to work with, especially if you’re interested in blasting your listings out to the MLS as well.
4. Craigslist
When most people think of FREE online marketplaces, one of the first websites that comes to mind is Craigslist (and as one of the highest traffic websites in the world today, it’s no surprise).
Craigslist has long been an ideal place to find buyers and sellers for all types of real estate – mainly because there are a lot of people taking part in every sub-category of this online platform. The ads are very basic with no frills (which follows the same general theme of the entire website) but they get the job done.
Even though Craigslist is clearly the winner in terms of traffic, there are plenty of restrictions (like the inability to link to third-party websites or embed videos), however with the tools that are available – it’s more than enough to inform buyers about what the property has to offer and create enough interest to generate some leads and/or sales.
There is no account need for most postings, you may have up tp 24 pix and google maps.
Craigslist is a listing platform that is ALWAYS worthwhile to use (whether you’re selling as owner or agent). With the hundreds of millions of visitors the site gets each month, it’s pretty hard to ignore this platform.
5. Owners.com
Owners.com is a very good website for listing properties primarily because of its targeted audience for real estate buyers, along with some of the special promotion capabilities that can come along with the site.
This website gives sellers the option of listing their properties on the MLS for a flat fee (without signing a contract with a real estate agent like mlsDon.com). This extra feature isn’t free, but it’s a nice little premium tool that isn’t offered by most of the other platforms on – and considering what a HUGE additional audience the MLS represents, it’s worth pointing this out.
This site is easily one of the best designed and laid out of the real estate websites, and it allows users to enter in a lot of helpful specifics and details about their property for sale. It also allows you to embed YouTube videos within each listing, which is a HUGE plus.
After you open your account, you can upload up to 1o images, videos and maps, but cannot link to outside websites.
Written by Don Martin. For his updates go here.
Photo by Cosmic Timetraveler on Unsplash
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