A Fool-Proof Guide for Effectively Marketing Real Estate Listings

It doesn’t always matter how great the house is.

If your marketing efforts for a real estate listing aren’t top-notch, you could be missing out on potential buyers, multiple offers, and a quick sale.

To generate maximum interest in your listing, you need to maximize your marketing and take advantage of every opportunity.

This post will give you a framework for doing just that.

Keep reading for a fool-proof guide for effectively marketing real estate listings.

 

Start Early

Marketing real estate listings needs to start well before your real estate listing goes live. At least the preparation does.

As soon as your seller has signed your contract, create your own workback plan — comprising the steps on this page — for getting the listing live and spreading the word. 

In an ideal world, you’ll have about a month between signing the contract and publishing the listing.

 

Give the Sellers a To-Do List

For real estate marketing that really shines, the listing itself has to shine. That starts with the sellers.

You need to work with them to make sure their home is looking its absolute best. Depending on the condition of the home, the to-do list you give your sellers will likely include things like:

• Small repairs
• Paint touch-ups
• Mini renos or improvements (e.g., replacing dated door handles or updating a light fixture)
• Window washing
• Decluttering and removal of personal decor (and temporarily storing these things somewhere other than the home)
• Organizing cupboards and closets
• Tidying garages and sheds
• General outdoor maintenance

You’ll also want to advise your client to hire — or hire yourself — a professional cleaning service to do a deep clean of the house after they’ve completed their to-do list and before the listing photos are taken. 

A cleaning that leaves no stone unturned will make sure the house gleams in photos and will make it easier for your clients to maintain a standard of cleanliness ahead of walk-throughs and open houses.

 

Stage the Home

Ninety-nine percent of all homes could benefit from some level of home staging.

Depending on how the home is decorated, you can go one of two ways:

• Accessory staging. If the home is already contemporary and nicely appointed, you can opt for this lighter level of staging. Add or swap in accessories and decor like house plants, fresh flowers, printed artwork, fresh towels, toss pillows and blankets to make the house feel more inviting.
  

• Complete staging. If the home needs more help, hire your trusted home staging service to do a head-to-toe job.

 

Get It Photographed

So much of effectively marketing real estate listings comes down to the quality of your listing photos. The better the photos, the better your marketing content can be.

Hiring a specialized and experienced photographer is the most important thing. You need someone who has plenty of experience photographing home interiors and exteriors, and ideally someone who has done this for the purpose of real estate.

This kind of specialized shooter knows how to photograph awkward spaces, how to represent spaces accurately and flatteringly, and how to communicate the vibe of a home through photography.

For more photo tips, check out our guide to getting the best possible real estate listing photos.

 

Write the Listing

While you’re waiting for the high-res images to be delivered by the photographer, it’s time to start writing your listing description.

Whether you’ve written three listing descriptions or 300, keep these tips in mind:

• Avoid outdated (and potentially offensive) real estate listing words and phrases such as “his-and-her sinks” and “master bedroom”
  
• Use accessible, clear language (no real estate jargon!)
  
• Experiment with ChatGPT for writing listing descriptions in different tones and for different audiences
  
• Contextualize the home’s features so a reader can understand how they translate to liveable space
  
• Use real estate listing words and terms that sell the sizzle, such as “private,” “turn-key,” and “expansive”
  
• Proofread (or have someone else proofread) your listing several times before publishing

 

Publish the Listing

When you’re ready to publish your listing, timing is everything.

Aim to have your listing live on the MLS on a Tuesday or Wednesday. This gives prospective buyers several days to discover the listing and arrange to attend an open house that weekend.

The listing will automatically be loaded to your myRealPage real estate website if you have one. Don’t have a real estate website? Get yours today by getting our latest offer.

Publishing it during these days also gives aggregate sites such as HouseSigma and Zoocasa time to scrape the listing from the MLS and add it to their own system.

 

Post to Other Sites and Networks

Once the listing is live, it’s time to share it more broadly.

Depending on the policies of your real estate board (and the rules of the sites where you might want to share; double-check before you proceed), consider sharing your listing on:

• Facebook Marketplace
• Neighbourhood Facebook groups
• Housing Facebook groups
• Sub-Reddits for neighbourhoods or housing

We’ll get to other social networks in a minute.

 

Send an Email Blast

Spread the word by email! 

Build a dedicated email about your new listing and include photos, details, a link to the listing on your site and a link to an open house registration page.

This email can go out to your newsletter subscribers, leads in your database, your network of agents, and family and friends.

If you send a weekly real estate newsletter, make sure you include the listing somewhere in there, too.

 

Share on Instagram

Instagram is a perfect place for marketing real estate listings.

From Reels to Stories to photo carousels, there are so many formats you can take advantage of to share attention-grabbing listing content.

And you’ll want to take advantage of all of them. Sharing your listing multiple times, in multiple ways is the best way to maximize its potential reach on Instagram.

Psst: here are a few more tips for successfully sharing real estate listings on Instagram. 

 

Keep Your Sellers Informed

It’s a no-brainer that you’ll be in frequent communication with your sellers to keep them in the loop about any and all updates.

But to really impress them (and earn that glowing real estate testimonial), plan to send them a weekly email that sums up everything you did to market their listing that week.

Share links to your Instagram content, mention the email blasts and Facebook group posts, and go over the results (specifically, the DMs and email inquiries you received).

This more formal kind of marketing status update shows your sellers that marketing real estate listings is something you’re committed to.