Make sure you post it on Craigslist.org every week.  Many of the first time home buyers begin their search there.

Perhaps, instead of spending money on print advertisement, as it was proven that the ROI is extremely low, why not invest that money into something else.  Try a P2 Spotlight ad or even create an Adword campaign specific to this property.  Think of keywords that first time home buyers will use to search for a property and create an Adwords ad to target them.

Good luck and congratulations on your first listing.

Maria, Any listing is a good listing if it's priced right. All of the freshening up (painting, flooring etc) is good, but the main factor with any listing is price. Keep that in mind and you shouldn't have any trouble.

Maria, congratulations on the first of many listings. Russell is correct, use the money you would spend on print and put it towards an adword campaign. I tried the spotlight ad with P2 with a nice property and did not receive a single response from it. May have been a fluke.

Price it right and it will sell regardless of the market.

Maria,

Congrats...I agree with Anson, if it is priced right, it will sell.

I totally agree with Anson.

Price is all that sells homes.

Price it right the first time. Tough when you are new as everybody thinks their house is made of gold.

Up grades to sell don't always lead to profit.

Sell as is, price accorrdingly, let the buyers do what they want.

Remember 95% of sales are to other realtors and they don't look for your marketing campain, the marketing campain is to get more listings as the potential sellers see you out there.

go get em, good luck, and just stick with it, it will come in time.

THIS IS A VERY PATIENT BUISINESS

Congratulations Maria - great job capturing your first listing.  I'm a true believer in making my listings the house that shines - staging, fresh paint and no clutter.  When you have a showing the home must blow the competition out of the water.  Good luck.

Hi Maria.  Congrats again.  Price right is definitely important, but how it shows in this current market, at least in the southeast area, is as important.  Everything your sellers are doing (i.e. paint, decluttering, carpet, floors etc.) are the right things to do.  You need to wow the buyer immediately so as to help if not completley overcome the objections.  Also, the house may be small and have no garage, but if the the other houses in this same neighborhood have no garage and are small --- you all should be fine.  Make sure the outside is cleaned up, edged, fresh pine needles, bushes cut, cobwebs down, doors painted, etc. so you can get them on the curb appeal first.  If you don't catch the buyer on the curb appeal, you often won't get the opportunity to get them inside.  All this being said, you of course have to keep the expenses in line with respect to the area/comps and the home's value itself.  Buyers also like lots of pictures, so give as many as possible while I know it is difficult when the spaces are small.  Best wishes!

Great Job Maria,

     LOTS of Pictures and feature it on your P2 site....also a little extra always make you look good and it can be done right here at P2. Buy the address domain name if available and make a rider with the web address eg: www.123mainst.com People driving by may write it down go home and visit the web site which of course will point to your web page of that home and all its photo's....This works great for me and at about $8 its great advertising for the house and for you. BEST WISHES.

Ed

Hi Maria- Don't let it scare you. There is a buyer for every house. Get a working relationship with a mortgage person. They usually are pre-qualing those first time buyers. ( I do both) and esp thru the Mortgage guy, stress the fact that a 2 bedroom buys your more of a home then a 3 bedroom. Not as far as space but quality. You can get a 2 bdrm with as much sq footage as a 3 bdrm and usually the basement is finished because the previous owners have wanted the extra space. Trust me a good 2 bdrm is usually a better buy then a mediocre 3 bdrm. We price 3bdrms higher- because thats what most people want!

Maria,

I'm chiming in late and hope you see this.

Congrats!

This is a great post with a lot of excellent ideas for the less than stellar listing.

In your listing, talk benefits: the emotional values of a feature.  Every house has benefits to somebody, even if it is a teardown.  If it has a dinky yard, then one benefit could be low maintenence.  Fenced yard: safe environment for children to play in.  No garage? Then it's a quick getaway!  You can write humor into your descriptions and defuse the problem areas enough that for someone scheduling a showing because they need a home at that price, they will be aware of it already and it will be less of a problem.  You can do a visual tour with stills if the rooms are too small, and use text in the descriptions to describe the benefits.  Write it like you were walking them through the home and describing all the cool stuff they can do there.

MOST IMPORTANT: Take a great photo of the house.  Make sure there is very blue sky behind the house.  Check this listing;

http://org.mlxchange.com/Pub/EmailView.asp?r=1715864921&s=ORG&t=ORG

Regardless of what the agent says in the listing, this was a gut job that sat on the market for 13 months before closing.  But look at that photo.  Check that cloud!  This is one of the best RE listing photos I have seen.  How do you do this?  Take the picture when the sky is blue(!) and when the sun is full on the front of the house.  The bright house will cause the sky to be underexposed and look very blue, and people like to see blue sky - it makes them feel good.

I could say a lot more but have to leave.

Good luck and let us know how it goes!

-David (the one on the left...)

Maria,

Now that you have your feet wet, might as well get wet down to your knees.

All the suggestions herein are terrific.  Everyone is right.  I would like to add the following:  Depending on where the house is situated in its town (near heavy road traffic), I recommend you do as many open houses as you can.  Weekends usually are better for young working people.  You can also ask your co-workers if there is a special day of the week which all real estate agents in your town hold a "broker's Open" (usually it is a day during the week to invite all agents in town between 11:30 AM to 2:00 PM to preview your house.  It is customary to serve lunch or refreshments.  It is also a great opportunity to meet other agents.  Very important because the next time you need to show their listings, you will act as you are long time co-working friends and your buyers will feel secure to know that you are a well known agent in your town.  Also, it is always good business to have as many agents as allied for they may be helpful to you when in need.)

I also recommend that you go to all other open houses to study all different aspects of your farming area and to know who and what is your competition.

Contrary to what many lazy agents may say, over the years, I pulled many buyers and sellers from opens.  That is not a guarantee that you will get a buyer or a seller every time.  Sometimes it may take 4 or 5 or more opens to get something; nevertheless, it is a great way to get leads and to get yourself known as a WORKING agent in your farming area.   Furthermore, keep in mind that those potential buyers who  walk-in may not like the house you are selling but you may use that opportunity to cast your charm on them and offer your professional services to help them finding the perfect house.

As for garages, you are right - they are nothing but huge storage rooms overcrowd with "stuff".  The only people who actually use a garage for cars are the wealthy people because they are the ones who can afford to rent a storage place to put their precious belongings in.

Go get'em Maria - you can do it!

John

Price, product, presentation. Do what you know... believe in what you do... and most importantly... have fun! You'll do great!

Congratulations!!!  In order to make it easy on buyers I hope you have some room in the price to allow for closing costs.  2 bedrooms I usually market to investors or College kids.

Good Luck!

Realtor, Columbus Ga