How to use new tools to sell old homes

One day the phone rings and your marketing efforts pay off. An older couple is interested in possibly listing their home with you.

Even if they are older, they probably still found you through your website, where hopefully you displayed your SpatialMatch real estate neighborhood search tool complete with MLS listings formatted on a map-based platform.

Because when you drive up to property, you can see you are going to need it.

What the couple failed to tell you, is that they have lived in this home for a long, long time. And when they bought the house, the previous family lived in it for a long, long time.

Bottom line, this house is old.

Problem is, most buyers coming into this market are young.

You’ve got a challenge. Young people are going to be turned off by the wallpaper, the rickety stairs and railing, the decrepit garage, the musty old attic and the outdated kitchen cabinets.

Sure, it would be great if the owners would agree to a renovation. But they nixed that idea.

Like any challenge, there’s a solution. If you have the right tools.

Because while young buyers might not be super-enthusiastic about the condition of the house, with SpatialMatch, you can make them super enthusiastic about the neighborhood.

Chances are young buyers are going to be raising a family. Use SpatialMatch to show them how close the schools are located to the property by showing them the location of the schools right next to information about the property. Complete with a distance slider.

Not only do you have the mileage to the schools. On your SpatialMatch data widget embedded on your site, you have detailed information about each school – student/teacher ratios, enrollment, etc., etc., etc.

There’s more. Kids love parks. Point that out on SpatialMatch. They like to go to the playground, mall, soccer fields, baseball fields, bowling, swimming, movies.

SpatialMatch has all that and when you display these amenities, you are planting in the mind of the buyers that this property has all those positive features as well.

Maybe the young couple is not ready to start a family. Well, you can point out all those family-related amenities for when they do raise a family.

But maybe the young couple is just interested in fun things to do.

SpatialMatch has that too. Perhaps the wife is into yoga – let me show you all those great yoga studios nearby.

He’s into softball. There’s a men’s league that plays down here.

Hey, parks, movies and malls are not just for kids. Point out where the young adults like to hang out.

Maybe there’s a great sports bar nearby. Sushi restaurant. Coffee shop.

While you are not adding new cabinets to the kitchen, or carpeting the basement or paneling the den, in the minds of the buyers, every time you show them a vital location on SpatialMatch, you are creating more reasons why they should buy this property.

And negating reasons why they shouldn’t.

But, first you have to convince the sellers. After you give them a reality check about the age of their home, you can give them an upbeat talk about how your hyper-local search technology is going to make the years on that house disappear.

Because young people get technology. And with the right technology, you will get the listings.

To read a Realtor.com article on appealing to young people, click here.

To learn more about how you can generate more listings with SpatialMatch real estate map search, click here.