Let’s Talk Real Estate – August 2020
The number one question we get asked by homeowners who are looking to sell is, “How do we market to buyers moving up from California?” It’s a great question, as buyers from California, and from other states, represent a good portion of our real estate sales, especially on properties priced over $500,000.
We are a small area, so to find and market to out-of-state buyers, we need to know where they are looking and then make sure we are there. We start by putting these buyers into two categories: intentional buyers and unintentional buyers, and then we market to them appropriately.
Intentional Buyers—These buyers already know they want to move to Southern Oregon, or at least Southern Oregon is one of the places they are looking at. They have been here before; they may have family here, but they know this is where they want to be. They may have just researched the area online and found it meets their needs.
Most likely, these buyers start their search online, so we need to be online and have the most attractive homes listed, with the best photographs, videos and compelling text. Curb appeal is important but “web appeal” is what is most important to attract an out-of-state buyer. Studies show that a buyer makes a split-second decision to click on a home listing or skip it …leaving just seconds to make a good impression. Often, our lead photo is taken from a drone which can offer a stunning view of the property and a compelling reason to click on it.
Another marketing trick we’ve learned over the years is to acquire email addresses from the major websites like Realtor.com and Zillow, of buyers searching for homes in Southern Oregon. We can then be proactive and email them the list of homes we have listed for sale with compelling photographs and walk-through videos. Out-of-state buyers can play the videos and tour homes we have listed while sitting on their couch. In fact, we recently had two homes sell sight-unseen.
We have also been successful working with retirees who intentionally purchase their retirement home a few years before they retire because they know home prices are on the rise. They seek us out because we have a property management division that can rent out their future retirement home and provide them with an income stream until they are ready to retire. In addition, our property management division offers furnished rentals that provide a great place for out-of-state buyers to land once they have sold their homes in other states. They can then take their time buying the perfect home.
Unintentional Buyers—We have seen so many tourists come here for the Shakespeare Festival, Britt Festival, the wineries, rivers, and lakes and many fall in love with our area and dream about living here. The Californians are happily surprised at our home values, relative to theirs, so they make an emotional decision that they are going to move here, pay less and get a much nicer home and have a nicer lifestyle. Buying a home seems like such a huge purchase and you would think it’s well thought out and planned, but for many unintentional buyers, it’s an impulsive and emotional decision.
Capturing these buyers requires educating them on the benefits of our area as well as our home prices. To sell the area, we publish a comprehensive guide to Southern Oregon, “Discovering Southern Oregon” on our website and we drive traffic to it. We have 25 categories covering our area including, Wineries, Shopping, Golf, Events, Theaters, Rivers, Lakes, Scenic Drives, and more. To educate them on our home prices, we run ads for our listings in the major tourist publications like Southern Oregon Wine Scene and Jacksonville Review.
We also print a custom sign brochure for each listing that fits on the top of a post & beam “For Sale” sign. When an Intentional or Unintentional buyer drives by, they can view interior photos along with features and the price of the home. This is great point-of-sale marketing and can create instant demand.
Lastly, we use social media where we can target out-of-state zip codes and target retirees who are most likely to be looking here and add our properties listed for sale into their Facebook feeds.
So… how we market to out-of-state buyers depends if they are intentionally looking to buy, or they are an unintentional buyer. Either way, we are where the buyers are looking… online, in-print, email, point-of-sale or social media and more!