How To Knock Out The Competition With Your Advertising

One of the most import things when advertising your home… is to make sure you knock out your competition. You can easily accomplish this by putting yourself in the person’s shoes who is reading your advertisement. You want to catch their attention with the description of your home. What is going to make your ad stand out from your competitors’ advertisements?

No
Nice 3 bedroom home with finished basement

Yes
We have a stunning 3 bedroom home in a desirable location in Oshawa on a child friendly street. The finished basement in this home will surely make all your friends jealous. The recently completed movie room with state of the art surround sound that will make going to the theater a thing of the past!

The key is to hit them emotionally and make them want to visit your home first.

Online
There are a number of free advertising sites on the Internet that you can use to get your phone to ring. The most popular free sites at the time of writing this are Kijiji™ and Craigslist. Your local area websites may not generate as many leads but I highly recommend that you get your ad onto as many sites as possible.

Even if you only get 1 lead a week on a site that receives minimal traffic, it is better than none. You never know, that may be the person who will be perfect for your home. It may take a bit more of your time but trust me, it’s worth it. Remember that the websites below are being quoted at the time of the writing of this guide and are focused on reaching tenants within the province of Ontario.

www.kijiji.ca – Free (good traffic)
www.craigslist.ca – Free (good traffic)
www.isell.com – Free (limited traffic)
www.rentboard.ca – Paid advertising (good traffic)
www.viewit.ca – Paid advertising (good traffic)
www.gottarent.com – Paid advertising (good traffic)

These are just a few sites that I’ve found that have provided us with great success. I’m sure there are many more out there, so take the time to do your own search to find other sites on which to advertise your property.

When you advertise your home, make sure to place the ad in the House Rental section and not the For Sale section. When I placed my ad in the For Sale section, I received very little response.

Another thing I found to be interesting was when I placed my ads. Monday morning at 8:00 am was a very active time period as well as lunch time (12:00 pm). It may be different in your area, but either way, pay attention to your call volumes and determine the times throughout the week when you consistently experience higher than normal call volumes.

This will be the time you want to bump up your ads to the front page.

Offline
This is a major area that so many people forget to take advantage of. This may be more important than advertising online. Many families that are looking to move into a particular area will drive around in that location to try to find a home for rent or sale. If you have a lawn sign or directional signs advertising your home, the leads that are generated from this are golden.

They are most likely familiar with the area, have family in the area and their kids go to school in the vicinity. Don’t forget this stream of advertising. To help generate additional leads, I would also add directional arrows to your street signs to point them in the right direction of your home.

There are many companies out there that can produce these types of signs for you. Make sure that the sign is generic so that you can use it for other properties you acquire in the future.

Remember, when you are advertising make sure you hit their EMOTIONAL button!!

Gary Hibbert