My first listing

I have my first listing, okay it is my house, but I think it counts (my broker said yes). As it is my first listing, I have been experimenting with many ways to market it. I have no preconceptions of what is good or bad when it comes to home marketing so I will try pretty much anything.

Of course I went with the few musts: Realtor.com, Balloonhomes.com, my site and the MLS. To not do these would be malpractice. But what after that?

The first Sunday after I listed it, we held an open house. To drive folks to the listing I mailed out 160 invitations to the neighbors, friends and folks I thought would be great advocates. I also put an open house ad in The Oshkosh Northwestern's Sunday homes addition. During the two hour open house 33 separate "buyers" attended. This does not include identifiable neighbors and friends. I think this was a pretty good attendance.

The next week I expanded my reach and added a Facebook page for the house. I also scheduled another open house for that Sunday, but no invitations. On the Facebook page I sent out invitations to all my Oshkosh friends alerting to the open house event. Another ad ran in the Northwestern. A dear friend and colleague of mine, Kris Villars, hosted the open house this time. She reported 15 additional buyers came through, including one who saw the house on Facebook.

I also purchased a domain for the house and gave it its own website: http://www.1249MerrittAve.com. I added more pictures to Realtor.com and twittered about the house. I sent out fliers to other real estate agents who had buyers looking for houses like mine. I got slapped for doing that. Apparently an agent in Oshkosh took offense and requested the MLS board make me stop mailing new listing fliers. Don't understand that one.

So, how is it going? There is a lot of interest, phone calls, emails, showings, but no offers, yet. I am open to all ideas for further marketing options. I am going to post to Craigslist and will continue to mail out fliers to targeted parties.

When your first listing is your own house, you can learn a lot and try anything, your client won't mind.