Picture yourself in a brand new home that you customized to your liking all the way from the color of paint in your dining room to what type of faucet you want in your fabulous French country kitchen sink.  That is exactly the image we want to give each person who views our Craigslist postings but not just from the wording but more importantly from the pictures.

As humans we are naturally visual thinkers, words help describe the new home and community but when we have a picture right in front of us we then are able to visualize how our lives can fit into that adorable new home.

The next time you post to Craigslist.org keep this checklist close by to make sure your pictures give each potential new home buyer a visual reference:

•    Make sure the picture quality isn’t low, Craigslist can accept as large of a picture as 5,000 pixels which looks amazing but isn’t very much needed.  But it also does not look very good when you can a tiny picture or a fuzzy picture.  We have noticed that keeping our pictures around 350 to 400 pixels is a perfect size.
•    Craigslist allows 4 pictures per posting, so make sure you take full advantage of this by having an exterior picture of the home and three interiors.  At NewHomesDirectory we like to use the kitchen, living room and master bedroom pictures as these are the areas people are more interested in.
•    Try not to use pictures of floorplans or renderings of exteriors as this will show that the home is not yet built and when people on Craigslist are searching for a new home they are more than likely wanting to buy now and move in as soon as possible.
•    If you are only able to use one picture for your postings make it count!  Again, don’t post a picture of a drawing and try to make sure it is an exterior picture.

Happy posting!

In the words of Penelope Lively, “Getting to know someone else involves curiosity about where they have come from, who they are.”

As a company, NewHomesDirectory.com wants to make sure you know what we can do to help you sell your new homes but we also want to make sure you know the faces behind the website as well.  By doing funny company videos, welcome videos or introduction videos we have opened up our company to our consumers so they always have an idea of who we are.

This is a great idea for every company to do.  It gives your customers a sense of trust and lets them become a part of your company in a fun way.  Take time to capture the funny moments in the office, that are relative to your business of course, such as Halloween costume contests or a short video about some innovative new ideas that your company is coming up with.  The sky is the limit and we have many outlets in which you can showcase your videos including YouTube.

Just make sure you don’t go over board and forget about working only to film everyone in the office.  And always make sure your content is appropriate so it lifts your company’s image instead of pulling it down.

Check out our latest video, The Ladies of NewHomesDirectory.com.

From the design and logo of Craigslist.org to the people who are looking for a new home we can obviously see that their whole motto is keep it simple.

I recently put this motto to the test because if this is true then those who post within the real estate section might be scaring away potential new home buyers rather than pulling them in with their ads that clearly give the information from a brochure you get while looking at model homes.  Don’t get me wrong, I think it is very important for those who are browsing to get all the information possible about your new homes and community but maybe we should try going about it with a simplistic perspective.

I posted an ad on Craigslist.org with information that was upfront and very informative but still to the point.  Think of an ad that a home owner trying to sell their own home would put up just with a hint of professionalism.  Then I made an ad that looks typical of a real estate agent meaning lots of information about the home and community, and a catchy title.  As an end result both the test communities were very close in their numbers but I did notice a slight lead in the community who had the least amount of filler information versus the highly worded ad.

Based on my results your best bet is to make your ads have a nice medium between the real estate agents ad and the “for sale by owner” ad.  Here are a few tips and tricks to help you do just that:

• Bullet point the important information people are searching for such as bedroom count, bathroom count, square footage, HOA cost (if any), community amenities such as a pool, park(s), greenbelt(s) and so on.
• Try to avoid words such as amenities or using your community name too often as it might seem like a real estate agent is posting the ad and most people do not use the word amenities when speaking about their communities pool.
• Highlight the fact that you are selling a new home in your title but be sure to include something about your community in the title as well.  Example: New home with community pool for sale
• Don’t be afraid to post your price in the area where Craigslist asks for the home price.  Putting the price within the ad description is very hard to find especially if your ad has lots of content to it.
• Put as many quality pictures within the ad as possible.
• It’s perfectly fine to use some of your brochure information or phrases within the ad just made sure it isn’t an overwhelming amount of information.

Happy posting!