Even great listings can benefit from skillful property marketing. Take this quiz to find out if you know what it takes to grab the attention of prospective buyers and make the home’s best features stand out.
Which of the following is not a good tactic for marketing a starter home?
- Suggest various scenarios for financing the home, including sample downpayments and monthly mortgage payments
- Emphasize the advantage of homeownership (e.g., the mortgage interest tax deduction and the possibility of building equity)
- Advertise the home in a local dining-out guide targeted toward young adults
- Hire a professional designer and photographer to create a four-color brochure of the home’s highlights
2. What is the most important part of an ad?
- The photograph
- The headline
- The media placements
- The price
3. Which is the following would make an appropriate and captivating online home tour?
- A sweeping panoramic scene of an entry-level home
- A video tour showing the seller’s designer furniture, antique collectibles, and museum-quality artwork
- A short and fast-loading preview that highlights the top features of a well-staged home
- A 20-minute digital tour, including the neighborhood, the street, the exterior of the home, the neighboring homes, and every room in the home
4. At an open house, the salesperson should:
- Greet visitors and ask them to a sign a guest book, distribute flyers and handouts, answer questions about the home, and offer to assist prospects with their search for a home to purchase
- Eat lunch and watch the ballgame on the seller’s television if there is no traffic
- Follow visitors around the house, ask them with questions about their home search, and mention how many interested visitors have been there today
- Talk with visitors as little as possible so that they have time to view the home
5. To help ensure a successful property auction:
- Make repairs and improvements to the property
- Have a home inspection completed before the auction
- Promote the auction heavily to appropriate target markets
- All of the above
6. Which of the following would not be a violation of fair housing laws?
- Only asking for pre-qualifying financial information from people you think might not be able to afford to buy
- Indicating in a property advertisement that the sellers will give preference to offers from buyers of a particular religious faith
- Encouraging buyers to shop for a home only in selected neighborhoods because you think they will like them better
- Running advertisements that emphasize that the home has a mother-in-law suite
7. Which of the following would make a good newspaper advertisement?
- Emotionally captivating description of the home, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, asking price, your name and telephone number
- Square footage of the home, price the seller paid for the home, asking price, and seller’s telephone number
- Inflated description of the home, total number of rooms, a few abbreviations (e.g., frpl, MBR, vw) and a statement that seller is “highly motivated”
- Description of neighborhood, school district, asking price, your name and e-mail address
8. Which of the following would be an example of negligent misrepresentation?
- Telling buyers that a property’s roof was replaced last year without seeing any written evidence to support this statement
- Telling the buyers that they don’t need to worry about asbestos it was not manufactured after 1978
- Telling the sellers that the house is probably connected to the city sewer because sewers were run to this area five years ago
- All of the above
9. What is Megan’s Law?
- A California law that requires real estate salespeople to research the presence of sex offenders in their local area
- A federal law that requires real estate salespeople to notify home owners if a sex offender moves into their neighborhood
- A federal law that requires state governments to enact regulations mandating registration of convicted sex offenders but doesn’t specify whether real estate salespeople are responsible for disclosing such information
- A law that protects home buyers from sex offenders in their neighborhood
QUIZ RESULTS:
1. Correct Answer: Hire a professional designer and photographer to create a four-color brochure of the home’s highlights
A professional four-color brochure is probably an overly expensive marketing tactic for a starter home unless it was being advertised as part of a new development. The rest of the ideas are more appropriate for an entry-level home.
2. Correct Answer: The headline
Although all the possible answers are important in the success of an ad, most advertising experts say that a strong headline is the most important element in an ad’s success.
3. Correct Answer: A short and fast-loading preview that highlights the top features of a well-staged home
The most effective virtual tours move quickly and emphasize the home’s scale, space, and proportions.
4. Correct Answer: Greet visitors and ask them to a sign a guest book, distribute flyers and handouts, answer questions about the home, and offer to assist prospects with their search for a home to purchase. The salesperson should be friendly and professional, present and represent the home, and use the event to market real estate services.
5. Correct Answer: All of the above
An auction works best when the home is exposed to buyers who are comfortable with the process and are well informed about details of the transaction. Having a home inspection completed in advance of the auction makes buyers more confident in their bidding.
6. Correct Answer: Running advertisements that emphasize that the home has a mother-in-law suite. Although you should avoid mentioning families in your advertising, the term “mother-in-law suite” is acceptable to describe a suite with its own living area and facilities. Advertising that sellers prefer buyers of a particular religion is considered steering, while asking for financial information from only certain prospective buyers can lead to charges of discrimination. Always ask for the same basic information from every prospect.
7. Correct Answer: Emotionally captivating description of the home, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, asking price, your name and telephone number. A good newspaper ad captures a prospective buyers’ attention and provides vital information, including the number of bedrooms, the price, and your phone number. Don’t fill your ad space with too much information on the neighborhood or the home, and never use jargon or abbreviations that consumers may not understand.
8. Correct Answer: All of the above
Negligent misrepresentation is making a statement without confirming the accuracy of the facts. You should not state that the roof was replaced without seeing paperwork. Instead, say that the sellers told you it was replaced, but you are not sure. The second answer option is incorrect because you are not communicating all the facts; even though asbestos manufacture was banned in 1978, suppliers were allowed to sell off inventory, so houses built in the early 1980s could still have asbestos. Finally, home owners are generally not obligated to connect to city sewers unless they wish to be, so making that assumption without verifying the facts is incorrect.
9. Correct Answer: A federal law that requires state governments to enact regulations mandating registration of convicted sex offenders but doesn’t specify whether real estate salespeople are responsible for disclosing such information. The federal Megan’s Law doesn’t say real estate salespeople have any responsible for informing home buyers about registered sex offenders. However, some states do require this notification. In all cases, salespeople should inform buyers of their rights to obtain this information and let them know where they can obtain it.