Advertising your home is an expensive business these days. But the thing is – it doesn’t have to be.

Learn how to advertise your home to attract buyers – and save thousands!

There’s a myth floating about that you need to spend 1% of the value of your property on advertising. That’s $10,000 on a property worth $1 million – and that doesn’t even include agent fees, which you should factor into your advertising budget (seeing as their primary goal is to find you buyers). In today’s digital world, this kind of spend isn’t necessary.

So, here’s how to advertise your home effectively and save thousands:

Forget print.

88% of buyers these days use the internet as their main tool for researching property. And advertising online is cheaper than print so it’s great value for money. Most buyers research properties for sale through the two biggest real estate portals, realestate.com.au and Domain. Both portals have sophisticated search mechanisms, which means buyers that find your listing are highly targeted and relevant. When it comes to cost, Domain charge a flat fee of $660 for an 8 week listing and $770 for a 12 week listing. But you can only advertise with realestate.com.au through a normal agent or through an agent-assisted selling platform like PropertyNow for a low flat fee until sold.

Tell your friends.

While social media alone is probably not going to sell your property, it’s a great avenue to generate shares and get people talking. News travels fast across social media. People want to alert their friends about relevant events. If they know someone looking to buy and your house fits the description, they’ll be sure to tell them about it. And the beautiful thing about social media? It doesn’t have to cost a cent.

Think about creating a video of your home with your iPhone – video’s often attract more views than static photos on social media. Facebook gives priority to videos directly uploaded (as opposed to links to external sources). You may like to use a free editing app like iMovie to add affects and music to make your video more appealing.

Cut out the middleman.

Your typical real estate agent will charge between 1 and 3 per cent of the total sale price of your home. That’s between $10,000 and $30,000 for a home that sells for $1 million. Agent earnings have significantly increased over the years as their commission rates remain the same yet the value of property has increased. But here’s the thing – their jobs are easier than ever as buyers now take a more active role finding properties for themselves.

If you sell with PropertyNow, our charges come to less than 5% of the cost of an agent (and our fees include all your basic marketing costs). We can still list your ad on both realestate.com.au and Domain, giving your property access to thousands of buyers each month.

Take your own photos.

We’re not saying photos don’t need to look professional – they do. Photos are one of the first things buyers look at to form an opinion about your home. If the photos look shoddy, they’re likely to give your listing a miss.

However, there are some amazing, cost-effective online tools to help you create and edit your photos to professional standards. For more information, check out our video tutorial How to take great photos of your house .

Create a local stir.

Get your neighbours talking by organising a ‘for sale’ sign and attract the attention of buyers driving through to check out the area. You don’t need to spend hundreds. There are plenty of online sign companies offering full-size, professional looking for sale signs for under $100. And if you sign up with PropertyNow, you get your sign for free!

Consider free sites like Gumtree.

Gumtree is a bit like a local noticeboard. It first launched to connect people either planning to move or for people who had just moved to a new area. Now it lists thousands of for sale items across hundreds of different categories. It’s had a bad wrap lately being the target of several fraud campaigns, but so long as you follow their safety guidelines, it can be an effective method for attracting buyers.

‘A good property sells itself.’

This is true to an extent. Obviously, you need to advertise your home, but there’s no point marketing a property that doesn’t present well (unless it’s a knock down). Presentation is everything. You don’t need to spend a fortune, but you do need to spend time preparing your home so that it appeals to buyers. For tips on how to present your home for sale, read our blog 4 simple, effective home staging tips to sell your home.

These days, it’s not difficult for buyers to find you…

In today’s digital world, you don’t need to spend thousands on an ad campaign. Buyers are more proactive than ever searching online to find suitable properties. As long as you’re listed on the largest real estate domains, they’ll be sure to find your property.