Holding an open house? There's an app for that.
Make sure your agent uses the latest technology to market your house. Agents can advertise open houses on a host of popular real estate sites, such as Realtor.com, Trulia.com, Zillow.com, and portals on Yahoo and Google, says Joan Pratt, real estate broker with RE/MAX Professionals in Castle Pines, Colo.
Because most buyers start their searches on computers, you need a professional presentation online, says Jeff Wiren, president of the Portland Metropolitan Association of Realtors and broker with RE/MAX Equity Group. That means more than a few token pictures, he says. Post a good number of photos, and "make sure the pictures are of good quality and really show the home well."
Realtor.com has a free real estate app for consumers. It finds and lists all of the open houses within a certain radius, with maps and directions to each. It includes salient features, such as asking price and number of bedrooms.
But Realtors may have to take a few extra steps to get the open house to appear on the app and may have to buy additional services from the site, says Julie Reynolds, the website's vice president.