Are you considering selling your Toronto real estate?
I’d love to invite you and yours to benefit from my custom marketing program. With over 25 years as a Top Producing Toronto realtor – including hundreds of transactions representing both Buyers and Sellers of freehold and condominium housing across the original City of Toronto – my team and I are committed to creating impactful promotions that showcase your property in its best light. This approach creates opportunity, specifically targeting your Buyer profiles.
When choosing a realtor, you’ll want to vet which realtors have the experience, contacts, and resources to create and employ Buyer-specific marketing materials; it will likely mean the difference between delivering you to your goal (quick sale, top dollar) or leaving you hoping for the best (Maybe it will sell. Maybe it will sell fast. Maybe I’ll get top dollar?). With a sterling track record helping clients achieve swift and profitable sales, I reduce the stress of selling by guiding you through the process with detailed strategies and with numerous actionable market steps. And it works – just ask my clients – many whom have shared their Testimonials!
Doesn’t it seem most every realtor is a Top Producer? There’s no question the business of real estate requires significant promotion that may read as ego and hubris, but what’s most important is you ask the realtors you’re considering engaging to demonstrate their credibility. In my own instance, this is my 26th year as a realtor, of which 22 years have been under the tutelage of Bosley Real Estate Ltd., Brokerage – which is the longest family-owned brokerage in the country – now celebrating its 90th year in business. During my 22 years with the firm, I was their Rookie Of The Year the first year of my employ, Number One in sales at the company my second year, and I’ve been one of the Top Ten Company Producers (out of 260 associates currently) for a further 18 years. Yes, I LOVE my career!
In terms of sales volume, I execute between 30 and 60 real estate trades a year, split equally between freehold houses and condominiums and between buyers and sellers; this demonstrates my commitment to understand each facet of the market (which, incidentally, oscillate differently). With respect to price points, the properties my clients bought and sold last year ranged in value from $450,000 to $3,000,000, while my client profiles are typically educated white collar professional singles, couples and families in their late 20s to late 70s. I work with first time buyers, those climbing the property ladder, down-scaling zoomers, investors, and builders. I consider myself a well-rounded personable caring gentleman with astute listening and guiding skills.
Understanding market influences and pricing your property appropriately figures a great deal in ensuring that your home will sell swiftly. To make sure that you are able to get top dollar for your home, my team and I rely on a more tactical marketing strategy that follows a process. When you list with us, we’re tapping into every facet of marketing, ranging from print ads in the Globe and Mail (for over 20 years), direct mail HomeWatch Newsletters delivered all over the city (for 16 years), plus we’re actively engaged on Social Media, including YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, Google+ and Twitter.
In addition to the most-trafficked social media tools, I leverage my website as well. My website is constantly evolving, with current content, including new listings and posts in my blog on housing, culture and design in Toronto. I post at least three times a week on the site; these are then featured on Facebook, Google+, and on Twitter. While your property is on the market, my site features local amenities in proximity to your property including green space, schools, transportation and even shops, services and cafes. At the end of each post is a promotion of your dwelling, in order to channel potential buyers to your property. If you’re interviewing realtors, explore how many mediums they engage to attract your target markets (you never know where the buyer is going to come from today), and demonstrate how savvy, devoted and committed they are to the sales and marketing process of real estate today.
My marketing approach is systematic and comprehensive. Using my recent sale of 46 Herbert Avenue in The Beach, I’d like to demonstrate our marketing strategy. 46 Herbert was a stunning residence. It was not only aesthetically arresting, but a fascinating study in how an architect can completely transform a dilapidated residence into a magazine-worthy dwell. It was also a cutting edge home, with several sustainable features many Toronto buyers are not fully familiar with. A listing like this – like all properties which offer their own unique qualities and features – needs proper well-crafted messaging to directly attract the target market.
Here are some examples of how we promote Urbaneer listings:
In this digital age, print media is sometimes overshadowed by digital media. However, when it comes to real estate, print media still plays an important role, because of the ability for rich visual communication. Given the context of the marketing climate, print media needs to be tailored to promote the home at hand and to take advantage of the visual cues that property provides. It’s all about layout and messaging. For 46 Herbert, check out the custom feature sheet below as well as a sample of the direct mail postcards, which were distributed to about 15,400 households in surrounding neighbourhoods.
• Custom Feature Sheet :
(Download The 46 Herbert Feature Sheet Here)
• Direct Mail Postcards:
Although we consume print media less than we used to, there is no denying the reach of a solid journalistic brand, like the Globe and Mail. We leverage that with a long standing history with the publication. Here is the ad that ran for 46 Herbert in the Saturday Real Estate Section.
• Globe and Mail Picture Ad – Saturday Real Estate Section:
Our digital media campaigns are targeted and focused to give our properties for sale maximum exposure most directly to target markets. It’s strategy like this that is the base for selling your home most expeditiously and for top dollar. Again, taking advantage of the Globe and Mail’s media presence, we ran a
Globe and Mail ‘Home of the Week’ article about 46 Herbert Avenue: ‘Home Of The Week: A Twist On The Beaches Design Vernacular‘.
Urbaneer.com is a resource known in the industry as a platform for real estate commentary, literally covering all aspects from all angles- from forecasting, to market reports, to style stories and so on. We take advantage of our traffic to promote our properties for sale with blog content that subtly underscores the best qualities of a home, creating buyer want and need in a unique, informative context. When 46 Herbert was on the market for sale, we featured these blogs custom-tailored to boost awareness.
• ‘A Unique Architectural Masterpiece Is The Globe’s Home Of The Week!‘
• ‘On My Obsession With Housing And Home‘
• ‘On Building Sustainable Housing In Canada‘
• ‘How Would Your Home Compare To A Sustainable Property?‘
• ‘Acclaim for Baukultur/ca And 46 Herbert Avenue‘ (Of particular note, this post ran internationally. Buyers wanting a sublime property in Toronto are everywhere!)
Owning a home is about shelter and growing your asset base, but having a “Home” hinges on your quality of life. That’s another reason that location figures so importantly into a home’s value- both financially and emotionally. This is why we promote a property’s neighbourhood amenities, so that prospective Buyers can get a more accurate visual of what life would be like as a homeowner of a given property. Here are the blogs we wrote about the neighbourhood amenities close to Herbert, which became part of our twitter rotation.
• ‘Bud’s Coffee Bar In The Beaches‘
• ‘We Adore Kew Gardens In The Beach‘
• ‘No Bones About It Dog Daycare And Grooming – In The Beach‘
As Twitter and Instagram continue to evolve into sophisticated communication and newsreel tools, we at urbaneer.com have been embracing the medium.
Along with sharing our posts on our other sites – Houseporn.ca [@houseporn1], our Mentorship Program for university students studying in fields related to Canadian Housing and Design, and The Black House [@theblackhousepei], which is our Charming Vacation Rental on Prince Edward Island – we actively promote our listings and our comprehensive blogs (on Toronto’s neighbourhoods, culture, and every facet of the housing market) via social media. We have hundreds of followers that often re-tweet and share our posts, effectively broadening the our audience exponentially.
Our tweets are frequently picked up and shared, often appearing in paper.li’s across North America. We’ve seen our web traffic increase dramatically because of this technology. It’s amazing! Do not underestimate the power of social media.
Are you social media savvy? Consider joining urbaneer’s journey by connecting with us on Twitter [@urbaneer] and Instagram [@urbaneer_TO]
Curious to see what our social media presence looks like? Here are samples of Facebook and Twitter promotions we ran for 46 Herbert:
More on our social media campaigns in a social media-centric follow-up, now available! Marketing Your Home With Urbaneer: Social Media
With ten years of university geared to all facets of housing, my education includes a double major degree on Canadian Social History – focusing on the migration patterns of different ethnic groups as they influenced the housing market from 1850-1970 and Urban Studies – my thesis was called Yuppie Porn: Gentrification In South Riverdale – which focused on the urban process from 1970 to 1986. I also completed a Graduate Degree in Environmental Studies that focused on finance, construction, urban planning, urban design, and the psychology of housing and home, as it pertained to the loft conversion market in Toronto from 1980 to 1993.
At Urbaneer my team and I create urgency and buzz using top-notch professional photography, compelling promotional copy, and glossy printed materials including floor plans. I’ll bring in a home inspector in advance of listing to identify any urgent issues (with a reputable contractor on hand to remedy anything pressing), and then prepare a final report to give to prospective purchasers to facilitate their due diligence. If you own a condominium, I’ll order the Status Certificate in advance of coming to market so I can be fully informed on the operations, finances and Reserve Fund Study for your complex. As part of my sterling listing service, I’ll also execute a consistent direct mail campaign (we deliver upwards of 10,000 flyers/colour postcards each month), a comprehensive social media presence (we post three to five original content blogs on housing, culture and design in Toronto, and we mirror these on Facebook, Google+ and our consistent Twitter rotation), and reach out to our media contents to see if we can generate some press (we’re consistently featured in The Globe and Mail, Toronto Life, and BlogTO).
When you hire my team and I, we’re committed to promoting – and then selling – your property. Not only do we have marketing methods that consistently get top dollar for our clients, we’re sensitive and savvy professionals who will guide you through the process without pressure, or hassle. If you’re seeking those who practice artful empathy with professional prudence, we’re certainly worth your consideration.
-The Urbaneer Team
Steven Fudge, Sales Representative
& The Innovative Urbaneer Team
Bosley Real Estate Ltd., Brokerage – (416) 322-8000
– we’re here to earn your trust, then your business –
Celebrating 31 Years As A Top-Producing Toronto Realtor
*Did you know we were recently listed as one of The Top 25 Toronto Real Estate Agents To Follow On Twitter! – The Top 50 Blogs In Toronto – and The Top 100 Real Estate Blogs In Canada? Consider signing up in the box below to receive our FREE monthly e-newsletter on housing, culture, and design including our love for unique urban homes and other Toronto real estate!
*Love Canadian Housing? Check out Steve’s Student Mentorship site called Canadian Real Estate, Housing & Home which focuses on architecture, landscape, design, product and real estate in Canada!