14 Effective Tips for Selling an Eco-Friendly Home Easier

You have worked very hard to make sure that your home is eco-friendly. You probably added installation to make it every efficient, installed low-flow showerheads and added solar panels. You are very proud to be among the 70% of homes that are considered eco-friendly!

However, you may eventually reach a point when you want to sell your eco-friendly home. This may be easier, depending the demand for environmentally friendly homes in your community.

After putting your house on the market, your focus and efforts should now be directed towards marketing the property. While real estate marketing is a big part of your online estate agent’s job, there are some things you can do to maximize exposure and capture the interest of more potential buyers. Many of these factors are common to selling any property, while a few are specific to selling an eco-friendly property.

Here, we have provided a list of tips designed to help speed up the sale of your green home.

Beyond Simple Curb Appeal

1. Low-maintenance, eco-friendly landscaping. When it comes to enhancing your curb appeal for the purposes of enticing potential buyers, you need to ensure that you are making all the right outdoor improvements. Many improvements will be good for the environment, which can make your home more appealing to eco-friendly home buyers. While flowers and ornamental shrubs are always a great addition, try to avoid options that demand a lot of care and pruning as they may dissuade potential buyers, most of whom may not be into gardening. 

Ask your local nursery for low-maintenance options that are eco-friendly. They can suggest the hardiest plants that require the least amount of water and offer some eco-friendly gardening tips, like organic pesticides.

2. Theme staging with a focus on sustainability. In case your house was built in a certain period, you need to showcase this through your staging. For example, if your house is Victorian, consider adding some antique furnishings, or if you have a mid-century modern, you can find inspiration from Mad Men. Doing so will definitely draw in lovers of these styles.

You will want to make sure your staging emphasizes the steps you have taken to make the property eco-friendly. You can show the solar panels on the roof and other eco-friendly elements.

3. Create a movie. While your agent will handle the real estate photography, you can still choose to also use your own photos and videos. Most smartphones have the capability to produce high-quality 360-degree panoramic shots and videos. Take your listing to the next level by doing a video walkthrough and adding some drone footage. You can also mention the energy efficiency and other sustainability factors of your home. However, do this only if you can make it look professional, otherwise, you are better off hiring an expert.

4. Make it real. You want your photos and videos to showcase your home in the best light. Potential buyers should be able to visualize themselves enjoying the home. Consider staging some pictures of people relaxing or having a good time in the front porch or patio, kids playing in the backyard, or a family preparing a meal together in the kitchen or gathered happily around the dinner table. Again, same as with your videos, these photos need to look professional. Try to replicate what magazines portray as “real-life”.

5. Remove the junk. When it comes to real estate photography and videography, having a keen eye for detail is crucial. The less cluttered your photos and videos are, the better. Besides, homes with a lot of stuff aren’t going to appeal to eco-friendly buyers, since they care about minimalism. Things like toys in the corner, messy and unmade beds, toothpaste in tubes on the sink, and other junk in the background can take away attention from what’s actually great about the space that you want potential buyers to see.

6. Make good use of social media. Consider sharing your property listing or your own photos and videos of the property on Facebook and your other social media accounts and have your friends share them. Word of mouth is always a useful tool for finding prospects. Offering a “finder’s fee” in the form of a gift or gift card is bound to motivate your friends to spread the word. You will have to determine the right time to sell your eco-friendly home when creating your social media content.

7. Inform your neighbors. Your neighbors are another great resource available to you. They may have family, friends, or coworkers who’ve always wanted to move into the neighborhood or to live close to them. And as a bonus, they will serve as an excellent marketing tool, telling interested buyers all the great things about living in your area.

8. Reach out to the big names.  If there is a big employer in your area responsible for an influx of new people moving into the area, you can reach out to them to see if you can have your property recommended to their staff or such looking for properties in the area. St. Louis, for example, is home to a number of large corporations, universities, hospitals, and a military base. If they are recognized for sustainability, their recommendations will go a long ways.

9. Show a little sense of humor. Selling a house shouldn’t be all business. Adding some fun and humor to your listing and social media posts can help you stand out from the crowd and go a long way in increasing exposure for your listing. Quirky and creative listings often end up in TV spots and newspaper articles giving the property some much-needed exposure. For example, one popular listing described a property in Brooklyn as being in a “relatively stabby-free neighborhood.” Another poked fun at the property’s close proximity to a school by suggesting that the kids can be tossed over the fence when they are running late. But remember, not everyone shares your idea of what’s funny, so ensure to do it tastefully.

10. Share your story. Having your own listing, besides that of your online estate agent, allows you to divulge further. You can use your listing to tell potential buyers what makes your house and neighborhood so special, and also explain some of the important improvements to the home you’ve made through the years. This personal touch can help in cultivating their interest in your property. 

11. Plan an open house party. Rather than opting for a traditional open house, you can go further by providing catered food – a morning brunch maybe, with upmarket coffee and brunch items. If you want to show off your amazing backyard that you often use for entertaining guests, you can light the fire pit or arrange some corn-hole games. You can lure in families with kids by setting up a “playdate” at the playset outside. In addition to showcasing the great features of your house, this will also help to increase urgency among interested buyers as they will see for themselves the interest other interested buyers have.

12. Create some traffic. Have your realtor arrange for back-to-back showings. This not only makes things much easier by having all showings done in one swoop but by having potential buyers walk in as you usher out others, you will be able to create more buzz around the property and make it more desirable.

13. Exploit the work-from-home trend. With the gig economy growing at an unprecedented rate and with more people working from home, home sellers are being presented with more unique opportunities. Such people want homes with a space that can double as a home office or place of business. Perhaps you have an alternate entrance that could be used to see clients or a garage or shed that can be converted in to a craftsman shop. Whatever the case might be, advertising your space from this perspective can help improve your chances of selling faster.

14. Find investors. One crucial fact that most house sellers miss is that it’s not only families or individuals looking to own a property are interested in your property. There are also investors looking to buy and rent out properties and they are not only interested in apartment buildings, but also single-family homes. Consider reaching out to the local management companies to find out whether there are any local investors actively seeking properties to add to their portfolio.

Make Selling an Eco-Friendly Property a Breeze

You will want to do everything you can to sell an eco-friendly home. The tips listed above will make it easier to find buyers with the best cash.