Step One: Understand Buyer Psychology

Home buyers, as a rule, are a fickle bunch ... and who can blame them? When people are preparing to part with hundreds of thousands (or millions!) of dollars, they want to make sure that everything is just so before they sign on the dotted line.

Since each home is unique, it is rare that a home buyer will find a home and simply fall in love with it. Regardless of their price range, most buyers feel that the home they buy requires compromises on their part. Put another way: buyers see a number of possible properties, and then start the process of elimination. As a seller, once your home is eliminated from their consideration, you've pretty much lost their interest.

Capturing and holding buyer interest is the first ingredient in selling your home.

My strategy for generating interested buyers can be summarized by three steps.

• First, tantalize the buyer. Use attractive photography and a sufficient number of photos to get them thinking about your home.
• Second, don't give them a reason to eliminate you. If you put too much information on the Web or in a flyer, many people will feel that they don't need to see your home in order to make a decision about it.
• Third, get in front of the buyer. If you never see the 'whites of their eyes,' it's highly unlikely that they'll buy your home.

NEXT: Understand What You're Offering.