Driving around these days I see lots of For Sale Signs in front of listings and many of them still have empty flyer boxes on the posts.
The boxes are empty because here in California, and Contra Costa County, we are unable to have flyers, either in the home itself or in the flyer box.
So, in addition to not being able to hold open houses except by appointment (and even then subject to draconian rules) we are seriously limited in our abilities to market our listings to the general public.
So, I want to propose something to you that has been around for a while but has fallen into disfavor.
About 10 years ago QR codes were all the rage. A QR code is a square image with some strange geometric markings that, when scanned with a QR code reader app, would offer to take you to a website with just a tap of the finger. At that time QR codes had to be read by a special app that could translate the code into a web address, or phone dialer or an email already pre-addressed.
However, these days, our phones are quite capable of decoding QR Codes without the need for a special app.
Take out your phone and open the camera app and point it at the QR code in this post. Your phone will offer to open a website for you. Go ahead and let it do that and you’ll go to a webpage that is dedicated to a listing by Alison J. Petersen of Dudum Real Estate, in Danville, CA.
So, knowing that you could do this, why not create a qr code for one of your listings? Print it out and tape it on the INSIDE of one of your flyer boxes. Any reasonably techie person that sees it will know what to do, and they will have immediate access to a “flyer”.
Go to https://www.qrcode-monkey.com to create one. Notice in the picture with this post that Alison’s picture is part of the code! qrcode-monkey allows you to do that by simply uploading a picture or logo and checking a box. And, it’s FREE!
One thing to notice, make sure that the website that you are sending people to will look good on a mobile phone. If your website doesn’t look good on a cell phone don’t use this method!
Finally, You might want to print some instructions on the paper that you print the QR Code on. Something like this has worked well in the past
“To learn more details about this home, open the camera app on your phone and aim the phone at this code. You’ll be given the opportunity to visit this home’s website, see pictures and take a virtual tour, all on your phone!”
Doing this is a small thing, it’s free and there is no guarantee of success, but it is one more thing that you can show to sellers to help you stand out as someone who leaves no stone unturned when marketing your listings!
