Most home sellers in London, Ontario focus all their energy on how their home is marketed — the photos, the sign, the MLS listing, the open house. The more important question is who it's being marketed to. A four-bedroom home near good schools attracts families. A one-floor condo in an upscale neighbourhood attracts downsizers. Marketing to the wrong buyer wastes time, money, and momentum. Identifying the right buyer first — and building the entire marketing strategy around that specific person — is what separates a home that sells quickly at the right price from one that sits waiting for someone to notice it. Ty Lacroix, Broker at The Envelope Real Estate Group, has spent 24 years helping London sellers find the right buyer, not just any buyer.
Have you thought about who would actually buy your home in London, Ontario if you were to sell? Not in a general sense — specifically. Who is that person, what are they looking for, and where are they looking for it?
Most sellers haven't thought about this at all. And most of the marketing that gets done on their behalf hasn't either.
The Standard Approach — and Why It Falls Short
The default approach to selling a home or condo in London looks something like this: put up a for-sale sign, list it on MLS, take some photos (or doctor them), produce a brochure, maybe run an open house, and hope the right buyer happens to be scrolling at the right moment.
Open houses sell less than 1% of homes. Newspaper ads are called tombstone ads for a reason. Giant glossy magazine features arrive a month after they were relevant. And an ad with the realtor's photo larger than the home tells the buyer everything about whose interests are being served.
None of this is targeted at anyone in particular. It's broadcast marketing applied to a specific product that only one buyer needs to want. The billboard in the Sahara Desert — technically visible, but to whom, and at what cost to get there?
Don't Worry About How. It's Who.
The question that should drive every marketing decision for your home is not "how do we reach the most people?" It's "who is the right person for this home, and where are they?"
A four-bedroom, two-car garage home near good schools attracts families — not empty nesters, not singles. A one-floor, two-bedroom condo in an upscale London neighbourhood attracts downsizers looking for lock-and-leave living — not a family of four. Marketing either of those homes to the wrong audience isn't just inefficient. It's expensive, because it wastes your golden window of buyer interest on people who were never going to buy.
Buyers in London's market are comparison shoppers. They're viewing multiple homes, tracking comparable sales, and arriving at each showing with a clear picture of what they want and what they'll pay. A buyer with a good broker is laser-focused on properties that meet their specific criteria — they don't get distracted by shine that doesn't align with their profile.
What this means for you: if your home isn't attracting the right buyer, the problem usually isn't the home. It's that the marketing is talking to the wrong person — or to everyone and no one at the same time.
Focus, Narrow Down, Focus
The most effective marketing for any home starts with a clear answer to one question: who is this home actually right for? Once you know that, every decision that follows — how the home is presented, where it's promoted, what the listing copy emphasizes, which features to highlight and which to downplay — becomes significantly clearer.
A young family sees the school catchment and the backyard. A downsizer sees the main-floor primary bedroom and the absence of stairs. A move-up buyer sees the neighbourhood and the garage. Your home doesn't need to appeal to all of them. It needs to appeal deeply to the right one.
When the marketing is built around that specific buyer, the right person finds your home faster, shows up more motivated, and offers more confidently — because it's exactly what they were looking for.
If you're preparing to sell and want to understand who your home's right buyer is and how to reach them specifically, that's exactly the conversation you should have before the sign goes up.
Ready to find the right buyer — not just any buyer? Reach out for a private conversation — no pressure, no pitch.
