As a Listing Agent in Marietta and Cobb Co, GA I know that marketing a home is one of, if not the most, important duties I have to my sellers. As a Real Estate Photographer, I know the way the property is presented online is crucial to the success of selling a home.
It's not uncommon for a seller to see professional photography or a real estate video, seemingly for the first time, and get excited about the potential it has in helping their home sell. Of course we welcome the excitement because we know it does help but we have to remember to manage those expectations carefully. Real Estate Marketing is generally designed to get people in the door. What happens from there is anyone's guess because every transaction is going to be different.
3 Things Great Marketing will NOT do for your Listing...
1. ...make the appraisal come in higher. If a buyer is financing the home, more than likely there will be an appraisal. Having already fell victim to two low appraisals (and subsequently two lost deals...) this year I know first hand what an issue the appraisal can become. We have to be very careful not to let our Seller's look at their beautifully represented home and then let them fall into the ol' "My house shows so much better than the competition therefore it should be worth X more dollars". Appraisers don't care about carefully crafted virtual tours or video walk-throughs. Instead, they will be working with this: http://www.freddiemac.com/sell/forms/pdf/70.pdf . Notice no reference to 'quality of listing photos' or 'effectiveness of video tour' ...
2. ...make up for deferred maintenance or other 'unseen' problems. Once upon a time, it was the home inspection that got me on edge. Now appraisals hold the title for "things I have an unreasonable fear of...". That doesn't mean all the pitfalls of inspections have disappeared, it just means that even if you make it through, you're still not out of the woods. Knowing that, I think it's a good practice to find out exactly what condition the property is really in, either through your own informed examination or by a qualified home inspector. If the Buyer is caught off guard by a large 'surprise' that may be enough to send them walking, despite your stunning marketing.
This also applies to the things that can't be seen, like unpleasant odors or noise from a busy road, or even dogs barking next door. Unfortunately for the Seller, these things won't be ignored. In some cases the only quick solution to those problems is adjusting the price...
3. ...silence the competition. Even without great marketing, plenty of properties still sell every month. The reason is pretty obvious and that is just about any home will sell if it is priced right. If a Seller has a home that is perceived as a good value once Buyers are at the property, they will quickly lose site of the images and information that got them there. The marketing can still serve a purpose, but the emotional attachment they got from experiencing the property in person will always prevail. This is where the value of showing condition really makes an impact. The Buyers may have loved the way your listing look at first glance but one of the competition, although poorly represented, delivered the real goods once the Buyers made it inside.
Don't mistake this blog as an excuse not to market your listings to the best of your ability. This is more an exercise in managing expectations. Among other things, our job as listing agents are to get people in the door. In this new era of web-centric real estate searching, those first impressions are as critical as ever. So do whatever it takes to get people in the door, just kindly remind the Seller, "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink."
Speaking of "Perceived Value"... I think these photos illustrate my point:
How the Seller sees the Home... 
How the Buyer sees the Home...
How the Appraiser sees the Home... 
How the Bank sees the Home...
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