Keychains, calendars, water bottles, and worst of all - lipstick on a pig!
We've all seen hundreds of things that people use to 'keep me in their minds' and yet when it comes down to actually getting that listing sold (and isn't that why we do what we do?) what do 99% of real estate agents do? A DYI marketing campaign that actually pales in comparison to what the average FSBO can now mount using professional service providers and the internet.
Example:
Agent A:
Goes out and gets a listing. Then puts a sign in the front yard, puts it on the MLS with all the goofy words, you know, 'charming', 'cozy', 'potential', and my newest favorite: LUXURY
Then they run through the house in 15 minutes with their trusty digicam or worse, a cell-phone camera and make a walk-through video - the result: A CAVE - dark photos, blown-out windows, bent walls, indiscernible furniture and colors, and then post those photos on all the new whiz-bang do it yourself 'virtual tours'.
So, can someone tell me how exactly this is "marketing"?
Agent B:
Well, Agent B actually has a spine and a brain. S/He has a very frank discussion with the homeowner and tells them that if they really want to sell the house, they must trust and do EVERYTHING they are asked. In return the agent makes a true investment in the marketing plan by:
Hires a professional staging company and makes sure the house is ready for:
The PROFESSIONAL photographer - that's right folks, there IS NO SUBSTITUTE - American are fed a steady diet of marketing images thousands of times a day. Professional architectural photographers have the talent, vision, lighting equipment, cameras, and lenses that allow them to photograph a room and make it look like you can step into the scene. They create photos that stop people and make them look - and stare - and daydream - and this is the most important thing: Begin to form an emotional bond with the house.
The rest of the marketing plan is just more fundamentals:
Print the photos properly - have quality postcards made
Make the most of the web - especially web 2.0 sites like MySpace, Craigslist, and YouTube. Will you find your buyer on these sites? Maybe, maybe not, but you WILL maximize your search engine placement and unfortunately REALTOR.com does you zero favors in that department - the search engines (Google, MSN, Yahoo, etc) don't look at a single listing in that monster database, but if you take your MLS info and past it into the video description of a YouTube video you'll see them showing up in the search engines in an hour or two! So POST EVERYWHERE - yes, even here on ActiveRain.
I will tell you this. THESE THINGS WORK and they work more consistently than any other thing I've experienced.
So now it's all up to you - either you want to market a house that looks like this:
or you want to market a house that looks like this:
The choice is yours...and your competitors'.
Jay Groccia, Principal Photographer
OnSite Studios
Jay,
This is so true. I've recently partnered with a Home Staging Expert in the Green Bay area. I'm not qualified to be able to capture home in it's true beauty thats why I bring in a professional. I see huge value and so do my clients.
Thanks for sharing this with us. Keep up the great work!