Real Estate Advertising in the newspapers

Nice post, I advertise my website weekly in the newspaper, I seem to get ok results from it but I understand the importance of the net and thats why I am looking into ways to promote online, blogging is a start

Why would you expect someone who reads the doom and gloom about housing in print to flip to the homes section and say "I WANNA BUY"?

I think all houses being available on the internet makes print ads only important for For Sale By Owners.

i find it interesting that google and yahoo are turning around and setting up deals with newspaper companies.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/06/business/media/06google.html?ex=1168318800&en=3f31f1d0ccb21312&ei=5070

(reg required)

basically they are going to auction off ad space that they purchase in advance.

I agree with Ines..and many of the others. Newspaper ads are not bringing in the clients however, the many home magazines which are free to consumers have been helpful. Our area (St. Cloud, FLorida) is in the shadow of Disney and gets 2 million vistors a year, which is why I believe they are so popular. Vistors looking to see how our home prices compare to other parts of the country.

Yes... well said! The papers are probably best for the FSBO's.  I put an open house ad in our paper a month ago and not 1 person showed up! (true, it was December)... Most of the time I dont even use the paper to advertise, but for this client I did and also did a paper ad for my open today.  The internet (craigslist especially) has been a great help with advertising listings and opens.  Today I am at an open house and already have had several people come through.  Three came from online ads!  The others were with agents.  Not one person mentioned the newspaper as their source.  I avoid the newspaper ads as much as possible.  The cost is outrageous probably because they do need to make up for a lot of agents who no longer or rarely use it.  

The home magazines (which I do use) seem to be read most of the time by other agents.  They are the ones telling me that they saw my listing in such & such magazine or they saw my ad, etc.  I rarely get any calls from the books, but they are a great listing tool.   

 

Kevin - it's absurd.  We had a contract and wanted to keep it - they increased us 3X's ( I would have been paying almonst $300/week for a 1"X12" add that was not getting us any business) - but the worst part of it is that the spot is empty now, they have not been able to fill it with their increased rates.  Talk about bad business sense.

Don't forget how hard many papers are pushing to tell folks to go FSBO; they don't need an agent; they can save the commission money.

Why support THAT platform?

 

Internet proirity, Homes Magazine next for this area of NC- coastal.  Most seem to preshop via internet before making a visit...some will come across a photo in Homes mag. of a home they want to see but usually ends up being a different home they buy.

 

I do a weekly column in the classifieds section of a popular newspaper here. They supposedly have a circulation of 300k+, but I haven't seen one single same come from the ads and it's going to be 9 months. I'm ending my campaign once the year-long contract is up and focusing on the internet and farming efforts.

Kevin,

My Broker shells out the money for newspaper print. They still believe in it except it is a rare day if there phone rings because of an ad. On the other hand I am constantly getting emails and yes phone calls from my internet presence. Some old dogs you just can not teach new tricks. But on my listing appointments I can claim weekly newsprint ads.

I have given up on newspaper advertising all together since stepping out on my own.  I was consistent with a once a month 6 x 6 island ad in the Los Angeles Times finacial section (full circulation run), this used to produce a great number of calls which resulted in a good conversion rate.  All of sudden the calls dried up and I was stuck with a $13,000 outlay once a month for a year.

When it came time to renew the ad they wanted to double the price and reduce me to once every two months.  After consider ROI analysis I decided it wasn't worth the money both the cost of ad design and advertising.

Now I'm a member of the local chamber, California and National Associations of Mortgage Brokers, a builders group and a host of other organizations.  My business has picked up considerably through networking with professionals in areas other than real estate.  Advertising has it's time and place especially for Reatlors as every Seller wants to see their home in the paper; however, if you hit them with statistics on where the Buyers are coming from you might just see a change in attitude.

I run TV ads also, not to generate business as much as it is to gain name recognition.

Touch each prospect at least 5 times, always ask for referrals  and I'm sure you'll see your business increase with these two additional steps alone.

Ed Brophy
President
Synergy Mortgage

Direct: (760) 409-9069
Toll Free: (888) 45-LOAN-5 ext. 1
Fax: (866) 388-0839

Web: www.synergymortgageloans.com
 

Right on target with this one. "To placate a seller... I'd rather just tell them how real estate sales really works." Exactly, you're the expert, not your client!

You've hit it right in the nail Kevin! 

We've seen the size of our local (Real Estate) newspaper dwindle down in a fast pace!  My husband and I are a RE team and decided a while ago that it was a waste of time and money.  I do have to say however, that there's always a "groupie" out there who scan those pages to see your face and see what you're selling.  If they don't see our face in the paper after a while they'll ask if we're still selling real estate (funny isn't)?  So, while we feel it is a total waste of money in terms of actually selling a listing, it lets "our followers" know that we're still out there.

Maria

 ShastaLiving.com

 

Though I completely agree with you, I still have a few clients who insist on newspaper ad exposure for their listings.  I am having to call this week at the insistence of a commercial client to place a new ad.  Usually I can talk clients out of it, but not every time.

Newspaper adds , home magazines none of these seem to work in my area (Michigan) Very rarely wil I invest any $$ in paper. My best resource is yard signs and  sold and listed post cards,

I believe that newspapers should be used, if at all, to drive consumers to the web:  "see all of our homes for sale at...".  Newspapers have truly been declining in our area (Northern Virginia) quickly over the past year.  Currently, we virtually have no clients coming from the little print that we do (a bi-weekly ad in the Washington Post, which is very pricey, and a local newspaper).  The biggest problem that I have is the same mentioned here ... every contractual period the newspaper wants to increase the price of the ad!  It is not a good return on investment, certainly not like the internet.  From our internet sources, we get over 85% of our business!  It is definitely a better source than print.

I totally agree! Who even has the time to read the newspaper anymore? You gotta love the web.

Nice Picture by the way.