Explaining Your Marketing to the New Listing Client

You might as well be straight up from the beginning. If you're going to take an overpriced listing, have the nerve to tell your seller that it is overpriced in your opinion. Make sure that you make it clear that you hope to see either a market change or a price decrease in a reasonable amount of time.

Be sure that you also make it clear that no amount of marketing will get their home sold, and that some agents may not even show it if they believe it to be out of the acceptable price range.

The industry consensus is that most print advertising is more advantageous to the real estate broker than to their listing clients. These ads generate phone calls and possible buyers, but generally do not produce a buyer for the specific property in a given ad.

With a recent NAR survey of actual buyers stating that less than 7% first saw the home they bought in a print ad, it's clear that the consensus is validated.

Let your client know these facts and that they shouldn't expect a big showing response after ads run.

The accessibility of the internet and the ease with which buyer prospects can research properties makes it an excellent marketing media. However, buyers begin their home searches sooner, and with longer time frames between research and a purchase.

If you are reporting web site listing page views or visits to your client, be sure that they understand that there may be hundreds or more that are only mildly interested or are using their listing as research to justify their interest in another property.

No matter the marketing, it won't sell until it's shown. Actual showings will tell the tale.

You do see our ads in every issue of the newspaper and Homes magazines. However, not every listing is in every ad. We rotate listings through the various print media and yours will be there, but not every issue.

We will try to notify you before an ad with your home runs, and we'll definitely provide you with a copy of the ad after it runs.

When you think about a real estate agent's job when working for a buyer, they advise them in their best interests. If a home is over the market price of comparable homes, they may have enough to see and choose not to view your home at all.

In light of our previous discussion of who print ads really benefit, running more of them, or larger ads, won't improve on your showing situation. Consider a downward price adjustment or some significant improvement in the property.

By placing your property into the Multiple Listing Service, we expose it automatically to all the real estate members in the area. The listing is very detailed and provides significant information about your home for easy access. We offer compensation to any agent that brings a buyer, so it's in their best interest to search the MLS, locate and show your home.

In addition, we do various forms of online prospecting and reverse-prospecting functions in the MLS that have the goal of matching properties with buyers looking for their particular characteristics.