Advertising to the “Public”
Every home seller likes to be assured that their listing
agent and or the real estate company will run ads featuring their
home. Newspaper ads run the gamut from photo ads to lots of listings
reflected on a page with primarily only copy. Classified ads featuring
your home are another tool. Ads may also appear in local real estate
magazines and on the internet (ideally on several sites).
Of course, Realtors and their brokerages will run
ads featuring your house, but not necessarily for the reasons the
seller expects. The primary motivation for advertising is to make
the telephone ring. Advertising creates phone calls and some of
those callers become clients of the agents answering these calls.
This builds up a pool of homebuyers looking for property in general.
Multiply this by all the agents and companies who also advertise
homes, and there is a large pool of homebuyers in the market at
any given time - all of whom have contacted a Realtor. The agents
representing those homebuyers know about your home because it is
listed in the Multiple Listing Service, has been on broker open
house preview, and because your agent is also marketing directly
to these agents.
Through, the Multiple Listing Service (MLS), the agents
match up their clients (computer prospecting), with available homes,
one of which may be yours. Realtors then show the selected homes
to their clients, who ideally end up buying one. Although, ads
do not typically sell your house directly, they create a pool of
clients for Realtors; and one of these existing clients typically
purchases your home.
Behind the “Advertising Scene”
When an Agent or their brokerage, advertise homes
they have for sale, there is more than one objective. Certainly,
the real estate office wants to generate phone calls and sell houses,
but the advertising also shows other homeowners how effectively
they market their listings. This impresses not only the seller,
but also others who may be thinking of selling their home.
The advertising brings in more listings, which generate
more ad calls, which produces more buyers…. Cross selling
is often how your property is sold; about 5% of the time, you and
your agent will get “lucky”; And someone calling on
your house may actually end up buying it.
Neighborhood Announcements
When you first list your home many agents send "announcements" to
all of the other houses in your neighborhood. This is typically
done in the form of postcards, or letters. This too is has a double
purpose: your neighbors might have friends who are looking to buy
a house (but they probably would notice the for sale sign, anyway)
and of course this hopefully impresses other area homeowners that
might be contemplating a sale.
Open Houses
An open house can be also be helpful, but not for
the reasons most homeowners think. Just like with advertising,
most visitors to open houses rarely buy the house they come to
look at. They usually do not even know the price of your home when
they stop by to visit - they probably just followed an "Open
House" sign to your door. Often, the exterior of the home
appealed to them, because the home is over their budget.
An open house reminds your neighbors that your home
is for sale, and offers them an opportunity to "take a look." Hopefully
your neighbors will tell friends or family members about your house,
creating "word of mouth" advertising.
Of course, there are other reasons for holding open
houses, too. Listing agents who "farm" a particular neighborhood
use them as an opportunity to meet with other local homeowners
who will someday be selling their home. Most of us, Agents hope
to also list your neighbor’s homes in the future.
Advertising to Realtors
Realtors are typically more comfortable showing clients
homes that they are familiar with. The Broker’s Open House
is a very effective means to quickly get a large number of Realtors
into your front door. To maximize attendance, your Listing Agent
might provide refreshments or a raffle of some sort.
Property Brochure Distribution is another way that
your Listing Agent may be marketing your home to other Realtors.
There are also services that hand deliver your property brochure
to each individual agent in a specific geographic area. Some Realtors
employ an internet program to email listing cards to the top local
selling agents in your community.
Because Realtors are the ones with the “buyer
pool”, It is much more productive and beneficial when your
listing agent directs most of his or her marketing efforts toward
other agents. It is an easy mistake to measure your agent’s
effectiveness solely by counting the number of newspaper and
magazine ads featuring your property. "Behind the scenes" marketing
is difficult for the seller to measure.
----------------------------
