If you're unfamiliar with Darwin and his theories on evolution let me just touch on one of his theories. I don't dare dive into that whole Adam and Eve debate in this posting but yet another theory most people can digest. Natural selection was and is still believed to be at work in our world. The lay term for natural selection goes something like this, "only the fittest survive." We'll focus on natural selection here for a moment and leave alone that whole evolution theory for another time.
Although I haven't been an agent as long as I have been in marketing I do know that I didn't learn a darn thing about marketing in real estate school. It's quite a shame that even the basics of marketing were not presented in the salesperson course. Although if it were, I would have probably rolled my eyes and fast forwarded on to something interesting like metes and bounds.
All that said to make the point that unless you know something about marketing you've got an uphill battle on your hands. And who really suffers is the clients. A lot of agents think the gravy train hasn't left the station yet and when they awaken tomorrow morning they'll be back in the money.
The point I'm eventually getting to in this diatribe is that when it comes to effort, a whole generation of real estate agents get an "F". Let's refer to it as eFFort just for kicks and giggles. As long as the real estate agent displays eFFort to the client in terms of taking the listing, putting the sign up and maybe, just maybe, actually finding a suitable prospect to show the property to the client considers this an "A" for eFFort.
The problem here is that the client, trusting their real estate agent is knowledgeable and motivated enough to make the sale. Does the client really know how many avenues of marketing the agent is attempting? The client may assume their real estate agent has explored every possible means of "getting the word out" about the listing.
It's true that in the case of listings in Georgia the most obvious place to expose the listing is in the FMLS (First Multiple Listing Service). Although good exposure, consider the current fact that the FMLS had over 92,000 listings today. WOW! How can one single property be found in the literal haystack of residential listings.
Let's explore some less conventional avenues for residential listings that most real estate agents have either never even heard of or are too inept to learn. I will elaborate on some of these in future blogs but for now, let me just put a bug in your ear with the following:
Craiglist.org - Similar to eBay but without fees and a self-monitored community of users. I can't begin to tell you how much I've sold on Craigslist and it continues to be one of my favorite sites in the whole world. I'd use it for selling anything from hundreds of acres to an old printer I can't use anymore. Again, highly successful and don't underestimate it's power at first impression. What it lacks in beauty it makes up for it in results.
Google Base for Real Estate - This is another one of those "freebie" sites that has flown under the radar of public awareness. Like craigslist, it ain't pretty but who doesn't want their real estate listings to show up in a Google search? Are you kidding me? This is a must for your real estate agent to participate in.
Your Own Real Estate Web Site - Flyers in a box out in front are useful but generally not enough to capture all that could be said about your real estate listing. This meager flyer should very boldly point to an accompanying web site loaded with photos, details, video and piles of useful information for the prospect. Considering the fact that you can own a web site for about $25 a year these days there's no excuse not to have one. If your agent can't deliver these type of real estate marketing services as part of the engagement then consider another.
This concludes part one of this real estate marketing F-ort blog. Subscribe to my blog to receive the conclusion.
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