We Are Hired to Market and Advertise, Right?

Everyday I listen to agents talking about the tasks they are having to do to sell listings for their clients and it can be an overwhelming task at times.  We vacuum before showings, we drive around to pick up earnest money and sometimes we even meet contractors and service people to get the deal done.  These are all time consuming and have become part of the selling process.  But one thing that I rarely hear and have harped on this for years is how we are marketing and selling the property different then the next Realtor.  We provide all of these support services but we rarely focus on the one main task that we are hired to do and that is get the property in front of the right people faster and better then anyone else.  Do we still do that or have we accepted the MLS as our tool and anything else happens when it is convenient?  It drives me nuts.  So if I was hiring a Realtor what would I expect?  Read on…

1.  Marketing plan – I would ask for a marketing plan and schedule as time goes on with my property.  I want to see when and where you are promoting my property not only on the MLS but on Social Media and other popular sites.  Please don’t tell me you kill it on Facebook and can’t show me a strategy or plan.

2.  Updates – How often are you going to redo pictures and if I give you professionally done ones, what will you do with them?  Will there be snow in my pictures in April?  When do price changes start coming in your opinion and do you expect them?

3.  Open Houses – I don’t care if you don’t believe in the traditional open house and its effectiveness but I do want to know how you will get bodies through, especially other brokers.  I understand that people choose their own homes but as a buyer, if a Realtor sent me a property they were excited about, I would go look at it trusting them as the expert.

I know that in the end the majority of Real Estate is done between the buyer and them searching online but I also know that 1 less month of mortgage payments or being in the right place at the right time can make a heck of a difference to me.  But if I am paying for the same service everywhere, I can ask the neighbor to meet the cable company and find the lowest MLS listing service out there.  So how are you different then everyone else?

-curt