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I recently had a very engaging conversation with a fellow Realtor friend. We were talking about effective marketing strategies in our current market (marketing the HOMES and not just ourselves) and came up with the following conclusions:
* Print media was generally ineffective and overly expensive
* Internet market was extremely important (to include but not be limited to Realtor.com and personal/company websites)
* Just Listed Postcards are better at marketing US than the homes we are trying to sell
* Realtor caravans are good, but limited because too many agents (at least in our local market) don't tour anymore
* Open Houses are ineffective and expensive.
We felt that marketing to the general public was important (and that through the Internet and print media we accomplish that pretty well) but that marketing to our fellow real estate professionals was MORE important...that is where the buyers are!
So, the question is what is the most effective way for someone ME to market to YOU? Realtor to Realtor.
- E-mail flyers - do you see them as SPAM or do you read them?
- MLS electronic mailings - my MLS sends a daily e-mail with anywhere from 3 to 10 or so listing flyers (cost is $20). Do you read them?
- Is putting in the MLS alone enough (or the best we can do)?
I'm looking for the most effective ways for me to reach my target - other Realtors. I'd appreciate any input...thanks in advance.
I think the single most important thing an agent can do is to completely trick out their MLS listing with as many high quality photos and as much text description as is allowed. Too many agents don't use photos properly and on my MLS the vast majority of them fail to make use of the comment section of the photos.
Not only do agents use this information, but (at least here) all of it gets pushed to potential buyers via their internet gateway.
It's well documented that, even among agents, the listings without photos are less likely to be viewed.
I use multiple other techniques to get the word out to agents -- including print flyers (via a service that delivers them to all RE offices within a geographic area), e-mail flyers, caravan, and phone messages. But the MLS is the best way to reach agents.
When sending e-mail flyers, I believe most agents don't use them effectively so they are generally considered spam. If agents would put the most important specifics in the e-mail subject line (when using an e-mail flyer service that you can configure) so that the agents receiving the e-mail would know the basics (neighborhood, price, BR/BA) then they'd get a better open rate. If I can't tell that a flyer is related to my area of town I don't even open it.
<SNIP>
* Just Listed Postcards are better at marketing US than the homes we are trying to sell
<SNIP>
So, the question is what is the most effective way for someone ME to market to YOU? Realtor to Realtor.
- E-mail flyers - do you see them as SPAM or do you read them?
- MLS electronic mailings - my MLS sends a daily e-mail with anywhere from 3 to 10 or so listing flyers (cost is $20). Do you read them?
- Is putting in the MLS alone enough (or the best we can do)?
I'm looking for the most effective ways for me to reach my target - other Realtors. I'd appreciate any input...thanks in advance.
Regarding Just listed cards. I happen to think they are very effective at marketing the house, if done right. Everyone does just listed to the neighborhood surrounding the house. That's better for us than the listing. I also send just listed to move up neighborhoods. That is, neighborhoods from which people are likely to come to a house like the one I want to sell.
E-mail flyers I look at them, if they are from my market area. I get them from Florida, from Vegas, from upstate NY. Those I trash as SPAM.
My MLS doesn't do flyers like that. I'd use them if they did.
Putting it on the MLS and hoping is not the best we can do. I do e-mails to the agents most likely to have buyers, either because they have recently hasd a similar property listed, or because they have a history of selling properties in the area. I do Broker open holuses, as they are still well attended in my market, if they are advertised & promoted properly. I delivber full color brochures to all the local brokers, because many "old time" agents (and in fairness, quite a few newer agents who simply don't get it either) don't bother to check new listings or read e-mail.
The problem we're going to have with the answers to this question, Dave, is that so many people will say "don't bother me, I'll find your listing if I have a buyer." We know that's not true in many cases,
I do market to agents with a brokers open, complete with food. We all know that's the best way to get agents to attend.
The other marketing I do is mailers to the communities where my potential buyers would be coming from. If it is a home most likely purchased by a first time buyer, I market to apartment complexes. If it is a home that is near a large corporate center, and the kind of house a relo would be interested in, that is who I market to. I am very specific with who my target is and how I market it.
I also utilize the internet and I mean all of it. The listing goes on all of the typical sites that my company loads up to but it also goes on my own and the site that will allow me to advertise for free to the entire world (Craigs List being one of them).
I do find most of the advertising to be very "me, me, me" oriented and try to steer clear of it. I do have clients that insist on it at times so will still participate if requested.
Good photos, several photos, as many photos as allowed, readable MLS descriptions.. I can find out for myself if its 3 bedrooms/2 bathrooms with a great view off of the master balcony without having to read "3bd/2bth w/ grt vw off mst blcny".
Good MLS listings are pleasant, great ones catch my (and maybe my client's) eye.
In the current market, I think it's just as crucial to have ongoing relationships with other agents as well as with our clients. I have a list of email addresses for the agents I've had cross-sales with in the past or know from other functions, that I target specifically with my new listings asking if they have buyers and would like to work with me again on a transaction. I make a lot of personal phone calls to agents I've worked with (the ones I enjoyed working with ) to see how their business is doing, and chat about upcoming listings and/or buyers I might have for their listings.
Location: Mokelumne Hill, CA & El Pescadero, BCS MX.
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I got an email yesterday from the top agent in the county. It was a list of her "top foreclosure buys". 5 properties, some of them her listings, some not. Several financing scenarios below each property description. I know I'm on her contact list and so was another agent in our company, but I know this went out to everyone on her list, not just agents. I pointed this out to several agents in my company to see if they "got it". Not one of them did, so I'm going to bring it up at our next staff meeting.
Want to know why this agent is #1?
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