Promoting Your Listings

Early in my career, I learned the 2 most used methods of  “marketing” listings:

#1.  The 3 “P” Method, “Put the listing in the MLS, put a sign in the yard and pray.”
#2.  Put it in the MLS and hope is sells.

Unfortunately, despite what is said on listing calls, the majority of listing agents use something quite similar to one of these methods today!  OK, so we have added to the “sign in the yard” by adding sign riders with our names on it and possibly a brochure box.  We’ve also added the ability to put more pictures to the MLS! 

But, think about it.  How many listing in the MLS either don’t have several pictures highlighting the great features of the home, a link to a virtual tour, and remarks that make agents and prospective buyers interested in the home.  How many homes have full brochure boxes on their signs.  How many homes have features sheet packets that include the seller’s disclosure and other information to keep the buyer looking at the information on the home after they have left.  How many homes have a “Home Book” with information to make the buyer prospect stay in the home longer?

If that just hit a nerve with you, you need to pay attention!

First you need to know where buyers usually come from.

If you don’t know, you need to start to keep track of the sources of your buyer leads and the buyers of your listings!  Since all real estate is local, what works in one market may not be exactly what works in another market.  But in my 24 years experience in 2 different markets, I have found that the best buyer leads come from the sign in the yard.  Traditional buyers drive the neighborhoods they are interested in and then call the number on the sign for information.  Your goal should be to get them to contact you and not the person who happens to be on floor duty.  How?

1. Make your name and contact information as prominent as your state law allows.

2. Use a brochure box (a clear one is better) and keep it full of colorful, attention getting brochures.

3. You might also try putting disks with virtual tours in the brochure box, talking house radio transmitters or 800 phone numbers with recorded information on the home.

The second largest numbers of prospects come via the internet! To tap into this rich new source of buyers you need to:

#1. Learn how on-line buyers are different from traditional buyers.

#2. Build an information rich web site that is optimized for the search engines.

#3. You might also want to consider having your own "lean generation" web site.  This is a new idea I recently developed for my company.

#4. Have IDX or VOW on your web site(s), so buyer prospects can easily search the MLS from your site.

#5. Have information on your listings where buyer prospects can find them easily…preferably with some pictures on the top section of the main page.  Also have lots of pictures of your listings on the web site, as well as a link to a virtual tour of the listing.

#6. Be sure to link the virtual listing of your listing to the MLS.

If you haven’t done virtual tours yet, I highly recommend Visual Tour.  After a few times, it’s quite easy to do.

To properly promote your listings, you need to remember that most of your listings will probably be sold by someone else through the MLS.  You’ve got that covered, right?  You do put your listings into the MLS as quickly as possible, don’t you?  You do put ample information and pictures in the MLS, don’t you?  You do put a virtual tour link in the MLS, don’t you?

So what else can you do?

Believe it or not, you could do something “old fashioned” and “low tech”.  Before the MLS, agents who cooperated with other companies would take information on their listings to other offices.  How about making some good flyers on your listings and take them around to other offices.  I know, that could be a little scary, but it’s not only a great way to promote your listings, but it also gives you a chance to meet other agents BEFORE they write an offer on your listings!

You could also put a modern twist on that old idea and send out promotional e-mails to others who might have buyers in the price range of your listings.

I hope these ideas will give you the start at coming up with more great ideas to promote your listings in a way that works for you.

 

The author of this article is Linda Grissette.  Some of you may remember her as Linda Grayson.  Linda is a Broker-Associate with River City Real Estate.  She is also the company trainer.  Learn more about how River City Real Estate can help you make more money...even in today's market...browse through this site.

If these articles makes you interested in learning more about the real estate company who would hire the Linda as their company trainer, simply fill in the information below and click on "submit".  Linda will call you back as quickly as possible, but within the times that you requested.  And don't worry, everything response from this website is kept confidential.

Your Name:              

Current Company: 

E-Mail Address:       

The best private phone number(s) for Linda to use to talk to you:  

Please give Linda the best times to contact you in the next few days, so she will not contact you at your current office:

Reasons you are thinking about changing companies:

How long have you been in real estate:

 

All content of this web site is copyright protected.  Our copyright will be legally defended.  Linking to our content is always acceptable.  Besides the copyright issues, if you copy this content to your website, it will hurt BOTH of our websites!  Don't do it! 

© 2004-2008, LSG Enterprises, Inc