How does a real estate agent sell residential property in a tough market? Put a whole lotta effort into really, really, really good marketing. Market that property until you can market no more.
I was chatting with an agent today and he mentioned that some agents have been cutting back on their marketing in what is now a difficult market. I can only assume that they feel they have to cut back on costs to the vendor in order to get the listing. Honestly, I just don’t get it. How can you hope to sell a house in a tough market by doing less marketing?!
As a real estate photographer, I’m obviously speaking with some bias here, but I reckon the first thing you should do is get some absolutely awesome images. Get a professional real estate photographer (please don’t try and do it yourself with a camera phone), and get that home photographed well. Those photos are going to be used all over your marketing material – online, brochures, newspapers, signboard – so they have to look good.
Secondly, get a good listing online at one of the major portals like realestate.com.au and domain.com.au. This is where most of the action is happening these days, so it pays to look good in the places where nearly all buyers are looking. It might also be worth thinking about getting a floorplan done up, as this can help people looking online to get a good understanding of the dimensions of your home. When teamed up with some great photos, a floor plan will help complete the picture.
Thirdly, well that’s up to you. Newspapers work to a certain degree (they’re the traditional real estate shopping spot), and for big properties they can certainly garner attention, but otherwise newspaper advertising seems to benefit the real estate agent more than the vendor.
Brochures can also work well – I’ve heard a lot of stories of people spontaneously buying a house in their immediate neighbourhood as a result of seeing it advertised somewhere. So a letterbox drop of brochures (with great photos, of course!) can do the trick.
There are a bunch of other marketing methods available. Do any of you know of any killer tools? If so, let us know by dropping a comment below.
Finally, if you’re an agent, work hard. I know some of you work too hard (can you still remember the names of children? Do you know if you even have any children?) … others get a little too lazy. It’s called “work-life balance” … Google it sometime.
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