Your Realtor’s Marketing: It Makes a Difference

In my last article, I discussed the qualities that all good agents possess and what you should look for when choosing an agent. If you’re selling, remember that your agent is going to be the one responsible for bringing interested buyers to your home.

 

Precisely how they go about that is the difference between your home selling for your asking price within a few weeks, and your home languishing on the market for months until you lower your price.

 

The best agents are ninjas when it comes to things like staging, showing your home, fielding offers, and representing your interests in negotiations. That’s kind of the bare minimum here. The agents that are truly a cut above are marketing wizards, and again, their techniques make all the difference in the world when it comes to getting your home sold quickly and for top dollar.

 

So what techniques do good agents use? What should you be looking for? As I mentioned in my last article, you should be checking out prospective agents’ previous listings to ascertain things like the amount of time they spent on the marketing and making sure their sale prices are commensurate with other comparable homes in the area.

 

Checking their previous work also gives you a window into that agent’s marketing techniques, and that’s what we’re going to delve into today.

 

Drones

 

It’s almost 2018, and at this point there’s no excuse for an agent to not at least consider using drones for aerial shots. It used to be that if you wanted impressive aerial photos, you had to pay for a helicopter and a photographer. Given that most agents don’t operate with the budget of a Michael Bay movie, this wasn’t always practical.

 

These days, though, drones have made these views of your home less cost-prohibitive, and as that cost comes down, aerial photos are becoming more of an expectation than a novelty.

 

For example, homes with aerial photos sell 68% faster than those without. That’s a huge, huge difference. If your agent isn’t using aerial shots or at least willing to consider them, then find one who is, because you can bet that if your neighbor has that realtor, their home is going to sell faster than yours.

 

Videos

 

Videos are another medium that have been shown to increase sales or, more correctly, decrease the time a home spends on the market before selling. Much like aerial photos, listings that use videos sell 50% faster than those that don’t.

 

So check and see if the agent you’re considering uses them. If not, it may be worth putting a few others in the running.

 

In this day and age, the agent you work with needs to be up to speed and current with how buyers like to experience homes they’re looking at, especially for the first time. Much like a great staging gives a one-time first impression that lasts, a good video will warm a buyer up to your home before they even approach the front door. The psychological effect here is powerful, and if you want your home to sell quickly, your agent needs to work that effect.

 

Social media

 

The Internet has revolutionized the real estate world to a greater extent than just about anything else in the last thirty years. Starting with the early 2000’s, buyers began showing a strong preference for viewing homes from the comfort of their own. Online listings were in, while driving around and flipping through classified sections were out.

 

Social media is probably the most consequential evolution wrought by the Internet in recent years. With the advent of Facebook’s marketplace, things like Craigslist became almost obsolete overnight.

 

The best agents these days have a coherent marketing strategy that takes social media into account. Why? Because most interested buyers spend several hours a day on social media, so if you want to find them, that’s where you look.

 

It’ll be obvious if the agent you’re considering posts their listings regularly, and maintains a network of buyer’s agents and their clients through social media. What you’ll want to ask, though, is what their other strategies are. Do they post listings to relevant groups, and do they advertise their listings on social media? The latter is especially important: advertising on social media is several times more effective and precise than just putting up an ad in the paper or a sign on a street.

 

Ask your agent about these things. If they’re worth their salt, they’ll clue you in and give you a rundown of their strategies. If they stammer or stare blankly, then they probably have no clue how to properly market your home. If you want to know more or you’re looking to sell your home, drop me an email in the sidebar! I love answering questions and helping people get their homes sold quickly and for top dollar.

 

Matt Guarro is a Realtor based in New Smyrna Beach, Florida