I got an email this morning from Obeo, the provider of my virtual tours. It was the results from a survey they commissioned about home buying habits for internet users (there were a few people that weren’t internet consumers).
Here is part of the press release:
I wrote a “Member’s Only” post pointed at real estate professionals on ActiveRain that was mostly a rant about one of the many emails I received in regards to email marketing. In essence, this email said that as a real estate agent, I should be pulling back on my marketing because the market is tough… WHT?!?
I should pull back on marketing property because it is tougher?
That seems to me to be the exact opposite of what I should do in order to make MY client’s home competitive in the market. It seems to me that I should be making sure that the homes I have listed are effectively marketed to consumers…
So, here is the exact question:
Lane – how do you determine the marketing budget for a particular property? Do you use a percentage of listing or the expected commission?
Here was my first answer:
That is a very tough question. I think it has to kind of be “on the fly.” I certainly base it on the price of the house and the size of the potential commission, but it also has to include wiggle room for the uniqueness of the property, and the properties needs. I would say that the actual potential of completing the sale would come in, but if I don’t think it will sell, I won’t take it, so that isn’t a consideration for me.
The bottom line is that I want to budget enough to get the job done right. For a $1m listing, I need to plan a different marketing strategy than for a $200k home. The level of the materials plays into this as well…
Was that enough of a non-answer?
The respondent’s reply was:
Lane – too much of a non-answer 😉 I’m just curious what you would allocate for a $200,000 listing. $1,500 would be a big marketing budget for a property of that price.
I can’t give a specific dollar amount, because situations are so different from property to property, but there are a few things that I can give as (breakable) rules. To start with, I would love to be able to market a $200k house the same way I market a $1m home, but it is pretty dangerous. We are in a market where less that 25% of homes that are listed are likely to sell… I have a MUCH better percentage than that, but we still have to make business decisions in order to survive. However, there are some things that can be done to stretch the marketing budget.
For the most part, these are not expensive solutions. And, the level of production value for a $200k home is different than for a $1m home. So, we can add some of the higher end touches to the entry level homes like:
For a high end listing, there can be a few thousand dollars invested in these things. For an entry level listing, we would have to pull back and spend a smaller percentage… but if we have a few listings in the same subdivision, perhaps we can group them together for the mailings and other marketing. Keeping in mind that each home is only needing ONE buyer, there may be a competition between the listings, but buyers aren’t all looking for the same home.
Bottom Line:
I can’t give a hard and fast rule, but I am VERY willing to say that even a $200k home needs a few hundred dollars in marketing, not just the $20 email blast (that is spam, BTW). Also, utilizing economies of scale, an agent can be more competitive than someone even spending more money (like a FSBO spending all of the money they are saving on commission on marketing).
This is Part II (kind of) of Don’t make me call you…
ok, I admit it is just because the titles work well together… Don’t make me call you… but I can. Anyway, here is the actual content.
If you list your home for sale, and it expires without selling or is withdrawn, you have consented to allow other agents to call you. Even if you are on the “Do Not Call” list. Here is the contract language:
Seller acknowledges that by virtue of listing the Property in MLS(s), all MLS(s) members and their affiliated licensees, will have access to Seller’s listing information for the purpose of assisting Seller in the sale of the Property. If Seller is on a “Do Not Call List,” Seller expressly consents to any of the above parties calling Seller for any purpose related to the sale of the Property. Seller further acknowledges and agrees that no MLS(s) member or any affiliated licensee of the MLS(s) member shall have any liability for calling the Seller after the expiration or termination of this Agreement. Such calls are hereby expressly consented to by Seller. This paragraph shall survive past the term of this Agreement.
And don’t think you can strike that language from your listing agreement… if you do, your property can’t be listed on the MLS.
Don’t freak out yet. Most agents have no idea what is in the contract. They are scared to death to call people because of the do not call list. I know that I can… I just don’t like it.
Final thought… there is a way to avoid the calls after the listing expires… it’s really easy, too. Get it sold. If the property sells, you won’t get calls for 1,483 agents looking to list it for you. Give me a few days, and I’ll show you a seriously cool website for a property.
A month or so ago, I posed a question on ActiveRain. It was interesting, and another post I recently ran across brought it back up in my mind.
If you have a real estate license, would you still hire an agent to sell your home?
It is an interesting question to ask real estate agents for a couple of reasons:
And there are two comparisons I’m drawn to immediately when I think on this question.
In the interest of complete disclosure, I don’t know if i will sell my own house when it is time to move. I think that I would market it better than another agent might… but I don’t have that emotional distance. My sons are growing up here. My wife and I bought this house from DisneyWorld while we were on our honeymoon. I don’t know if i would want to save the money, or if I would decide to hire it out.
But, the real reason for this post is this: I have been seeing a lot of agent owned properties for sale lately… and they are so poorly represented it isn’t funny. Few and/or poor pictures. Showing restrictions. Bad staging. Lousy descriptions. Over-priced. Every sin we rail against… right there for the world to see.
I know I won’t be hiring one of those agents…
That is a question that every seller asks when their home isn’t sold. And it is a very valid question.
Let’s look at a few things:
Does your home have an exceptional internet presence? Sure, it is on the MLS, and that means that some sources that get “feeds” from the MLS will have it, like Realtor.com. Your agent may also post it on Craigslist… good strategy, but not exceptional. Does your home have a website? What is on the website? How does it compare with other homes in your neighborhood?
FMLS allows 12 pictures. This is up from 8 pictures last year. Only about 20% of listings have 12 pictures. Only about 10% have a virtual tour of some sort. Almost half of the listings don’t even have 8 pictures. About 15% only have one picture… or worse, NO picture. If there aren’t pictures, buyers won’t take the time to visit the house. If the pictures aren’t good, the buyers won’t take the time to visit the house.
If you’ve spent any time looking at listings, you will notice that most of the ad copy is interchangeable. I wonder if some agents just recycle the same stuff for every listing. Listing the features and rooms of a house isn’t going to sell the house. It might get a look, and there certainly is a place for telling a buyer what is there, but look at the advertising that grabs your attention and makes you want to look into a product… is it facts and figures? Or is it about lifestyle?
Here are a few things that you should be doing with your agent:
Here are a couple things to keep in mind:
Yesterday I wrote a post on my Active Rain blog about a listing I ran across that was Unacceptable. That kind of situation angers me. And there isn’t much I can do about it. But, hopefully I can educate a few sellers so that they aren’t victims of this type of behavior.
We will cover this subject in the Seller Seminar in May.