The Purpose of Advertising in
General
Every home seller likes to be
assured that their listing agent or
the real estate company will run ads
featuring their home. Newspaper ads
could be large display ads with lots
of listings or small classified ads
featuring just your property. Ads
may also appear in local real estate
magazines and your listing will also
show up on the Internet.
Of course the agents and companies
will run ads featuring your house,
but not for the reasons you expect.
You see, the main job of advertising
is not to sell your house directly.
Advertising creates phone calls and
some of those callers become clients
of the agents answering the calls.
This builds up a pool of homebuyers
looking for property in general, all
represented by selling agents.
Multiply this by all the agents and
companies who also advertise homes,
and there is a large pool of
homebuyers in the market at any
given time – all of whom are
represented by selling agents.
The agents representing those
homebuyers know about your home
because it is listed in the Multiple
Listing Service, has been on office
and broker preview, and because your
agent may have also sent flyers to
all the local real estate offices.
The agents match up their clients
with available homes, one of which
may be yours. Then they show the
homes to their clients, who
eventually make an offer on one.
That is how your house gets sold.
Ads create a pool of clients, one of
which buys your home. Ads do not
usually sell your house directly.
Real Estate Office Advertising
As mentioned previously, advertising
your home in newspapers and
magazines rarely sells your home
directly. More likely than not, the
buyer who eventually purchases your
home will have called on a totally
different house. The same thing
happens with buyers who call on your
house. They will probably buy
something else.
You still want to be certain the
real estate company selling your
house runs ads in the local and
major newspapers, whether they
feature your house or not. The ads
generate phone calls to the real
estate office, and if those agents
viewed your house on the office
preview, they will be familiar with
it. This is how your property is
sold.
Or you could be one of the lucky
ones – someone calling on your house
may actually end up buying it.
You should also realize that when a
company advertises the homes they
have for sale, there is more than
one objective. Sure, the real estate
office wants to generate phone calls
and sell houses, but the advertising
also shows home sellers how
effectively they market properties.
This impresses not only you, but
others who may be thinking of
selling their home.
The advertising brings in more
listings, which generate more ad
calls, which produces more
buyers….and that is how real estate
advertising really works.
Individual Agent Advertising
Individual agents may advertise your
home for the same reasons as
companies do. They usually advertise
in classified ads or in specialty
magazines featuring houses available
for sale.
As in other types of advertising,
these ads rarely sell your home.
Once again, the main goals of
advertising are to accumulate
homebuyers as clients, and to
impress you and future home sellers
with how well they market their
listings. Some agents actually do
sell their own listings, but not
that often.
It is much more productive and
beneficial if your listing agent
directs most of his or her marketing
efforts toward other agents. Since
this is "behind the scenes"
marketing that you don’t actually
see, it is often difficult for you
to measure how hard the agent is
working for you.
It is a mistake to measure your
agent’s effectiveness solely by
counting the number of newspaper and
magazine ads featuring your
property.
Neighborhood Announcements
When you first list your home many
agents send "announcements" to all
of the other houses in your
neighborhood. This can be done in
the form of postcards, a letter, or
flyers left hanging on the front
door. These are important because
your neighbors might have friends
who are looking to buy a house.
The announcements create "word of
mouth" advertising, which is the
best kind.
Open Houses
An open house when your property is
first placed on the market can be
very important, but not for the
reasons most homeowners think. Just
like with advertising, most visitors
to open houses rarely buy the house
they come to look at. They may not
even know the price of your home
when they stop by to visit – they
probably just followed an "Open
House" sign to your door.
An open house performs a similar
function to the neighborhood
announcements – it lets all of your
neighbors know that your house is
for sale, and it practically invites
them to come "take a look." Being
generally nosy, a lot of your
neighbors will take advantage of the
invitation.
And they may tell their friends
about your house, creating more
"word of mouth" advertising.
Of course, there are other reasons
for holding open houses, too.
Listing agents who "farm" a
particular neighborhood use them as
an opportunity to meet with other
local homeowners who will someday be
selling their home. Your agent may
hope to list their homes in the
future.
Open houses held after your home has
been on the market awhile do not
usually serve a useful purpose in
selling your home. Most of the
neighbors already know your house is
for sale and open house visitors
rarely buy the homes they visit.
However, if you really want more
open houses, your listing agent may
allow other agents to hold it open.
Open houses attract prospective
homebuyers and agents hope to
convince some of those homebuyers to
become their clients.
Showing the House to Potential Home
Buyers
Your house should always be
available for show, even though it
may occasionally be inconvenient for
you. Let your listing agent put a
lock box in a convenient place, to
make it easy for other agents to
show your home to homebuyers.
Otherwise, agents will have to
schedule appointments, which is an
inconvenience. Most will just skip
your home to show the house of
someone else who is more
cooperative.
Most agents will call and give you
at least a couple of hours notice
before showing your property. If you
refuse to let them show it at that
time, they will just skip your
house. Even if they come back
another time, it will probably be
with different buyers and you may
have just lost a chance to sell your
home.
Why You Should Not Be Home
Homebuyers will feel like intruders
if you are home when they visit, and
they might not be as receptive
toward viewing your home. Visit the
local coffee house, yogurt shop, or
take the kids to the local park. If
you absolutely cannot leave, try to
remain in an out of the way area of
the house and do not move from room
to room. Do not volunteer any
information, but answer any
questions the agent may ask.
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