REAL Exclusive Magazine

Selling a Home?

Choose Your Marketing Partner Carefully

By Patricia Tan

A marketing partner? Why not a REALTOR®

In my experience, a home is more likely to sell quickly, and for a higher price when there is a spirit of partnership between the seller and their REALTOR®. Each has their own role to play. The seller must provide access to their home and present it in the best possible way, based upon advice given by their real estate professional. While a REALTOR® has a very long list of duties associated with listing and selling a home, probably the most important activities are related to marketing.

What do we mean when we talk about marketing a home? The American Marketing Association defines marketing as: The activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings.

Let’s consider how a REALTOR® might respond to key words in that definition, and some of the questions you may want to ask before listing your home.

Creating and Communicating

The internet causes us to live in a “visual” world. How a property looks online is key to success. Professional photography and virtual tour are must-haves. Once a consumer is attracted by images, they look to words for more information. Properties should be described to appeal to a broad spectrum of buyers, whatever their cognitive or thinking style. Some buyers will be drawn to how a home “feels”, while more analytical personalities will want facts and figures. A good REALTOR® will bring together the visual aspects of the property with appropriate written words in key marketing materials such as internet profile, property brochures (printed and electronic) which may vary depending upon the target audience, and various versions of ad copy depending upon the media chosen.

Delivering and Exchanging

Having created the marketing messages, it is critical that a REALTOR® communicate these as widely as possible.

A property is usually listed in the MLS and other major websites – but so are thousands of others. Steps should be taken to ensure a listing is ranked higher in internet searches. Many larger brokers have strategies to give their listings extensive internet coverage, but the individual REALTOR® can further enhance this by subscribing to a number of fee-based services and paid online advertisements. These may be aimed at specific kinds of buying audiences such as equestrian, boating/fishing, golf, seclusion, and the list goes on.

Print advertising is key, but should extend beyond the local newspapers into key feeder markets such as the Midwest and North Eastern States, Canada, Western Europe and some of Central and South America.

Direct mail can be an effective way to deliver a marketing message. From the humble Just Listed postcard mailed to neighbors, to targeted letters to groups such as high net worth individuals in feeder markets. This is particularly effective for luxury homes.

The spoken word is the most effective way to communicate, whether by phone or in a face to face conversation. Innovative REALTORS® will find ways to expose a listing through this medium. At the most simplistic level, a home should be presented by the listing agent at a local REALTOR® meeting and through a broker open house. Ideally the REALTOR® will find a way to personally present a listing to buyers in other states and countries. This can be achieved by organizing real estate seminars or exhibiting at property shows in those locations.

In conclusion, here are some questions a savvy seller may wish to ask their marketing partner:

• What is your strategy for exposing my home on the internet – professional photography, how many websites will the listing be syndicated to, and what strategies will you adopt to ensure my listing ranks high in searches, and on websites that cater for specific kinds of lifestyles/buyers?
• Where will my home be advertised in print? Newspapers, which magazines and what is their distribution?
• How will direct mail play a part in the overall marketing plan?
• What will you do to expose my home to other real estate professionals outside our local area, are these people you know personally that have a track record of producing buyers for our market?
• Where and how will you personally showcase my home outside the immediate area, in other states or countries?

Patricia Tan was born in England, and her career in international sales and marketing led her to live and work in many countries around the world before moving to Sarasota in 1997. Patricia is a Certified International Property Specialist (CIPS), Graduate Realtor Institute (GRI), and Transnational Referral Certified (TRC). She is involved in global activities of the Sarasota, Florida and National Association of Realtors, and currently serves as NAR President’s Liaison to U.K. Her real estate business operates from Coldwell Banker on St Armands Key, where her focus is to bring international buyers to the local market. She regularly makes marketing trips to Canada, Asia and Europe, to promote Florida’s Gulf Coast and the Sarasota area in particular. Patricia may be reached at 941-504-9232 or Pat@PatriciaTan.com.

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