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Real Estate Marketing; professionals get results

Posted by Chris Higgins on Mon, May 18, 2009 @ 09:06 AM

You know the old saying "if you want something done right do it yourself"; maybe that was true in the past but in these complicated times it should be changed to "if you want something done right hire a professional".

In the last few months I witnessed how much difference a professional can make in real estate marketing. My neighbors, right next door, decided to sell their house. Everyone knows the real estate market has changed dramatically in the last couple of years, and they decided they could save some money and sell the place themselves. Fortunately our area has not been hit as hard by the real estate slump as some other areas, there's not a lot of inventory and steady demand, so they figured they'd be able to sell it on their own fairly quickly.

The owners put it on the market, tried to do some marketing, told all their friends and neighbors it was available and even let the the local real estate agents know they could earn half a commission if they sold it to one of their clients. They had a few showings and some interest from local people, but no offers. It went on like this for 3-4 months, interest but no offers.

Finally the owners decided to hire a real estate professional. The new brokers came in and immediately put together a professional marketing package, including pocket folders, data sheets, signs, flyer's and other printed marketing material.  The brokers convinced the owners to do a little cosmetic work, clean the place up, and do a little staging. The property was listed in MLS,  all the agents in town were notified, and  the first open house was scheduled for last Saturday.

they had the first open house, received multiple offers and ended up accepting one for over the asking price. I watched them try to sell it themselves for 3-4 months without success, after hiring a professional real estate agent they got results and offers in just weeks.

I don't know if it was the professional printed material and document folders, the sign out front,  the advertising for the open house, the staging and professional presentation, or a previous conspiracy among all the local brokers to steer clients away. What I do know is when the professionals came in they got results, without lowering the price. As a matter of fact they raised the price to cover the brokers fee and still got an offer over the asking price.

So much for doing it yourself in today's day and age if you want real results, it pays to hire a professional.

Topics: Advertising, Marketing, saving money, marketing campaign, return on investment