In Part 4 of his “Realtyperson, heal thyself” series, Joseph Rand shares lessons he learned from the other side of the real estate business — the client side. Read Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.
I will never understand real estate agents who do a lousy job marketing a home.
Do a search of your local MLS for an average-priced listing in your market. Look at, say, five listings.
How many of those do you think are well-marketed? I’m not talking about whether they have a video or a 3-D walkthrough or any of the higher-end bells-and-whistles.
I mean, how many of them are fundamentally well-marketed, with a reasonably comprehensive and engaging property description and a full range of pictures showing all the features of the home with well-lit, high-resolution photos?
How many of the five? If it’s any more than one or two, then you probably need to raise your standards. Most property marketing is horrendous.
I went through the homebuying process three times in the past six years — twice with my primary home and once with a vacation home. As a buyer and as a client, here’s what I will tell you: You can’t do enough marketing for me.
I literally cannot get enough. I will devour every single picture. I will parse every line of every description. I will pore over floorplans. I will obsess over videos like they’re the Zapruder film. I’m insatiable.
Most agents leave me hungry — starving, even. There are listings without enough pictures, listings with three-line descriptions rife with clichés. And forget the good stuff — the videos, the 3-D walkthroughs, the floorplans. Almost none of the listings had those.
Nikonaft / Shutterstock.com
I don’t get it. A really good camera is $500. Learning how to take good photos and videos will take some time, but it can be done. And if you don’t want to learn, you can spend a few hundred dollars and hire an expert to take photos, make a video, create floorplans and even get a 3-D walkthrough.
So why are so many listings still being marketed like it’s 2004?
As it happens — and maybe this is not a coincidence — the property I bought was exceptionally well-marketed by an agent who has won national awards for her marketing. It had more than 35 great photos with a description that captured the historical nature of the home.
It also had a 3-D video from Matterport that became one of my kids’ favorite nighttime rituals; they got to “walk” through their bedrooms and playroom months before we moved in (kind of a bonus, that feature).
And it’s not just about marketing your listings. It’s about marketing yourself, too. I always tell potential clients: If you want to judge the quality of an agent’s work, look at her listings — even if you’re looking for a buyer agent.
Why? Because you only need a taste of the soup to know if it’s any good. Agents who do a good job marketing listings are probably pretty good at any aspect of the job.
And an agent who doesn’t, probably isn’t.
Joseph Rand is one of the managing partners of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate – Rand Realty in New York and New Jersey and blogs about his local markets at the Rand Country Blog and about the industry at ClientOrientedRealEstate.com.
