Pulse is a recurring column where we ask for readers’ takes on varying topics in a weekly survey and report back with our findings.
Sometimes, when approached with career-related questions, your broker, colleagues, mentors and other industry contacts give you good advice — solid words of wisdom that you hold onto and follow for years. Other times? Well, not so much.
Last week, we asked you to tell us the worst marketing-related recommendations and tips you’ve ever heard in this industry. From offering steak knives to entice buyers to neglecting the internet when marketing your business, here are all the bad, bad tips you’ve shared with us.
- I had a broker tell me I was wasting my time marketing my business on the internet.
- Knock on doors for a listing.
- Taking your own photos.
- Not to door-knock. I’ve received wonderful leads that led to closings by door-knocking.
- I started selling real estate a few months after graduating from college when I was 22. I was young, lacked professional work experience altogether and needed to figure out where my business was going to come from. I was given the advice to target first-time homebuyers and buyers searching around the university area of town because those buyers would also be younger, and to host open houses in that area, at houses that would appeal to more entry level buyers.
- I had a client who worked in marketing during the housing crash who wanted me to offer a set of steak knives as a way to entice buyers.
What did we miss? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.
Editor’s note: These responses were given anonymously and, therefore, are not attributed to anyone specifically. Responses were also edited for grammar and clarity. Inman doesn’t endorse any specific method and regulations may vary from state to state.