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.
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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.
