All of the sold listings on this page are mine. I have been blessed with a good deal of success in the last few months. I am a statistics wonk and like to follow-up on what made the sale in order to focus my marketing efforts effectively. (Please hold your mouse over each picture to see the date of sale and sold price.)
I do not pay for newspaper advertising and focus my marketing efforts in these main areas:
- A virtual tour with every listing
- Placement on key websites on the internet
- Good signage
- Blogging
What is interesting about these sales, is there has only been four homes sold this year over $400,000 and 3 of those sales have been my listings and I have another home in that price range pending closing in May.
Our market only had 8 homes sell in all of 2008 that were priced over $400,000, so sales in this price range have been few and far between. I am looking at every marketing effort and questioning buyers or their agents to find out what brought the listing to the buyers attention.
These three sales all have this in common, the listing caught the buyers attention because of my virtual tour. I use RealEstateShows, which is $125 a year for unlimited tours. I had 50+ pictures with each of these tours and that is what impressed the purchasers.
In each instance the buyer was from out of the area and they were able to get a very good sense of the home before they traveled to have their first showing.
Incredible as this may seem, most agents in my market only do virtual tours for their priciest listings, say $700,000 and up and some agents don't do a virtual tour for those homes either!
Neglecting to do a virtual tour for any listing is a huge mistake. Every seller deserves their agents very best effort and it has been proved over and over that lots of pictures per listing sells houses.
I have previously posted about the benefits of good signage. I have a little more to say on that subject, because it is bringing me plenty of business.
Every time I get a listing, I put a sign on the listing that has my name and contact info and a sign on the main street that has my name and contact info. Fortunately, I have enough listings in good locations to get my name on most of the main drags in my market. Consequently, I am being told all the time, "I see your name everywhere," or, "You have so many listings," and other statements that are really nice to hear.
People make these comments to me because they know who I am. How? Another great marketing practice, I wear my RE/MAX name tag everywhere I go and hand a card to anyone who is willing to take one. However, when you are a walking billboard you want to make sure you are NICE to EVERYONE. If you aren't, this can really work against you, so take your name tag off if you're about to blow, but better yet, just be nice!
With seven closings so far this year in one of the slowest markets in years, I am examining my marketing efforts now more than ever to see what works and expand on it. I hope these suggestions spur you on in your own marketing efforts.
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Brought to you by Fran Gatti at  THE REDWOOD COAST REAL ESTATE CONNECTION Bus: 707-464-5400, Cell: 707-218-8162 Email: fgatti@charter.net Website: FranGattiHomes.com My Blog: Fran's Blog Put Fran to work for you. |
Thank you for stopping by. Your comments on this post are welcomed and appreciated.
No one sold more homes in Del Norte County in 2009, 2010 and 2011--*in units sold and volume--than Fran Gatti. Put Fran to work for you!
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*PER DNAOR-MLS
I love the tip of taking the name tag off when you about to blow...lol!
Congrats on your great start to the year. I like that you use realestateshows!
Thanks for the virtual tour tip, we currently pay $125/tour so it adds up. Internet marketing by far gets the best results.
I love this post! It makes so much sense and all your tips are very practical and what good agents should be doing anyway but sometimes people need a reminder. We have many neighbhorhoods in our area where HOA's don't allow signs at all. This hurts the sellers. I do virtual tours but really need to put more pictures on there! Thanks for sharing.
I'm with you on the visual tours. Load them up with pictures and get them on the web. Looks like you have had some nice sales this spring. Keep up the good work.
Fran,
I enjoyed your post - it's obvious that you take your job seriously, and that you are committed to doing a very good job for your clients. Good for you - very refreshing!
Great pointers.....I have primarily worked with Buyers, but since I am in the midst of doing more listings than in the past, your ideas are very helpful.
Hmmmmmmmm....I wish I more of the "statistics wonk" in me!!!! :0)
Keep up the great work!
Edith Schreiber - Dallas Texas
Fran - Congrats on the success but more important thanks for sharing.
Cheers
Congrats on your success. These tips will prove beneficial for our customers.
Fran,
Thanks for the overview of what has been working for you. This is helpful information as I work on and analyze my marketing plan/strategies! Congrats on the success you're having.
Fran,
Thanks for the tips and congratulations on your successes so far. Just one question: was the use of any one marketing strategy an instataneous success, or did it take some time?
Thank you to all for the comments.
William - I have found that my marketing is evolving over time and it is a culmination of all my efforts that is bringing success. The internet has proved to me it is worth the effort, steep learning curve (lots of brain strain), time and money. I monitor EVERYTHING I do and if it doesn't show tangible results, I abandon and move on. I created a secondary website a year ago, have monitored it closely and determined it is not paying for itself, so I cancelled it today and will invest the money in subscribing to a website that is giving another agent in my office good ROI. I doubt I answered your question, but my slow, steady internet and blogging efforts are paying off handsomely.
Thank you,
Hi Fran,
Great tips. I was an agent for many years and still hold a license in Florida but live in California. I was one of the first to use virtual tours in my area and when I moved to Cali I created a virtual tour service. It costs slightly more than realestateshows but you get much more for your money. You can create a free account that allows unlimited tours with 10 photos each or for as little as $200 per year you can include up to 1000 photos on your tours. It is completely self generating with panning, zooming and music or you can upload a video. The other big difference is that I created it to promote the agent. You get a personalized header plus a profile page that you can link to your website blog or wherever you want. Check out a sample tour at http://oneclicktours.com/br06tour.php?listing=20039
Jerry Owens - OneClickTours.com