Who Pays the Advertising Costs?

The way typical real estate agents advertise is a waste of money. Make sure it is not your money.

Many agents advertise to promote themselves, and not your property. In the past twenty years, real estate advertising has increased as much as twenty times. In most areas, the number of sales being made today is the same as twenty years ago.

Home sellers are often pressured to pay thousands of dollars for advertising. This is a needless expense because very few properties are ever sold because of advertising.

Be Reasonable About Advertising

Advertising will rarely sell your property. Too often home sellers make the mistake of demanding advertising for their properties.

The previous hint for selecting an agent advised you to not pay advertising costs, but this does not mean that you should make unreasonable demands upon your agent for needless advertising. Be reasonable about advertising.

Buyers who want to buy in your area know the area.  It is the area that attracts them, not advertising. It is a waste of time, money and energy to place advertisements in publications that reach thousands of people who will not buy in your area.

The media your agent chooses to expose your property in is also important. Many buyers are now Generations X and Y, and these people do not read newspapers nearly as much as do ‘Baby Boomers’. Agents who rely on newspaper advertising are quickly becoming old fashioned.

Your agent needs to be an expert in Internet Marketing, and should not necessarily ‘follow the crowd’ by advertising heavily on third-party websites, either.

Here is what your agent should be doing to find a buyer for you:

• Your agent’s office should be open 7 days;
• Your agent should be sending email Home Alerts to thousands of buyers every week;
• Your agent should have large numbers of signs in the area;
• Your agent should be an expert at directing enquiry to his or her agency’s website.

This will bring the best buyers to your agent and your agent will then qualify the buyers and bring the right ones to your property. That’s how most properties are sold.

If your property is not selling there are usually only two reasons: the agent is incompetent or the price is too high.

If you keep advertising your property, people may start wondering what is wrong with it.

Gary Pittard