A Realtor told me, “I don’t sell houses.” Naturally he says this to get peoples attention. He says there are only 3 things that sell houses, “location, price, and condition.” And he cannot do anything about any of those factors. Now a Realtor cannot change the location of your home, but a Realtor can help you set the pricing and make recommendations on getting the property in condition to sell.
However there is a fourth element that a Realtor brings to help sell your home. That is Exposure. The primary exposure for a home being sold is the MLS (Multiple Listing Service). The MLS is an information exchange where Real Estate Agents list homes that are for sale so other agents can take clients to see them. Most Realtors feel 90 to 95% of home sales are a result of the MLS. To a large extent this is true. However, there are many other forms of exposure that drive people to buy and drive them to look at homes. When they decide to look at homes or a home they will then get a copy of the MLS listing(s) and the MLS gets credit for the sale. It is important to create buzz and have good contacts to sell a home. It is not enough to put a sign up and list it on the MLS.
Realtors have many marketing tools at their disposal and we get a constant barrage from sales people telling us how their system will help us sell more houses faster at a higher price. If we used them all I think it would be overkill. As a Realtor we need to select the best tools and use them properly. A good tool used wrong is not effective. As an example there is a system that broadcast a radio message about a house if you tune to a certain frequency in front of the house. As I was going around with the client we spotted a house and my client asked me to stop. We listened to the message. The system may have been novel but there was nothing about the message that made me want to enquire more about the house. In fact it was more of a promotion for the Realtor. Is it a good system? I don’t know, but it was not used to the best advantage of the client.
Good marketing systems should drive the potential buyer to want to ask more questions and see more. It should provide tantalizing information and leave the client wanting more information. You want to get them to take the next step until ultimately the come and see the house and consider buying. Many buyers in the early stage do not want to have to deal with a “pushy” agent or seller. A number of internet marketing tools are the best way to get the client to look while being anonymous. The information in front of the home should drive them to the internet for more information and the internet should be a place where the home can be found. Most home buyers start their search on the internet. I will not cover the many ways to market on the internet at this time, but good internet marketing is the most important way to get ahead of the competition.
I do not know if there is a way to quantify the effects of good marketing versus just putting a sign in the lawn and listing the home on the MLS (sadly this is all many agents do). But if effective and coordinated marketing tools can even drive 20% (and I think this is a reasonable and conservative figure) more traffic to your home this is a big difference. In baseball it is the difference between a .250 hitter (average) and a .300 hitter (superstar). How much would 20% more traffic increase the value of your home.
Increasing traffic to your home is especially important if you have a very nice home and are looking for a higher than average price based on the size. Many people will look on the MLS and judge homes based on size or number of bedrooms and bathrooms for the price. If you have a very nice home you need to get people to look and consider how much more you are offering that goes beyond size. When someone goes to search for a home on the MLS in this market there may be over a 100 homes that fit the criteria they set. They may not even see your home with all the choices on the MLS. You need other tools to set your fine home in front of potential buyers.