17 Ideas for Marketing Listings

17 Ideas for Marketing Your Listings
By Darryl Davis

RISMEDIA, November 18, 2010—Yesterday, we discussed five concepts to help you get your listings sold. Today, we’ll focus on the keys to marketing those listings. Here are tips and techniques that every Realtor can use:

Hold broker open houses. If selling the agents means getting more buyers, then a brokers’ open house is one of the best tools to use. You should look at it as an opportunity to introduce the product. It ideally should be done in the first one to two weeks that a house goes to multiple listing.

It might take some time to build the reputation and to get a good turnout, but eventually it will happen. Make the open house something special – more of a party or an event. Promote it by making fliers or sending faxes. It’s also a great vehicle for promoting listings that are not getting a lot of activity.

At the open house, distribute opinion sheets. The most important question on the sheet is, “What price do you think the house is going to sell for?” After the open house, sit down with the seller and go through the sheets to find out what most agents think. Then, you can give the option to the sellers to adjust the price accordingly so that you’ll get the activity that’s needed, or leave the price as is and hope you’ll get the activity.

Also, attend other agents’ open houses as well, because you want the same support from them.

Hold public open houses. These are time consuming, but the major plus is that it promotes you and highlights your listing. It shows the seller you’re servicing them and most importantly, you’ll get listing leads.

Showcase your listings. Run a larger-than-usual ad in a local paper, and instead of promoting a public open house on just one listing, promote four to six at a time. Put all the information about these houses into the ad and announce open houses that one weekend.

“Just listed” letters. These can be like “just sold” cards. They are highly effective and a lot easier to do if you are computerized. If you’re going to do these, don’t do postcards.

Call 100 surrounding neighbors of a house you just listed. In addition to telling them about the listing, ask if they know anyone else who might be selling in the area. Also, ask them if they themselves might be thinking of selling, and find out if they know anyone who they’d like to make their new neighbor. If you include this as part of your servicing campaign for sellers, it won’t seem like cold calls; it will seem like “just listed” calls.

The 10-10-20 rule. Since the general rule of “knocking on 100 doors” takes a lot of time and energy, it is more useful to knock on 10 doors to the left, 10 to the right and 20 doors across the street. People in these homes are the most likely to know the listing family personally and, therefore, are most likely to want to help them find a buyer.

Advertise in specialized papers. For example, let’s say you just listed a waterfront property. Then, advertise in boating magazines and other such publications.

A gift to the selling agent. Whenever an agent from another company sells one of your listings, give them a huge gift, like a television. And make sure you deliver it to the office of the selling agent in the middle of their office meeting. Watch the next time you do a Broker’s Open House how many agents attend your open house from that office.

Use report cards. This helps you track the activity of other agents calling on your listings. If you have a listing that’s been on the market for 30 days and you’ve gotten very few calls from other agents inquiring about it, then you’ve got to communicate that with the seller. This helps you get either a price adjustment or terms adjustment.

Hold periodic reviews. Meet with the seller at the 30-day and 60-day mark to discuss price adjustment, terms adjustment or marketing.

Have an individual folder for each listing. Even if you’re computerized, there are still papers and forms you must keep.

A list of your listings hanging by your phone with the price and expiration date. This will act as a constant motivator to get your listings sold. It will also help you stay focused on increasing that list of sellers.

Get a higher commission. One of your tasks is to sell other agents to help you sell this home. A higher commission will surely help you sell the agents

Bimonthly calls. Stay in touch with the seller every two weeks. Discuss what the competition has sold or when you’ll be running an ad about their house or about what kind of responses you’re getting from agents.

Agent evaluation cards. Send one of these to agents every time they show your home. This is based on the assumption that you’ve created a good reputation for yourself.

Farming agents. Create a mailing list of successful agents in your area. Personalize any mailing you send to them. That way, they get the personal attention they deserve.

Common sense pricing. Pricing of houses should be listed in such a way that they show up in more searches, meaning more exposure.

These are just some the items to get your listings sold. The most important one, however, is to have a communication system like we teach our students to validate the homeowner made the right decision when they hired you, and to show them you are doing everything you can to get their property sold. After that, it’s up to them to lower the price.

For over 20 years, Darryl Davis has traveled around the country coaching agents and brokers on how to achieve their Next Level of success. He is the creator of the nationally acclaimed www.ThePowerProgram.com, the only yearlong coaching and training course where Power Agents, on average, double their production over their previous year. Darryl is a best-selling author, one of the highest rated speakers at the NAR Convention each year, and has a career-curriculum that brings agents from “Rookies to Retirement”. To find out about his training programs and/or speaking availability, please visit www.DarrylDavisSeminars.com or call 1-800-395-3905. For more information on the get your listings sold program, go to www.GetYourListingsSold.com.