Real estate agents are finding that their listings are spending more days on the market than ever before. Gone are the days when an agent can use their cell phone for property photos, put them on an MLS listing and wait for offers to start rolling in. It just doesn't work like that anymore. A realtor's digital marketing needs to be on point to generate interest. Virtual tours (i.e. landing pages), an active social media presence, walkthrough videos, floor plans, aerials, and most of all professional photography all need to be a part of a top agent's marketing plan.

Real Estate Marketing - Best Practices…

If you're a real estate agent who's had to do a price adjustment and you're not sure what to do next; then here are a few real estate marketing ideas that you might want to try. We've been through this cycle a few times now and wanted to share our marketing strategy for a buyer's market. Here are some of our top real estate marketing ideas to make sure that you get qualified buyers to your open house and better yet - to that closing table.

Know Your Real Estate Market - Be Pragmatic About Potential Buyers

Home buyers need more information to make a sound decision before checking out your open house and prospective buyers are put off by homes with bad online marketing. Imagine making one of the biggest decisions in your life based on bad cell phone photos. Due to the sharp rise in interest rates more real estate listings are competing for these same home buyers.

This also comes with having some hard conversations with your sellers and their expectations regarding price and days on the market. Show them homes sold in their local area and what price points buyers are making offers at. Educate them on what makes up quality buyer leads.

Marketing your listing is more than just stating specs and writing about the best features. Real estate marketing is a professionals' game and woe to the FSBOs out there who think they can get top dollar for their house without having professional help.

Have A Real Estate Marketing Plan

When you are going to the initial interview with your potential clients regarding their listing what are you bringing to the table? What marketing tactics are you going to use to convince them that you are the one to get their home sold for their asking price? Having a comprehensive marketing strategy is what will set you apart from any other real estate agent. Your real estate marketing plan should set out what resources you're going to use to bring in potential buyers.

Your Local MLS Probably Sucks For Showing Off Your Listings

and your brokerage website probably does too…

Even worse is when your website for whatever brokerage you work grabs those same listing photos that the MLS had and spits out another virtual tour through your website that recycles the same scrunched down, low quality resolution photos and does the same thing again. Not only does it split the traffic, but chances are those photos get another round of “re-optimization” that somehow manage to make the photos look even worse.

Many times prospective buyers don't even see the virtual tour that we give you and miss out on the additional marketing like a walkthrough video, floorplan, or 3D tour. It's super important to make sure that your listing is seen on other platforms and as many social media channels as possible. Even your national association of realtors will recommend posting your listing to other sites.

Go To Your Listings - Have Them Staged Properly.

So many times we arrive at the property to find the agent has just started cleaning and staging. Folks, if you wait till your photographer arrives to do a little cleaning and home staging - you're wrong. Ain't nobody got time for that. It takes time away from our ability to compose a good shot. We're not merry maids and we're not paid to clean the home that you get a significant amount of money to prep and get ready. That's your job. The dreaded words every photographer hears is, "We're just gonna move things around as you shoot". Nope. Don't do it. You have plenty of time to set expectations with your clients and ensure that the property is photo ready. We've worked with some of the top agents and they consistently have their listings cleaned, home staging on point, and best yet, homeowners AND pets out of the way.

For Goodness Sakes - Hire A Professional Photographer!

Using professional photography for property photos of your new listing is incredibly important. Professional real estate agents understand that they are NOT professional photographers. Frankly, they have better things they should be focusing on and leaving this part to the pros. Don't be the agent who wings it on their marketing and calls what they do professional photos. Sellers and buyers see through that now more than ever and it leaves the question of what else did the agent skimp on?

Just because you have a camera doesn't mean you know how to use it.

Just because I know how to work a camera doesn't mean I know how to write a real estate contract.

Professionals let other professionals do their job.

Your real estate marketing efforts are a direct reflection of your brand. Do not hire an amateur photographer who will shoot photos for cheap either. Those guys are a dime a dozen and usually come equipped without a tripod or a drone license and bottom-of-the-barrel pricing. There are plenty of local businesses that specialize in photography AND do a great job. You'll spend more money in the end by having to hire someone to come back and re-shoot the home. Your best bet is to make sure you higher someone does it for a living and not a hobby.

Spend the money to hire a professional that gets the job done right and can show off the unique features of a home. A professional photographer should help cover MOST aspects of your real estate marketing plan. When we deliver photos to our clients, we also make sure that you get a single property website that showcases all the media that you ordered. We include free tools on the back end for you to customize your flyers, ads, and virtual tours to fit your branding and needs.

Create A Single Property Site For Your Listing

For example, in Colorado Springs we have groups like Colorado Springs Real Estate and Virtual Open Houses where you can post your listing to. BONUS - these tours also come with lead generation and a potential buyer can contact you directly through the website. They can also share the tour with their friends and family to get you even more leads. Digital marketing is such a powerful tool that most agents neglect it to their detriment. Facebook marketplace isn't just for selling your old used junk either. A great post about your available listings might just grab the attention of a potential buyer. Don't forget to include some local hashtags in your post.

Don't necessarily worry about lead capture at this point just yet though. Your goal is to get as many eyes on your listings as possible. At the end of the day, real estate marketing is about having the loudest bullhorn and attracting the widest audience. The folks looking will weed themselves out due to price and whether they have the financing. Make friends with top agents in your area and make sure they know of any listings you have coming up. They might just bring the right person to make an offer!

You can also embed these tours into your main website so that other agents' branding is not visible like you see with Zillow. The bonus is that potential clients can see other listings that you have.

Create An Engaging Video Tour

When creating a unique and compelling experience for buyers, there is nothing that impresses them more than video. Video tours offer you the creative freedom to show angles and depth and add mood music to create emotions that make consumers act. Although nearly half of the real estate leads prefer video to view the listing information, it could be the most effective investment to attract high-profile leads. If you're listing a luxury home, the video should be high on the list of your real estate marketing plan. Although most listings can benefit from a video walkthrough, luxury listings also let the real estate agent brand themselves as the go-to professionals for these beautiful homes.

Look Into Additional Marketing Features - Floor Plans and 3D Tours

Photos and videos aren’t the only things that help sell a home. Consider getting an interactive floor plan or even a 3D tour to help the potential new homeowners wrap their heads around the space in a home. These are hugely important tools especially for someone that’s attempting to buy a home in a different town or if their military and buying site unseen.

Consider Hosting Virtual Open Houses In Addition To A Live One

Hosting live open houses is the traditional way to bring foot traffic and new clients to your listing but a smart marketing plan is going to include virtual open houses as well. Consider doing a live stream while you are at the live open house to answer questions and generate interest online for your listing. Some folks can't make out during the weekend whether it's due to work or in the case of military buyers, having to buy site unseen. Post your stream to your social media and don't be shy about courting potential buyers both virtually and in real life.

You can also partner with a lender at your open house to help answer any financial questions potential clients might have. They can man the computer and live stream at the house while you take care of any hopeful new homeowners that walk in. Having some branded swag at your live open house will keep your brand top of mind for anybody that comes through.

Let’s Recap…

Why does a house stay on the market for a long time?

There are a few different reasons why a house is sitting on the market. We encourage you to double-check that the marketing you have for the home is appropriate. Did you get good photos? Was the home clean? Did you use a virtual tour and showcase it across different platforms? Are you getting good traffic to the home via online visits and people are actually putting eyes on it?

If the marketing is in good shape then mostly likely there’s something that’s off-putting about the listing. Chances are the number one thing is that you don’t have it priced correctly. Have you taken into account comparable properties that recently sold? It might even be that the HOA fee is too high and once people find out what their total monthly payments will be, they’re getting turned off from the listing. If the house needs a lot of work, repairs or even if they have a lease for solar panels that the buyer needs to assume as part of their loan - it could throw off the deal.

Why is Days on market important in real estate?

Days on market is a measurement of the age of a real estate listing. The statistic is defined as the total number of days the listing is on the active market before either an offer is accepted or the agreement between real estate broker and seller ends. The longer a house sits, the greater the impression that there’s something wrong with the house. In short - the listing becomes stale. If the home is sitting for longer than the average days on the market, you might consider pulling it down, re-adjusting the marketing, price point or seller concessions and re-listing the home.

What is the secret to a fast sale of a property?

There is no secret to a fast sale of a property - it’s all about making sure that you follow the fundamentals of good real estate marketing in the first place. Set proper expectations, price it right, market it correctly and communicate, communicate, communicate. Do all these things and you can rest assured that you’ve done a good job for your client.

How do I find a professional photographer that specializes in real estate?

Not all professional photographers are professional real estate photographers. Just because someone is really great at taking headshots doesn’t mean that their skill translates into living spaces. Knowing how to compose a photo and take into account the best features of a home is a skill that comes with time and experience shooting lots of houses. PixVid has photographed over 25,000 homes in just the last five years and we choose quality over quantity with our photographers. Heck we’ve even trained some of our competitors who couldn’t keep up with our standard (You know who you are!)

A great photographer or photography company is also going to have the tools to provide more than one service. You want to work with someone that can do more than photos. Services like floorplans, 3D tours, videos and aerials are a must! And if they do aerial photography not only do they have to be licensed (certificated) under part 107 if they’re in the U.S. BUT they also have to have the Wide Area Authorizations necessary to fly in restricted airspace. I guarantee that if you start asking about Wide Area Authorizations you’re going to get a lot of blank looks or back peddling unless they really know what they’re doing.