"Do you market your listings in any print publications or in the local paper?" That question came up during a listing interview about two weeks ago. I answered the question without hesitation... "No, but let me tell you why"
I've been down the "Print Road" and gotten nowhere. I've payed for features in our local newspaper's "Friday Preview" Real Estate Section, I've placed my own in-column ads and the company that I used to work with even had a full page ad on Sunday that I routinely had listings and open houses displayed on and I can honestly say... Those ads never directly resulted in the sale of those homes. Did they make the phone ring with buyer prospects? Absolutely... but direct sales, no.
I also spent THOUSANDS of dollars marketing in a well know National Real Estate Magazine over a 2 year time period. I can contribute 1 sale to this investment, but it wasn't for any of the homes I had listed. A former classmate of Cas' moved back to the area after 10 years, saw his picture on our 1/2 page ad and called us. He purchased a home with us... But the homes we marketed in those magazines never sold because of the magazine ads... not one.
I believe that Print marketing is a LISTING TOOL! It is show it off to prospective sellers, the beautiful glossy magazine ads that will never sell their home. It really never worked for me... There is a far better use for those marketing dollars.
Online marketing... From REALTOR.com to Zillow and YouTube, go where the buyers are looking... Print marketing is yesterday's news.
Licensed Real Estate Professional, ALHS, e-PRO @ 407.758.1020 or Debbie@CasAndDebbie.com
Please contact Cas and Debbie for all of your real estate needs in Seminole County, Lake Mary, Sanford, Longwood, Altamonte Springs, Casselberry, Winter Springs, Oviedo and Orlando...
Debbie~ I agree with you totally. Newspaper ads specifically are a waste of money, but they do help out the newspapers revenue!! Internet is WHERE the buyers go, period!
Debbie, I totally agree. Print advertising gets listings however internet advertising results in sales.
Debbie - We are using print marketing and direct mail with continued success. The key is to provide material and data that our clients are interested in. Market data, state of the market reports, listing and sales activity in your subdivisions and neighborhoods will pay you huge dividends if you provide this information regularly. The real success comes when agents can leverage print and internet market to promote each other. Happy Selling!
Vickie - The INTERNET IS NOW! The single best way to market property hands down... Thanks for taking the time to comment, I really appreciate your feedback!
Whenever I have a seller who is insistent on print ads, I just give them the newspaper ads and a couple real estate books and say, "let's look for your next home this way". It usually changes their mind.
Leolinda - I agree... Print advertising is a listing tool.
Sam - I don't consider Direct Mail to be the same as magazine and newspaper advertising. I also use Direct Mail and agree with you that it is beneficial to provide information to the public. Thank you for taking the time to comment... I greatly appreciate all feedback.
Debbie - that old adage "the three most important things in real estate are location, location, location" certainly applies to the three best places to advertise to maximize your exposure to potential buyers the web, the web, the web.
Richard- I've also provided the newspaper and magazines... When you buyers really want to buy, they go online! Thank you for taking the time to comment.
Kathy - When you are RIGHT, YOU ARE RIGHT! You get maximum exposure on the web! Thanks for taking the time to read and comment on my post.
DEBBIE - I couldn't agree more. The sad part is that it is a listing tool that still impresses a number of homeowners, and I believe that part of it is about their ego. After all, seeing their home in the local newspaper or the magazine that everyone picks up in the supermarket makes everything seem more legitimate. Unfortunately, it serves almost no purpose in helping to get the home sold. Good post, Debbie.
Debbie - I agree as well. Print really wasn't worth the investment when we started. Most leads come from the internet and networking.
Adam - Thank you for commenting... I took a stand and told the seller the truth about print marketing, it is up to us to tell sellers what really works and doesn't produce results.
Debbie
I totally agree with you. It is hard to re-educate some sellers to get off the paper. I will use it to advertise an open house to "service the seller" with what they want on occassion.
Debbie, I do a lot of Internet marketing of my listings and love using our Internet portal with buyers. My company still does "print" marketing..and it is costly. When I hold opens I get feedback (as everyone does) on how they found my listing. Most people indicate they saw it on-line while others said they saw the yard signs or directional signs. Right now, I'm working on both traditional and contemporary methods for marketing my properties with an emphasis on the contemporary.
Internet Marketing... So much more powerful than print!
Hi Debbie,
NAR says 84% of home buyers are now using the internet. You're exactly right to go where the buyers are looking. Some of my clients have dropped print completely and have redirected those dollars towards their online marketing.
Debbie,
Most sellers these days want the internet marketing !!! Some still really want the print ads - because of that, we still do a little bit of print marketing just for that purpose. But we have cut down on it drastically. I still do not think it should be eliminated all together. We also get some listing leads - a couple per year - that pays for the ads anyway and more.
Philadelphia Real Estate
Tanya - Print marketing lasts a day, week, month or sometimes a year. Internet marketing never goes away. If that isn't powerful, I don't know what is. Thanks for taking the time to right a comment.
Shannon - I think that educating sellers as to the "ADVANCES" in real estate marketing is a job in itself.
Jon - The future is in technology... How are open houses working in your area? With the cost of gas, I find there are less folks out there just "looking" for homes. Thank you for stopping by and commenting on my post...
NOT YET LICENSED- You are off to a great start hear on Active Rain! That is the statistic that NAR promotes and I agree that most consumers are online looking for homes... Newspapers and magazines can't keep up.
Christopher & Stephanie- I have the attitude that if I'm investing money in marketing, breaking even or covering the costs just isn't enough. I want to profit from my investment... I continue to use postcards for seller prospecting, but the future is online. Thanks for commenting...
I've picked up listings off my ad which equates to money when they sell. Can't say I've had a single sale off of it though. I WILL say, I don't spend a fortune on it. It is a fraction of what most of the local rags cost these days.
Debbie...you're 100% correct and on target. It's all a matter of $$ versis Results. I am CERTAIN that if I run a 10 - 15 second full blown professional TV Ads on 1 house on all the networks for 30 days that the house will sell...No Doubt at all.....HOWEVER, I'm not sure that spending $25,000 in TV advertising would be the best method to obtain a $3,000 commission. That's the nut to crack.
It's not a matter of Print Media having any value or not...it's where can you place the money you spend more efficiently. When I list a home I put it in my website and the MLS and then I enter it in about 15 to 20 additional websites like Zillow, Trulia, HutHub.com, RealSeekr.com, etc. Once that's done, I generally will have 10 of the top 10 positions in google on the search for my key words on that specific house, street or subdivision. My clients KNOW I'm working on selling their house and NOT trying to grab clients in general. I just posted a blog on all the places I enter.
I also am a firm believer that "Video" is replacing "Pictures" just like the Internet is replacing Print Media. I started that 2 1/2 years ago uploading to UTube when the quality was pretty poor, but I'm making progress in this area and even have a devoted Video Page on my site for all the homes, land or whatever that we have listed. In fact...we have some "dirt" listed (some acreage) that our client thinks we walk on water going to so much trouble doing a "Video" on "land" lol
I agree I flat out tell them that I do not do print advertising because it's a waste of money, except for one publication which has brought be buyers and sold a listing or two. Otherwise Im all about the interenet.
Hi Debbie,
This is so true. I still have some print ads but majority of my advertising dollar goes on the internet.
Catherine
Kathy - I'm glad that you see benefits from print marketing, I just find that web is far more profitable.
David- I agree with you about video... I am going to start working towards video, the market is changing and we have to change with it.
Heather - Good for you... I'm a firm believer in telling sellers exactly how the market works... A print ad isn't going to help them.
Catherine - Good for you, I think the power is on the web... Print marketing can't keep up with the speed of business these days.
Debbie,
I thought it was just me with print advertising..not leading to a sale. I believe we are in an internet world.