The inherent value in investing in Marketing for your MLS listings.
Great marketing sets you apart from your competition, and there is a LOT of competition. In 2014 NAR reported 87% of all new agents fail after five years in the industry, and today there are more real estate agents in the United States than ever before. We don't believe it's a mistake that realtors who produce great marketing for their customers continued to receive new property listings during a serious shortage of inventory this year, not just here in Utah but around the world.
So what are you getting for your tax deductible dollars spent on marketing your listings?
Material for your own portfolio. How are you SHOWING your potential clients the great ways you are able to showcase their home? With the portfolio of your past listings of course. Ideally you are showing them professional/aerial photos and video! (People are twice as likely to share video content with their friends than any other type of content. https://www.hubspot.com/marketing-statistics and video simply makes for more engaging ways to present your content.)
Standing out in the market place with no extra effort! Your marketing will stand apart from those agents using lackluster photos and minimal effort on every platform that your listing populates to, no extra work!
Show your brand. Getting single property website, and videos with your branding on them is a simple way to ensure your brand is getting exposure alongside your listing! Let viewers know who put together your impressive marketing package.
Material for your social media network. Ensure you have plenty of material to draw from to continue driving exposure to yourself and gather new leads.
Impress your current seller by bringing in professionals every step of the way. When sellers see you are not taking any shortcuts to best represent their property they will be more likely to refer you to friends family and co-workers!
Increasing Curb appeal and readying your listing for photos.
Many homeowners and real estate agents know that investing in remodeling and home improvements for a home doesn't have the best return on investment for the money spent vs the extra pay off in the sale of a home. But certainly there must be some ways to increase the curb appeal of a home and put in a little work to have listing pictures turn out the best that they can which in turn adds interest to the listing from perspective buys resulting in a higher sold for price, right?
The good news is that there are. Some projects and investments have better ROI than others, Housing data analytic company Zonda has some interesting insights on this (Source.) Firstly, "11 out of the 12 projects with the highest ROI were exterior improvements." In years past these were things such as upgrading the front entry door with a steel door, replacing the vinyl siding and replacement front windows. However, in the 2021 report the top items are garage door replacements, manufactured stone veneer, and a minor kitchen remodel at a cost of around $26,000. But even these investments regarded as the best ROI are still only returning 94%, 92%, and 72% respectively. So, we know that exterior improvements are in general a better investment, and if we want to avoid the high cost of some of these projects (Garage Door $4,000, Stone veneer $10,000, Kitchen remodel $26,000) how would we go about that?
Firstly, we have a great pre-photo shoot checklist which we provide our clients which gives some direction as to final prep for your property to help show it's best! Here are some key points from that list:
Clean windows - These show especially well if we have a view we want to show off through the windows!
Pressure wash the driveway
replace burnt out light bulbs and ensure they are all the same color temperature
Declutter as much as possible! This shows much better in photos rather than a squeaky clean floor or walls!
Remove area rugs covering nice hardwood floors
For more permanent additions outdoor lighting is a great bang for the buck that not only increases curb appeal every night, it also shows GREAT in photos!
Take a look at this example from outdoorlights.com:
