Do real estate agents deserve more credit? You see a lot of polls asking buyers and sellers about all sorts of real estate related topics but a great poll would be perhaps a poll asking the buyer or seller if they think they could sell their home or buy a home without the aid of a Realtor. The results would be quite interesting.

The answer to that question of course will vary from person to person and the answers would depend on whether or not a buyer or seller had ever tried to sell their home on their own, had tried to buy a home on their own, and if they had worked with a real estate agent in the past, a good determining factor of what answer they give would depend on what level of service the real estate agent gave to that particular client.

What determines a bad job? A seller might say their Realtor did a bad job because their house didn’t sell. The statement may be true but some key reasons as to why the house didn’t sell come in to play. Did the house not sell because the agent did not market the home properly? Or did the house not sell because after several attempts on the real estate agent’s part to get the price reduced on the home, met with nothing but the unwillingness to budge from the price, l could be another reason why the house didn’t sell. But is that the fault of the seller being unreasonable or that fault of the real estate agent not being aggressive enough or informing the seller the reason FOR the price reductions. One might argue it is both sides fault.

It appears that there is a stigma surrounding the role of a real estate agent. They are sometimes referred to as money hungry grubbing parasites, they are not out for the client’s best interest, or they don’t have anything to do with the sale of the home once it is in contract.

The role of a real estate agent is far more complex than one might think. If an agent is hired as a listing agent when someone is selling a home, the agent’s first priority is to market the property, bring prospects to the home and get a qualified buyer to place an offer on the home. That is their first duty.

Their second duty is to help facilitate an agreement between buyer through the buyer’s agent and the seller. Once all negotiations are complete (in some states that is considered the attorney review period whereas in other states the contract is fully executed before it goes through an attorney review period).

Their third duty and ongoing duty until the closing table is to make sure each party has been taking care of their part. In other words, the attorneys are communicating, the mortgage company is not lagging behind in obtaining a commitment or appraisal on the property, all deposit monies have been received and placed in escrow, and so on.

Many agents will argue which type of real estate agent has more work cut out for them, a listing agent or a buyers agent. That is a great question, for the buyer agent has a lot of up front foot work with their buyer before a home is even chosen or a contract on the table, whereas without the hard work of a listing agent obtaining the house listing for the buyer’s agent to sell what would the buyer’s agent have to show?

Each side has good points. There is no right and wrong answer to that, both types of agents are important for a successful real estate transaction.

So the question still stands. Do real estate agents deserve more credit? Since generalizing is never fair in any industry, in conclusion, the answer is not defined, rather than a good conversation that could lead to debate.

Marketing real estate listings online no longer has to be a static affair.  There are many reasons why consumers fall in love with a house and while a pocketful of photos helps to keep the roving eye steady there are great marketing gadgets designed to give your real estate listing some extra oomph.  Don’t begin and end advertising your homeowner’s listings on your website.  Reach out and make a connection with some new marketing tools that will keep consumers at your seller’s virtual doors.

If you want to go the extra mile online here are the Top Three Web 2.0 listing tools to drive traffic to your Seller’s doorsteps.

Blogs

Blog your client’s listings.  If you are consistently blogging about local real estate news and events around town, than blogging your listings is a natural fit.  You can use online flyers to create a classified ad of your client’s real estate property and embed them into your blog.  Don’t skimp on the details if you choose this route- make sure to add room dimensions, multiple photos, a great description of the property, and highlight your contact information. 

Tell the story of your client’s property.  If you were a consumer what would you want to know?  Ask your Sellers what attracted them to purchase the house and include that information in your description. 

Every detail counts so make sure that your details are inviting, honest, and clear.  A blog is a tool to be transparent so make sure your posted flyer is true blue original and not an embellished mock up.

Social Media

Don’t let your seller’s listings become dirty little secrets.  Spread the word and shout them out to the world.  The amount of relocating buyers and the surging amount of international buyers makes marketing your clients property online everywhere a must.  The best way to do this with social media marketing is syndication.  When you post a listing on your blog or website, shout it out on Twitter and let your friends on Facebook into the know.  Don’t stop here, there are dozens of sites that allow syndication of real estate listings online and the name of the game of real estate marketing online rests in the extent of your reach.  Use a service that not only syndicates your client’s homes to venues across the internet, but that also keeps track of your traffic for you. 

Report the statistics to your sellers and use them to tweak your marketing effectiveness.  If the traffic numbers are low across several networks you may have to revisit the effectiveness of the classified ad you created.  You may also need to revisit listing price or concessions with your real estate sellers and if this is the case you will have hard data to support your conversation with them.

Single Property Websites

Gone are the days when marketing real estate on one portal was enough.  To have a full belied marketing thrust you must think strategically about your seller’s house.  Create a marketing hub for each of your seller’s properties.  A hub is a place where home buyers can go to get all the information on one real estate property in one place.  A good single property website will include features/amenities, photo tours, property maps, area schools, neighborhood services, census information, city data and mortgage calculators.  Giving home buyers all the information in one place will keep them focused on your client’ real estate listings and off the task of spending time consuming hours online googling keywords for this information.

Don’t stop at creating these real estate listing hubs.  The next step to an effective strategic marketing strategy is to spread the word.  Create a link on your blog’s margins to each of your active real estate listing single property websites. Write a Squidoo page or a HubPage about different types of properties and include links to the websites of the real estate listings that fit.  Include the URL of the real estate property websites when you advertise them offline.  Makeup business cards for open houses with the URL.  Spread the word about these websites- milk it.

When the property has closed you can choose to keep these websites live and add testimonials from your sellers.  Then use these in your listing presentations to new prospective clients.

Get started today and make your real estate listings go the extra mile online.