I saw a question recently asking what a real estate agent will do for a St. Petersburg area home or condo seller other than put a sign in the front yard and put your property in the MLS. The answer: It depends which Realtor you hire to sell your home.
With home values down in the St. Petersburg FL area, those looking to sell their home or condo may be tempted to hire a discount real estate broker in order to save a few dollars. The truth is, that’s akin to letting the hygienist perform your root-canal, and it will likely cost you money and frustration in the long run. For some examples of what you may get for you money if you don’t hire a serious professional, just go to our home search and pull up a list of any 10 or more homes; you will find non-existent or extremely poor photos, not virtual tour or a virtual tour using the same still photos from the listing, non-existent or poorly written descriptions, and incomplete and incorrect data galore.
Here are a few professional services we feel a top-quality listing-agent realtor should provide their client:
- Professional quality real estate photography: This is Marketing 101. Photos of your home on the internet are likely to be the first thing a prospective buyer sees, and we are constantly amazed at the poor photography we see in the vast majority of listings.
- High-quality, edited, high-definition video virtual-tour of the home: Very expensive to produce, but probably the most effective tool available to attract buyers to your property. All of our listing clients get this service.
- Well written descriptions of the property and its best features: when a buyer comes across your listing on the internet they shouldn’t have to guess at the properties features. Well written descriptions can pull them into the listing and make the difference as to whether they keep it as a possibility.
- Marketing on Realtor.com and Craigslist.com: All MLS listings will show on Realtor.com, but many people don’t realize that agents have to pay for enhanced listing services. Creating an effective enhanced listing on Realtor.com, and effective marketing campaign on Craigslist.com, takes a lot of extra time, but is absolutely necessary for maximum online exposure.
- 800-number dedicated to your listing: Having a dedicated 800 number with a 24-hour recorded message discussing your property and its features is a powerful tool for attracting drive-bys and less internet-savvy buyers.
- Professional quality, full-color brochure: This should always be available inside the home as a takeaway piece for prospective buyers. A high-quality brochure can keep them looking at and thinking about your home much later, after they have relaxed after a stressful and hectic day of looking at homes.
Some other nice touches are internal marketing to other agents in the brokerage (we currently have almost 200 agents, with offices in St Pete Beach, Seminole, and Downtown St Petersburg), and direct email marketing to a list of prospective buyers (we currently have over 300 potential buyers in our database, located all over the world).
Getting the highest price for your home in the shortest time requires attracting the maximum number of prospective buyers. And to do that you need a high-quality, prolific marketing program designed by a professional, experienced real estate professional.
We would welcome the opportunity to come by and talk to you about the sale of your home. Just visit our Contact page to call or send a message.
