The “Real” Role of a Listing Agent

The Listing Agent & Marketing Your Home

The “Real” Role of a Listing Agent

When you bought your home, you probably used the services of a real estate agent. You found that agent through a referral from a friend or family member or perhaps online where over 80% of home buyers begin their search for Naples Florida real estate. The agent helped you in many ways and eventually you found the house of your dreams, made an offer, had your closing and moved in.

For whatever reason, now it is time to sell your home and you need the help of local Naples Realtor again. Many home sellers, especially those selling their first home, tend to think all real estate agents are similar to the one that helped them buy their home.

Although real estate agents can and do work with both buyers and sellers, most tend to concentrate more on one than the other. They specialize. When you bought your home, you probably worked with a “buyer’s agent” – an agent that works mostly with buyers. Because of the nature of real estate advertising and marketing, the public’s main image of the real estate profession is that of the buyer’s agent.

As a result, many homeowners expect their listing agent to do the same things that a buyer’s agent does – find someone to buy their home. After all, they do the things you would expect if they were searching for buyers. A sign goes up in the front yard. Ads are placed in the local newspaper and real estate. magazines. Your agent holds an open house on the weekend. Your house is proudly displayed on Internet sites from Realtor.com to many others through Listhub.

But this is only “surface” marketing. More important activity occurs behind the scenes. After the “for sale” sign goes up and flyers are printed, your agent’s main job is to market your home to other agents as well as homebuyers.

At White Sands Realty, we do this in a select listing program we call, “Maximum Exposure.” Maximum Exposure involves several marketing avenues that work synergisticly together to give your home the most exposure possible to the buying public. Some features of the Maximum Exposure program are:

• • Priority placement on major real estate portals such as: Realtor.com, Trulia.com and Zillow.com.
  • Up to 24 pictures on the Internet (dependent on website allowances).
  • International exposure to Europe, Canada and others.
  • Private showings with personal attention to point out features buyers/Realtors may miss.
  • Unique print advertisements in local papers and luxury magazines designed to stand-out-in-the-crowd.
  • Broker open houses to show off your home to local agents.
  • Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn promotions of your home.
  • YouTube video of your home for details beyond pictures and static imagery.
  • The latest in text ads to feature your home with the latest technology.
  • Old fashion word-of-mouth promotion. We answer our phones personally 90% of the time.
  • World class photography and professionally designed brochures to present your home in the best light.