Because most of them don't know the first thing about marketing property...

But, there is a solution!

No, you don't have to change profession or downscale your lifestyle...
On the contrary, you'll soon be banking more commission cheques than ever before, Guaranteed.

And I'll tell you how, because there are a few...

[b]Secrets To Selling More Properties, Faster.[/b]

There are a handful of estate agents across the world who has caught on to this, and they are smiling
all the way to the bank. They could care less if we are in the middle of a recession, because they are
now selling more properties than ever before and living the lifestyle they want...luxury cars, regular holidays,
new house....

And you could too if you just know and apply a few marketing "tricks", and understand three key elements of marketing.

1- Know [b]Who[/b] your potential clients are,
2- Know [b]Where[/b] to look for them and,
3- Know [b]How[/b] to attract them.

That's It!

Know and understand these little secrets, and you'll be selling or renting more properties than Ever Before....
irrespective of market conditions.

So, if you are serious about your profession, and want to be the most successful and most rewarded
agent in your company, you have to understand that....

[b]"Selling Is Easy.
Getting People To Buy Is The Difficult Part"
[/b]
I'm going to put the cart before the horses, and begin with item number 3 above...

"...How to attract your potential clients."

Let me explain by ways of an example.

Take a look at some of the largest industries in the world...golf, cosmetics, clothing, soft drinks or whatever.
What do they ALL have in common?

They keep making sales, irrespective of market conditions.
And how do they achieve this? Not because it's a much cheaper product than a 4 bedroom house in the suburbs, but....

...Because they know and understand how people, their customers, think and react.

By understanding their customers, they can create marketing material that is laser targeted straight at their
potential clients, and get them interested and in whatever they are selling.

Ok, now for the example...and yes I know selling cosmetics has nothing to do with selling property....

Or does It?

I opened one of my wife's glamour magazines (Yes I do read them as well, but to study marketing techniques),
and saw an ad for a new skin product by L'OREAL...I'm sure you are familiar with that name.

[i]"[size:14pt]Youth Code[/size]
[b]Inspired By Gene Science[/b]

[size:11pt][b]Tried And Tested By Over 1000 Woman
Re-Awakens Skin's Youthfulness Day After Day[/b][/size]

"I'll never need to try another product!"

"So luxurious, it just melts into my skin"

"My skin looks fresher and brighter"

[size:11pt][b]The Proof Is In The Mirror.
Skin Looks Smoother, Rested, More Luminous.[/b]" [/size]

[size:8pt]Because you're worth it.[/size]
[size:14pt]L'OREAL[/size][/i]

You must see advertisements like these hundreds of times per day, but do you realise the huge amount money and hours of research that goes into
creating ads that sell?

Only if you understand the mechanics of marketing can you really reach and connect with your target audience.

Now, compare the ad above with the one below for a typical 4 bedroom house.
(And I just pulled this one at random from the Net...they are all so similar.)

[size:14pt]Property Description[/size]

[i]"A house to call home. Stylish rustic with spacious living areas opening
up to a beautiful garden with views of the golf course.
4 or 5 Bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, double garage, lovely braai area and much more.
Best buy in Silver Lakes."[/i]

Notice the difference between the two?
Yes I know one is for a skincare product and the other for a house, but besides that.

No?......here's a hint.

[size:11pt][b]Features and Benefits![/b][/size]

The skincare ad is loaded with [b]Benefits,[/b] while the property ad only has features!

And that is one of the most, if not THE MOST overlooked areas in property marketing nowadays....

How to distinguish between features and benefits, and how to use them to reach your target market....and not only to reach them but to
get them so excited in what you have to offer, (selling) that they won't be able to resist a viewing. And we both know that once you have them interested,
you know how to close the deal....

that's why you became an estate agent after all....

You enjoy the selling process, and deserve to be rewarded for it.

But this is just one of many aspects that need to be properly understood and addressed to be able to beat the recession, and the competition
and achieve a higher property sales figure than EVER BEFORE.

In my next post I will analyse the two ads above, and show you how, by knowing how to use [b]features and benefits[/b], will get your clients queuing
at the door. I'll disect each sentence of both ads and explain the reasoning behind the choice of words they used.

And the beauty of it all is, the little "secrets" I'm about to show you works for any property type; residential, industrial, commercial and vacant land...
whether you are selling or renting....
in fact, the same principles apply for selling Any type of product or Service.

If you found this post helpful, please drop me a line.

Yours in property sales

George Gordon

[b]P.S.[/b] I'm not here to sell you anything, just share what I've learned from some of the marketing "greats" over the past ten years.

Ads do not sell real estate. It's price which is a by product of motivation. An ad will never sell a house if the price is wrong. A house will sell itself if the price is right. Get 100 saleable listings and the bank will love you.

Well said, I can't tell you how many listings I have watched sit for months because of greed.

This company was teaching about "features and benefits" in my office about 15 years ago.

http://www.hobbsherder.com/

That goes without saying...if the price is wrong it won't sell...but then I won't have it on my book either.
If the price falls within the median, it comes down to knowing your product, marketing, and knowing your potential customer.

Personally I think that credibility is really important in selling real estate and when you post on forums.

And you don't get credibilty when one of your first posts when you join a forum and make a post like this that looks like course spam.

Perhaps it's not but with all the Html that isn't working it reads like spam.

/\ That, and the fact that it's copy/pasted from an identical post on the realestatewebmasters forum.

Thanks for the advice, but are you suuuuure you aren't selling anything? ;)

I know that nowadays it's not easy to find honest information on the web without someone trying to sell something...Yes I've posted on many forums, and copied and pasted the post...but does that say I'm trying to sell something? And what would I try to sell if I give the info away for free? I'm just to lazy re-type it every time.
I was going to post a series of about 10-15 posts on marketing tricks, from Sales Copy writing, to online and offline marketing techniques and tools that I've learned over the past 10 years and that really work...for free...but it seems that it's not appreciated. If anyone want more info, feel free to email me...I won't be making further posts here.

Anytime I see a sales pitch talking about "secrets" it's loses all credibility. Instead of saying "Secrets" to selling more property you might as well just say "Scams" to selling more property.

price........

you can polish a turd, but it does not change what it is. buyers are brought in by price and photos....i dont even read the remarks unless the photos pass the smell test.

dont tell me it needs a little work...show me photos and then price it correctly.

If price is the only factor then why would someone use an Agent?

No amount of salesmanship is going to sell an overpriced house. The correct price brings the buyer to the table and the listing agent and the buyers agents help keep the buyer and seller on track to closing.

bad agent bad price...no sale
good agent bad price...no sale

good agent good price...sale

it is more than just price, but you cant get a good agent and go with a bad price or you get same result...


let me give just 1 of many, many, many....

i dont take photos.....im an agent, not a professional photographer....why would i be cheap to save 50 bucks.....hire a profesisonal and get the best photos of the property...now apply that same principal to each and every aspect of the business that you can...that is how we operate....

here is just one more...

i run my business....i have a listing agnet...a buyer agnet and an admin........what happens when an individual agent is on an appointemtn with a buyer? what happens while an individual agnet is on an apponitment with a seller????? ill tell you, the rest of their business gets neglected.........in any 1 hour of the day, i can accomplish 4 hours worth of work....an individiual cannot compete with taht....as a person can only be in 1 place at one time....

right now, my buyer agent is on showings, my admin is preparing an offer in docusign to send to my sellers for sigs, my listing agent is removing a lockbox from a proeprty and then going to a listing appt ....i am taking a break to type on here and im also working through crunching through leads, managing the team and taking care of the sales and marketing.......

1 person cannot do what 4 can do....simple...

those are just a few points in regards to why im better than the other agnets im interviewing against.....i still cannot sell a home for higher than a buyer would be willing to pay or an appriaser would be willing to appriase......cant happen.....if it does, you get a two suitcase buyer (<<search that to see what a two suitcase buyer is).....

ti comes down to many factors, but if price is off, none of the rest matter.....if the price is off, you have an agent with no integrety or a seller who needs to be told the price needs to mvoe down...if they dont mvoe the price down, the agent needs to continue to let the seller what is needed to be done until the seller moves it down or fires hte agnet for telling the truth....

gkg03: I would take you more seriously IF you hung out here for awhile & posted in various threads across this board . . . so we could all get to know you a little bit at least. THEN if you started in with a "Let Me Tell You What I've Learned..." type of thread, I'd probably read it.

As it is, I don't know you, and you posted a big long thread that looks like a bunch of hype, so I say "TL; DR" and then I read what posters I know, like Kjmendy and estatereal, have to say about the OP. And now, in looking back, I see that you've already got your feelings hurt so you're telling us, huffily, that you're leaving us. I bet you'll come back & read long enough to see if anyone asks you to stay, lol.

Well, heh, you can't be the new kid on the block & come on to us like a load of bricks falling out of the sky. Most of us have been in business for a few to several years: we've heard it all before. Some of it works in our market or at our company; some of it doesn't.

So don't go away, stick around & get to know us ... and let us get to know you. We might all learn something from each other.

Although I just passed my state test (yea me) my perspective comes from that of a shopper. I will be buying a home in the next few months so I am not just kicking tires.

Yes, I shop price first. I have a budget I need to follow. I have looked at enough listings within my budget to know what to expect. Properties listed at the high end of my budget that should be selling for a lower price need to have that "something extra" that speaks to me personally before I decide to take on the extra work needed to buy that specific property for market value. If the overpriced property is nothing special to me then I more than likely will concentrate on other properties.

Next I shop photos. This is just as important as price. When I look at a property I want to see, at the minimum, an outside view, a kitchen view, and a bathroom view. An overpriced property with good photos might tempt me to bite whereas a property priced at market value with no photos might cause me to move on. Rational and sensible? Probably not, but it is human nature. Yes, photos can be deceptive. But a good photo of a bad property will cause more action than no photo of a similar property. Also, you get no points for giving it the old college try. Blurry camera-phone photos should never be used. Is that the first impression you really want to make?

Next I read the information. It tells me a lot about the selling agent. You don't need to be Ernest Hemingway but you need to check your spelling and be reasonable. If you can't list basic room sizes and you have only one photo and you misspell something I can only conclude that you are not that interested in selling that property. That makes me not that interested in buying that property or dealing with you.

You have a better probability of securing my business by doing a few basic things that will catch my attention. Of course now I will probably buy an overpriced property with no photos from a lazy lister. :)

will you represent yourself or use another agent?

I have always used another agent, my wife.

Thank you for all the secrets, it could have saved me a week or two if I had been exposed to such vital secrets my first day in the business. Give specifics, real specifics, not barely touch on a subjects generalities. Now days the carrot and the stick are king plus the bones we get never have any meat on them.

Or stay tuned for my new book, the secret of the secrets, and how to become rich by finding out the secrets. Based upon recently released KGB and CIA files given to me exclusively. I only had 10 copies printed so bidding will start today at only $1,000.

OK, having a grouchy day, time to hit the golf course and take a time out.

I multi-task.