When a house isn't selling as fast as the seller wants, they often ask listing agents to spend more money on advertising. And if the seller is under pressure they can be down right demanding!

That triggers calls to me. "Jasen, can you help me come up with ways to advertise this house so it sells faster?!"

Creative advertising in general? I'm all in!

Advertising to sell the house? Absolutely not!

That's because advertising doesn't sell houses. Houses sell houses.

If you're going to spend any of your hard-earned money on advertising, I think you should understand why.

When I got my license in the early 1990s, people were thrilled when a listing sold within 90 days. Now, because we've been in a strong seller's market for so long, I've seen people panic when offers haven't been submitted within the first 90 minutes! How's that for perspective?

So here's the tricky part about real estate advertising: homeowners will always think you are running ad campaigns specifically to sell their house. And in the aggregate, you are. But as a business owner, you have to understand that every add you run - including those for other listings and even ads which have no listings mentioned at all - are there to sell any and all listings in your inventory. How many times does a buyer purchase the house they initially inquire about anyway? Almost never!

You can tell an agent doesn't understand this concept when they advertise only when they have a listing to promote, promptly stopping ads upon closing. This start and stop approach is harmful because advertising doesn't create demand; it attracts the demand already in the market. 

BMW knows that in any given month, only so many people are going to be in the market for a new car and choose to buy one of theirs. So instead of running ads to sell one specific VIN number, they consistently execute on an advertising strategy that uses all of their inventory to attract as much of the market as possible. BMW understands that a commercial for a 5 series sedan is likely to catch the eye of someone interested in a 3 series convertible - as long as they are currently in the market for a car. And sometimes they run pure brand ads that don't mention any of their cars. Still, if you're in the market, mission accomplished.

Successful real estate agents and teams understand housing works the same way. The job is to generate leads every day and advertising helps do that. So when they advertising listings, they do so as part of a thought out, consistent advertising strategy. Then, that consistency allows them to demonstrate to each seller client that every ad placed is essentially an ad for their house. 

Your advertising campaigns should take some of the pressure off of you to throw extra money out the window  on a listing that's overpriced. If only because as a professional, you will be confident that you are doing a good job for all of your clients. 

From there, when the seller wants their home sold faster you can focus them on the one solution: lowering the price.  😉