If you’re selling a home in Sequim or Port Angeles, effectively advertising your home is critical to success. I find it fascinating that so little is known about traditional advertising and it’s effectiveness, or ineffectivenss. It’s one of those huge subjects that is hardly given any attention. I have written several articles addressing this topic, but there’s an interesting little blog post written by a Realtor. I can’t link to his post here, because it is part of a “Members Only” section for professional Realtors. Here are a few snippets from his post and the comments:
I am constantly getting emails, telephone calls, and letters from our local newspaper to advertise in the Sunday Real Estate section. They even send me of “specials” to run an ad for a listing and get my open house published too. Give me one reason why spending $75 for an advertisement that is available to the public for only one day is better than spending that money on so many other different advertising spectrums. I currently have 16 listings. For me to advertise all of my listings for one month in the newspaper it would cost me close to $4,800!
Do you not know what I could do with $4,800 a month in other advertising? Better yet, have you not seen that the real estate market is not going strong like it was 2 years ago? I don’t have that kind of money laying around to blow on wasted advertising like that.
And a few comments:
I could not agree with you more! I have taken all of my print advertising and move to more internet advertising.
Well said. I think newspaper ads are a waste of money. Maybe they were good years ago, but not now, this is the Internet highway.
Jeremy- I am so totally in agreement with you. In our small town the only ones who look at the newspaper are the other agents (don’t ask me why) and the sellers. I feel it is a huge waste of advertising $$. We run a small ad that says go to our website and see all of our listings in full color and multiple pics! Even that ad costs too much in my opinion!
Jeremy, I always DREAD the “why aren’t you advertising in the newspaper” conversation. YUCK! I do a Sunday ad for my open house’s and that’s it….Right now, in my area, it is a necessary evil. I refuse to waste money on other print ads, however! So many of my co-workers still waste so much money on print, but get nothing in return.
Great way to make your point. I fully agree, and I wish I could say we were in full compliance. We have had a hard time convincing some of our listing clients that this is not useful or cost effective, but we are getting there. You have all heard the argument… so and so has a full page ad every Sunday, why don’t you? We have cut back our print advertising by 50-70% this year and are working towards none. It’s getting easier as we get better at explaining where our money goes to benefit them the most and why they really don’t need it!
I use newspaper to advertise my open houses. It’s a requirement in my area. Other than that I don’t have any use for paper advertising any more.
And the last comment I’ll include is this one. It’s a little blunt, but let’s not be afraid to listen to what people have to say. This comment is from an experienced Realtor.
I couldn’t agree with you more. But…the major aspect of this industry is completely hypocritical when it comes to your point. All I have to do is open our Sunday paper and I see, in some cases, HUGE full page ads from every competitor…[franchises named here but deleted in this re-post]….FULL PAGE ADS. Color in many cases. We constantly get real estate magazines, weekly’s, etc…pitched at us from every angle…and CONSTANTLY people use them.
Ya know when I use them? When I’m sitting on the “thrown” at the office…after I am done, I toss them right into the trash.
I’m 34 years old and I will NEVER…EVER use a newspaper to buy or sell a home, personally. Forget it. Unless there is some sort of Internet Armageddon, it’s pointless to use newspapers. Why then are so many of the BIG companies still doing this nonsense?
I’ll tell ya why, it’s simply because the brokerages don’t have the balls to teach their agents how to SELL Internet Marketing to the SELLER. Agents should be well versed in proving to the client that newspaper ads are a waste of MONEY. . . Top it off with the fact that the minute the broker tries to convince them to give up newspapers and get on the Internet bandwagon of marketing, they throw two things in our face:
1. My SELLERS want it! XYZ Realty has 18 full pages ads and they advertise in the “Blah Blah Times” 4 times a week! If my seller can’t have that, they are going to XYZ!
2. The agents are too incompetent and have no desire to learn the new way of the world….ie., Internet Marketing.
Our company has literally about 5-10 agents who “get it”…..who truly understand the need. But, until our local market changes, until agents start to educate the consumer, and until the hypocrisy of the other brokers in our areas is removed…the push from newspapers will be ever present.
Wow. That last comment is a strong post, but I am a Realtor, and I need to hear what others are experiencing, so that I can come to my own conclusions as to what is best for my clients.
Last Updated on July 17, 2008 by Chuck Marunde
