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Posts Tagged with real estate advertising

Posted by admin on 2 September 2010

Professional photographers can transform a building

If you believe the marketing gurus, more and more advertising messages are being consumed through images and video. No wonder, with the deluge of sales pitches we all endure almost every hour of the day no-one has the attention span left to read. So the importance of photos in real estate marketing is becoming more critical than ever.

When realestate.com.au surveyed 1000 people on their site the number 2 gripe about agents’ ads was the photos (number 1 was “no price”). Buyers are trolling through dozens of possible search results and if you don’t stand out with a high quality hero pic you won’t get that all important click-through. And almost three quarters of those survey respondents want more than 5 photos once they view the ad. So your sales agent is not doing their job if

they haven’t asked you to fund a professional photo shoot, and have at least 10 sharp, well executed images on your web ad. The choice of shot for your classified and newspaper display ads is similarly critical.

Not every home is straight from the pages of Vogue Magazine. Dark rooms, overcrowded or dated furniture and limited street appeal can all make a photo shoot challenging. But a professional with the right camera gear can make a huge difference to the result. Even without full staging or de-clutteringthey can move the odd item around to really improve the visual appeal (like taking the magnets off fridges!)

And if you think limiting the pics to a smaller number will get the curious buyer to come along to the open home anyway, in our experience you’re likely to be disappointed. They have choices, they have limited time on a Saturday and they want to be pretty sure the home’s close to fitting the bill before they’ll leave the comfort of their lounge room.

Have another browse through the portals and see how many badly photographed homes are on there. Blurry, crooked, badly framed, unwitting self-portraits in mirrors, pools full of leaves, toilet seats up and breakfast plates on kitchen benches…. It’s time some agents and their seller clients got serious about marketing real estate.

Please share the shocker ads you’ve seen!

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Posted in Brisbane's sales market, real estate marketing | No Comments »

Posted by Rob Honeycombe on 11 May 2010

If you’re considering selling your property and are weighing up an auction or private treaty (a priced listing) consider this: Price may be your best feature. That’s not to say your property might not have many appealing qualities… but when we write up that ad it’s going to look and sound like a million dollars. Which can be a problem if you’re chasing $500,000!

A survey conducted by realestate.com.au found 92% of buyers would be unlikely to enquire about a property with no price indication. So if your place sits in a busy part of the market a private treaty with a good agent can get you a great price quicker than an auction. We’re not anti-auction, we do several each year, but in our view they’re over-used by many agents who jam their clients into a one-size-fits-all method.

An auction can be the perfect solution for properties that are out of the ordinary, likely to draw more emotional interest (eg Queenslanders) and those that are in scarce supply. But for many properties a listed price is the first drawcard for buyers.

With a price or without, one key to getting a great result is showing buyers you are a committed seller. Why? Well with access to so much info today they are cynical and won’t get off their couch on a Saturday unless they think you are a genuine seller. They’ve seen the rubbish that fills the online portals and know that some agents will list properties on the web for sellers that are still very much undecided as to whether they will sell.

Some agents leave expired listings on the web to continue drawing enquiry. Some agents will delete the address or leave the apartment number off. One we know used to completely fabricate ads. Shocked? Buyers aren’t because they’ve wasted their time on these before only to be met with some lame excuse about “admin problems”.

And this is one big reason why newspaper ads continue to draw strong buyer enquiry in this very digital age. Every one of those sellers has put their hand in their pocket for advertising costs and in doing so proven their commitment to selling.

Buyers are buying and where they sense competition many are paying good prices. But if you’re to create that high level of interest you need to first show the market you are doing more than testing the waters – regardless of your sale method.

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Posted in Brisbane's sales market, real estate marketing | No Comments »

Posted by Rob Honeycombe on 23 March 2010

Brisbane homeThe kitchen benchtop was red, the window frames were a metallic red, the tap handles were red, the curtains red and yes, even the toilet seat was red. This lady had a definite favourite colour!

Unfortunately we were trying to sell the house and despite a fair price and vigorous ad campaign no-one could see past the red. It was pretty much impossible to. And that’s why your selling agent or property manager will recommend “real estate beige” for your wall colours pre sale or leasing. It’s safe, it can be dressed up with darker and striking furnishings, it offends no-one and of course you can “move straight in” as the ads say.

But here’s the new twist.

White. The ceilings usually are, but now it’s the benches, the wall tiles, the vanities, the appliances, the curtains, the coffee table. Even the fluffy little almost-dog that’s lying in a corner (on a white rug). The white floor tiles are massive (who will win the ‘biggest tiles’ title and be done with it?) and have that impossible sheen to them.

Agents love these properties because they can use words like “crisp, canvas and clean-lined” in the same sentence. Their photos look like the pages of a designer magazine. And they don’t have to apologise for red toilet seats.

But is it just us or do you have trouble imagining yourself living in a home like that?

Of course plenty of good property advertising is about aspirational marketing, showing what life  can be like if you just buy this home. Couples start holding hands again, the man wears a tux and his wife looks longingly at him over the flute of impossibly expensive champagne. But we digress!

Home buyers do have a desire to live in a magically clean, clinical and ordered world. But what about some personality too? To me a favourite chair, even a slightly worn and out of fashion one, says “I like sitting here”. A rubble of toys (tidy!) says “This is a family home” and a sauce-spotted recipe book says “this is a kitchen where you’ll love cooking”.

One agent we know tells sellers to put away personal photos, trophies and similar so buyers can more easily picture themselves in the home. What rubbish.

Clean and tidy, yes. Uncluttered and with a sense of space, definitely. But for our money we say a home is a home. When you go to sell or rent your property don’t be afraid to show some of your personality.

Unless of course you love red…

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Posted in Brisbane landlords, architecture and renovation, real estate marketing | No Comments »

Posted by admin on 25 November 2009

We know that from January 1st every seller of a property in Queensland will have to fill in a 2 page Sustainability checklist.

We attended a Department information session today and one thing’s become very clear: this is a Government rush job of mammoth proportions!

On 3 fairly significant issues the Department couldn’t provide an answer – they still haven’t fully digested their own legislation. For example, they couldn’t tell the meeting if you need to mention the body corp pool when you sell your apartment. House yes, apartment “we’ll have to get back to you”.

A  building inspector spoke up to advise that his insurers can’t yet confirm if they’ll cover him for completing a Sus Dec. So his industry is not going to be an easy solution for completing the form, at least in the short term.

The Department did make one thing very clear though: if a seller is unsure about an item then they can leave it blank. When asked if that meant all boxes blank could still be a valid form the answer was yes.

There is to be no penalty relating to the form other than for failing to complete one prior to offering the property for sale. And even then we understand it will be up to local governments to enforce….

The Department say the form is to help buyers compare homes and weigh up their sustainability features. It’s an “education and marketing tool”.

And we agree with the sentiment behind that.

What a shame the government didn’t spend the time educating the marketplace and industry before rushing this in. The risk now is the Declaration will become a low-value sheet of process, most of them largely incomplete, and it will lose its real value.

Love to hear your comments.

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Posted in Brisbane's sales market, real estate marketing | 4 Comments »

Posted by Rob Honeycombe on 19 November 2009

selling houses in BrisbanePutting your place up for sale is about to get harder and will probably cost you more money, thanks to a new state government requirement.

In an “innovative and nation-leading sustainable housing policy” our Minister for Infrastructure and Planning has introduced a mandatory Sustainability Declaration. From January 1st 2010 every seller of a residential dwelling in Queensland will have to fill in a 2 page checklist.

But don’t worry, the Minister says it’s “simple” and “user-friendly”…. Have a look at the draft Sustainability Declaration for yourself.

I had a go at doing one for my house and completed just 13 of 31 questions.  I didn’t know if my shower heads were WELS 3 or WELS 4 rated. And I didn’t know what the “R-value” of my ceiling insulation would be either….

To be fair we agree there needs to be a bigger focus on energy use in existing housing. But these questions are going to take sellers some time and create another hurdle to selling.

You won’t be able to advertise your place for sale until you have a Sus Dec and your agents must display it at open homes and advertise to prospective buyers that it’s available. It looks like the penalty for not doing this will be $2000 for you and $10,000 for your agent…. so if you’re thinking of selling after Christmas you might need to read up on this.

We’re guessing that most sellers will pay a building inspector to complete the form, especially in Brisbane’s inner city where many homes are rented and their investor-owners barely know the property.

Will this create a new value and ‘point of difference’ for homes with extra features and bring a higher focus to sustainability? Maybe. But given the time/cost impost on sellers, and the very small percentage that will be fully completed, we’re not sure it’s a worthwhile change at all.

The government is not even going to collect the data. That might have been useful – they could target their campaigns/incentives at getting home owners to upgrade the items that really make a difference.

We’d be interested to hear your comments…

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Posted in Brisbane's sales market, property taxes and rates etc, real estate marketing | 3 Comments »

Posted by Rob Honeycombe on 9 June 2009

for saleOne symptom of every economic slowdown is a renewed focus on cost saving. And for those looking to save money selling their property we’re not surpised by the emergence of another Do It Yourself website, Buy My Place.com. This one is an online real estate advertising company, offering private sellers a way of accessing the online marketing world along with tools and technologies to sell their own property.

Some agents are horrified. We say, good on them.

This website charges less than $600 for some basic tools like a sign, web listing and “customer support”, another couple of thousand if you need them to help onsite. It’s heaps cheaper than using a real estate agent.

If an agent can’t add value to the transaction over and above their sign-erection skills, don’t use them! In fact, for much of what we do, you don’t really need to hire a real estate agent.

Of course we do have a bit more to add to this story! Let me ask this, “Do you cut your own hair”? Some things are best left to those who know what they’re doing. But if you get a shocker of a haircut you wouldn’t go back would you?

Buy My Place.com says one of the best reasons to sell your own is to remove the stress of “not ever really quite knowing who is actually saying what about your property”.  What an indictment on our industry that this is a very common complaint and we couldn’t agree more – if your real estate agent doesn’t give you regular and complete feedback from buyers you would be better off doing it yourself. Of course if the agent isn’t ringing the buyers back at all (and yes, that’s happening right now in Brisbane) it’s pretty hard for them to get any feedback.

The challenge for a DIY seller is that when they call a buyer back, they come across sounding desperate. An agent chasing a buyer is just doing their job. That buyer contact and negotiation, especially the sweet time after a written offer’s received, is when a real estate agent should really earn their fee. That’s the true skill-set of a great agent.

The website says if you do decide to use an agent to sell for you, appoint them for the minimum of 30 days. We’d suggest that’s too risky and you should be able to sack your agent immediately and at any time. (Sellers with Bees Nees all have a ‘love us or sack us’ guarantee).

If those hairdresser’s scissors were out of control you’d jump from their chair pretty quickly wouldn’t you?!

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Posted in real estate marketing, trends in Brisbane property | No Comments »

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