Back HomeIs Your Real Estate Agent Really Working For You?
February 5th, 2015 by keithandkinsey
I often get frustrated with the way a large portion of our industry works. When you look at the way many real estate agents do marketing, you’ll notice that much of the marketing is agent focused rather than property focused. At the last brokerage we worked at before starting Great Rock Realty, most of the training was focused on agents marketing themselves and capturing leads. Have you noticed any of the following things while searching for a house?
- You look at an agent’s website or see an ad for a property, but there is no address listed for the property. You have to fill out a form on an agent’s website in order to get the address, but this allows the agent to capture your information so they can market their services to you.
- You see a sign rider that says “Text for more info”. So, you text, and you get back some minimal info on the property. However, again the agent captures your information and they try to land you as a client rather than sell the property to you.
- You call a listing agent to see one of their listings, but they want to talk you into a buyer’s agency agreement before they show you the property.
There are many other situations like this that arise. In my opinion these tactics are meant for agents to land more clients and market themselves. These strategies are not in the best interest of the seller that the agents are working for. Of course we are all in business for ourselves and we want to land more clients. However, as a listing agent, we should be getting as much information as possible out there about a property for sale. We should make that information as easily accessible as possible. We should be focused on providing great service to our client and marketing our client’s house rather than selling our services. I believe that great service is the best lead generation for agents, because great service brings lots of referrals.
Before you sign a listing contract, drill your agent with questions about how they do their marketing and if they use these self-marketing strategies. Make sure your agent is providing easy access to your home’s information and working in your best interest in the way they market your house.
