Where do brokers advertise and WHY?

Sellers love to see their home advertised because, of course, exposure - along with proper pricing - is how houses are sold.  But modern technology has changed the importance of WHERE a property is promoted. When you get right down to it, the Multiple Listing Service is all the advertising any home needs.  That's because the real estate community - the members of the MLS - ARE the market place and because sellers usually pay the same commission regardless of WHO sells the property.  (But not at Help-U-Sell)

Now once the home is entered into the Multiple Listing Service, the MLS syndicates it out to up to 75 websites like Realtor.com, Trullia, Zillow, etc.  This is automatic by the MLS and NOT by the broker.  And if they property is sold by another broker the listing broker has to split the commission.  Darn!

Even if the listing broker NEVER uses print ads a properly price home will sell.  So why do brokers still use print ads?  There are 4 prominent reasons:

1.)  To keep the seller happy.  As stated above, sellers love to see print ads although they play a minuscule role in the sale.

2.)  To make the phone ring.  When a potential buyer calls in a great contact is made and brokers skillfully train agents on desk duty to tell the buyer about all similar houses.  When advertising a seller's house, the broker is essentially advertising all similar houses.  So that phone ringing is music to their ears.

3.)  To attract listings.  All ads must have the brokers contact information in them so even if an agent pays for the ad themselves, they are still promoting the brokerage.  Brokers LOVE that!

4.)  And the grand daddy of them all ----- TO RECRUIT!   Bringing in new fresh blood is the life line of most real estate offices (other than Help-U-Sell) since over 80% will be gone in a year or two.  (More later.  This will be a whole new post)

So, as mentioned above, print ads do very little for the seller but plenty for the broker.   And guess who pays?  Yup - the seller.  Think about this.  Successful sellers not only pay for their own marketing expenses but for the unsuccessful sellers too.  Kind of like welfare!  We all love welfare, right?

Ok, we do some advertising too - for the same reasons stated above.  But not nearly as much because the Help-U-Sell system is designed to maximize efficiency and pass the savings on to the seller.  That's what we deliver -  EFFICIENCY, EFFECTIVENESS and VALUE!!