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Why Search for a Realtor,
Anyway?
page two
Why
Listing Agents Advertise - Is it What You Think?
Listing
agents place ads for several reasons. First, they need to
show the seller that they are doing something to sell
their home. Second, by showing how much they advertise,
they can also attract other individuals who are thinking
of selling their homes.
They point
to their ads to show their clients that they are aggressively marketing the
property. When other home sellers constantly see ads from a particular
Realtor, they are inclined to want to list with that Realtor, too. So even
though the ads look like they are directed toward home buyers,
they often have another purpose. To attract home sellers.
What
sellers don’t realize is that a listing agent’s true marketing emphasis is directed toward other Realtors, not the general public.
Their main goal is to convince the selling agents (buyer's agents) to find buyers and
make offers. This is a good thing because if you are selling a
home, you want as many Realtors as possible bringing buyers around to take a
look. Most of a listing agent's marketing efforts toward other
Realtors are invisible to the general public, but it is where an effective
listing agent does a home seller the most good.
Selling
agents (buyer's agents) do advertise homes for sale in order to attract
buyers. Although the ads do market a specific property, they are mostly
intended to attract buyers in general -- not a buyer for
that specific property. The agent would be happy if
you did buy the property you called on, but it happens so
rarely that they do not expect it.
What
happens when you call on a real estate ad is that you
often schedule an
appointment to go look at the advertised home. While you are out looking at that home, you will
probably want to look at others -- so the agent will show you a few other
homes, too. Eventually, you and the Realtor will zero in
on what you need and like in the proper price range and you will make an offer.
That is how
most buyers find their Realtor -- by "accident."
copyright 1999 by Terry
Light and RealEstate ABC, revised 2002
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