Category: 12. Marketing the Listing

Too many REALTORS® spend too much time chasing crappy leads and too little time delivering outstanding service to their clients. Unfortunately, some agents never learn this simple truth:

Your old clients are BY FAR the best source of new clients!

This is, in fact, the entire ideology behind the Agent Skills Masters Program.

Since I started Agent Skills, I’ve purposely slowed down my real estate career, but back when I was earning $800K+ yearly, almost all my business came directly from past clients referring me to their family and friends.

Isn’t that what we all want?

Of course! But it doesn’t happen by fluke. 

You have to have the mindset that you want to be the best at what you do, and be willing to put in the time and effort required.

This business is so much more rewarding (personally and financially) when you spend your time BEING a great agent rather than CHASING crappy leads.

One of the ways I consistently outshine my competitors is by producing compelling MLS Presentations. You know, the thing that actually works to generate more showings?

There are two primary components to your MLS Presentation.

The first is the quality and presentation of the images.

1. Is your photographer merely good? If so, understand that you are a reflection of the other professionals you surround yourself with. Being merely good doesn’t win many referrals. Therefore, always be on the lookout for a better photographer! If they charge a few bucks more, consider it a cheap investment (in your reputation).

(It boggles my mind how agents will spend thousands of dollars on questionable marketing schemes but then refuse to pay an extra $50 for a better photographer.)

2. Spend more time choosing the best images for your presentation, the ones that are most likely to generate showings. Eliminate any that aren’t. 25 great images will make a more powerful statement than those same 25 plus another 25 mediocre ones. Less is more.

The second major component of your MLS Presentation is the Ad Copy.

First, since it’s all the rage, let’s talk about ChatGPT. 

Hey, it works! But the output is only as good as the input. So if you can write an exceptional prompt for ChatGPT, you can also produce better Ad Copy on your own, and it will be more real in my opinion.

This is because, whether it’s another human or AI who writes your Ad Copy, they’ve never been in the property! You have. 

I can produce better Ad Copy for my listings compared to ChatGPT. However, this doesn’t preclude you using ChatGPT to edit and improve the flow of your copy if you want to.

But first, try to write the best copy you can on your own utilizing the following tips:

3. Spend some time seriously thinking about the property’s best features from your target buyers’ perspective, write them down in point form, then try to include them all in the first one or two sentences. Remember, it’s the most important features that potential buyers want to know! The reader likely has a short attention span and probably won’t read your entire Ad Copy, so put the good stuff first!

4. Selling a home is a multi-stage process, and the first step is getting interested buyers to physically view the property. Concentrate on creating excitement and curiosity instead of trying to describe every tiny inconsequential detail. A short, powerful presentation is far more effective than a long, boring one.

5. Use a writing assistant like Grammarly – I’ve been using this program for years on everything I write, including this post! It’s awesome!

6. Practice! Dedicate some time to nurturing your inner writer. I can write great Ad Copy for a listing in 10-15 minutes, but it used to take me an hour or longer. So don’t worry if it takes you a long time at first. You’ll get faster and faster as you improve your skills.

The main point of this article is that producing a compelling MLS presentation is a vital part of your job. And when you get really good at it, you’ll be surprised how quickly the word gets around. People notice.

Why? Because most of your competitors are terrible writers. You’re in a profession where it’s relatively simple to differentiate yourself as a Pro if you’re willing to put in a little extra effort.

“So, what exactly are you doing to market my property?”

The implication is that you’re doing diddly-squat. But this question isn’t really about marketing. It’s about a lack of communication.

Here’s my translation of the dreaded question:

“What exactly do you do all day, anyway?”

Think about it. You hire someone to perform an important job, and then you never hear from them. What would you think? 

That said, the truth is that marketing beyond the MLS System is mostly what I call ‘fake marketing.’ It’s designed to appease your sellers but not actually doing a darn thing to help them. 

For example, you promote your listings on Facebook. Big deal. I mean, who goes to Facebook (rather than the MLS System) to look for a new home?

There’s a big difference between Marketing the Listing and Marketing Yourself. That’s why there are two separate modules in the Agent Skills Master’s Program for these skills (modules 12 and 13).

To be clear, there’s nothing wrong with Marketing Yourself on Facebook. You absolutely should do this! Let’s just be honest about why you’re doing it.

Virtually 100% of the potential buyers for your listing will find out about it through the MLS System.

That’s exactly what I tell my sellers during my listing presentation and why 100% of my marketing focus is on producing the most powerful, compelling MLS presentation possible.

If you do a great job advising your clients how to prepare their home for listing, provide the correct information to guide them to the right list price, and you produce a powerful and compelling MLS presentation, 99% of your marketing work is done. What else are you supposed to do? 

Stand on the corner with a twirly sign?

However, your job as a professional real estate agent involves far more than “marketing properties.” For example, do you have a clear-cut strategy on how to communicate with your clients regularly so they know exactly what is going on at all times?

When you do this, your clients feel cared for, and they’re far less likely to wonder what it is you do all day.

Making up stories about what you’re doing to “market the property” is a waste of time. Instead, learn how to keep your clients informed to make them feel more involved and part of the process.

Hot tip: Your focus should NOT be completing one transaction at a time. Rather, it should be to create a never-ending stream of incoming referrals. The first step to achieving this is to dramatically improve your communication skills.

Remember, marketing is only part of your job. If you want to build a sustainable business with a never-ending stream of incoming referrals, your communication plan is even more important than your marketing plan.

What’s your communication strategy?

And, more importantly, what is the exact system you will employ to ensure your strategy is implemented? If you don’t know, or you’re thinking, “I’ll figure that out later,” perhaps it’s time to stop thinking and start doing.

Are you sick of reading boring MLS descriptions? Me too! 

In fact, if the Lizard People from Xenon captured me and wanted to know all my secrets, they could simply pry my eyelids open and force me to read MLS descriptions all day. I’d spill my guts in less than ten minutes.

It seems to me that almost all MLS descriptions are painfully boring, don’t you think? But, do you know what’s even worse than boring, repetitive MLS descriptions? Those written by agents who secretly want to be novelists. 

“The majestic front door swings open with authority, securely supported by four over-sized oil-rubbed bronze hinges. As you step into the foyer, you are awestruck by the soaring ceilings and magnificent chandelier, impossibly suspended high overhead, simultaneously both grand and ornate. Your heart swells as memories of that bygone Tuscan villa come rushing back.” 

Sorry, but nobody wants to read that in an MLS description. Perhaps in a novel, late at night, in a bubble bath, with a glass of Brunello.

No, I changed my mind. Not even then.

So, what makes a great MLS description?

Imagine the potential buyer of your listing flipping through many different properties on the Internet. They’re looking at the images first, and then deciding if it’s worth the pain to read the description.

And what is the purpose of reading the description? Is it to decide if they want to write an offer?

Of course not. They’re simply deciding whether they want to book a showing, or not.

The sole purpose of your MLS presentation is to generate as many high-quality showings as possible.  

Now, imagine that your potential buyer—the one flipping through listings—has a short attention span. Why? Because practically all of us have short attention spans in today’s fast-paced, over-stimulated world. ‍♀️

It’s a mistake to describe every tiny, inconsequential detail of the property (things that have nothing to do with whether the reader books a showing or not). 

By including too much detail, you are actually diluting the impact of your presentation and reducing the likelihood of generating a showing.

When deciding to view (or not to view), the reader doesn’t care about tiny details. For now, what they want to know are the most important and best features of the property. Period.

So, tell them!

The most important part of the description

Try this exercise: Write a description of the property’s best features in a single sentence. Like this:

“Beautifully renovated throughout, including a spectacular designer new kitchen and spa-like luxurious ensuite, plus a triple-car garage, and backing onto a park!”

That’s your first and most important sentence. That one sentence contains 95% of what a potential buyer needs to know to decide on whether to view the property, or not.

But you don’t know which one of those features is most important to the reader. That’s why you need to ID (identify and divulge) the most important features, immediately. It’s crazy to wait until the end of the description to divulge a critically important feature.

I teach many other tips in “Marketing the Listing” to create a powerful and impactful MLS description, but getting straight to the point in the first sentence is the most important one.

Learning how to market your listings effectively is one way to create a raving fan base, and build a business that thrives on a never-ending stream of incoming referrals. This is the foundational doctrine of the Agent Skills Master’s Program.

This article was inspired by module #12 – Marketing the Listing – part of the Agent Skills Master’s Program. 

In ‘Marketing the Listing,’ I explain step-by-step how to consistently produce the most compelling MLS presentation possible, ensure your listings stand out from the crowd, attract the most attention from buyers, and thoroughly impress your clients. It’s not WHAT you do. It’s HOW you do it.

Here’s another article inspired by the same module: The #1 Most Important Marketing Tool

Have you ever lost a listing to another agent and then looked at their MLS presentation and realized how awful it was?

I have. I still have nightmares.

The pictures were horrid, the grammar and spelling were abominable.

Worst of all, the information was randomly spewed, with no apparent concern for what was critically important or meaningless drivel. 

——————–

Yeah, but…

“Anyone can post your listing on the MLS, right?”

Yes. Also, anyone can cut their own hair. 

Let’s take a step back and ask a fundamental question:

How important is the MLS presentation, anyway?

Answer: It’s the SOURCE of information for 99% of your potential buyers. Therefore…

It is BY FAR the most important marketing tool we have.

Nothing else even comes close!

——————–

Ever since losing that listing, I kicked myself in the butt and upped my game.

I modified my listing presentation and started speaking very specifically about our most powerful marketing tool, the MLS System.

I explained how Real Estate really works from the buyer’s perspective, how they search for listings, and what triggers the decision to view a property (or not).

I talked about the quality and order of the images, how I decide which images to use, and which images NOT to use. How my write-up is purposely designed to focus on the best features first and numerous other ‘buyer psychology’ strategies.

I demonstrated to my potential listing client exactly WHY my listing presentations were far more effective than my competitors.

And I never lost a listing I wanted, ever again.

——————–

The other day, someone posted on a local FB group, “Who has the best price for professional photography?”

I shook my head.

You’re more concerned about ‘spending the least’ as opposed to ‘getting the best’?

Guaranteed this same agent is the one who complains all the time when his clients ask to lower his commission.

My clients NEVER asked me to lower my commission, and I NEVER lost a listing I wanted once I learned how to demonstrate exactly WHY I was the best.

The trick is to actually BE the best, which is not as hard as you might think.

It’s mostly about choosing the right attitude and having a willingness to learn.

I never understood why other agents wanted to have a massive “inventory.”

They would beam with pride as they showed me their giant whiteboards full of listings, and I’d think to myself:

“What a nightmare.”

I’d have to resist blurting out, “Wow! That’s quite a list of failures!”

Even when I was selling over a hundred properties a year (as an individual agent), I very rarely had more than 5-6 listings at a time. Here’s why:

I did the work up-front to ensure every listing sold quickly, for the highest possible price, with the least amount of hassle. 

Yes, I took advantage of the Flurry of Activity by pricing my listings correctly, as discussed last week in The Perception of Value.

But that’s not the ONLY thing I did. Not by a long shot.

The most important service I offered to every listing client was a complimentary home staging consultation with my Super-Star Staging Consultant – Angela.

We’re NOT talking about complete home staging. That’s different. A staging consultation is about utilizing the clients’ existing furniture and artwork.

But here’s the real “secret” of having a skilled home staging consultant on your team: About 5% of the work is rearranging furniture and artwork, and 95% is about cleaning, tidying, and decluttering.

Angela was a star at tactfully getting sellers to view their home through the eyes of potential buyers.  She would typically spend about an hour with them, walking through the house, and giving them a list of tasks.

The sellers would dutifully take notes , and then they’d do ALL the work after she left. Sometimes this would take several days, but by the time they were done, their homes were completely transformed!

Perhaps you think that you can do this consultation work yourself to save a few bucks?

Yeah, I could have done that, too. But I didn’t because I recognized two things:

1. The added value of having specialist experts on my team, and;
2. The value of MY time.

If you always try to do everything yourself, you’ll never be as successful as you could be. You hire professionals for other tasks, right?

Is it an added expense?

No. I prefer the word “investment” to “expense.” I’d rather invest a tiny bit more and sell twice as much as the guy with the giant whiteboard.

Your Consultant needs to be a talented staging professional, but more importantly, they need to be extremely tactful about how they instruct people to tidy and declutter. A true professional can do this without offending anyone, and quite honestly, it shouldn’t be you.

I suggest you start the interview process as soon as possible.

This is the third article in a trilogy.  Click here to see Marketing on the MLS and Marketing the Images.

Let’s pick up where we left off last week.  You’ve captured the attention of that elusive buyer—the one with the short attention span—with your incredible images produced by your celebrity photographer.

You had to do that first because NOBODY is going to read your words if they aren’t first attracted to the images. Great photography is step #1 in the multi-stage process of selling your listing.

Step #2 is enticing the potential buyer to view the property in person, with your words. Now, let’s be clear about a critical point before we go any further.

The purpose of the MLS description is to generate as many quality showings as possible—NOT to sell the property.

You don’t propose marriage on the first date, and contrary to popular opinion—you’re NOT supposed to try to SELL the home with your write-up!  NOBODY is going to buy your listing without first physically viewing the property.

Here are some of the biggest mistakes I see in the painfully boring MLS write-ups I see every day:

1. The agent tries to describe every tiny detail of the property, but tiny details that make no difference to the reader’s decision on whether they will book a showing or not.

2. The agent fancies themself as a novelist, and tries to write flowery phrases in an attempt to “paint a picture” of “how it will feel” to live in this “fanciful abode.”  Barf.

3. The agent uses so many clichés and standard phrases that the home sounds exactly like every other home.

Do you know what buyers (with short attention spans) want to know when they’re reading listing descriptions?

What are the best features of the property? Period. That’s it. That’s all.

If you can fit all the best features of the property into a single sentence, that should be the first sentence in your description! If you need to use two sentences to make it sound good, that’s fine.

The point is that the first sentence is the most important one; the second sentence is the second most important, etc. By the time you get to the last sentence in a long description, you should probably assume that nobody’s going to read it.

Less is more! A short, punchy description is FAR more powerful than a long, boring one.

The next time you write a listing description, as an exercise, try including all the best features in a single sentence. If it sounds good, use it! The rest of your description can reinforce the first sentence, while also including less essential features. But keep your description short and powerful! Leave out all the tiny details and avoid flowery words.

Remember, your purpose is to generate as many quality showings as possible. So, tell people what they need to know to decide whether they want to see the property or not.

When you explain how this works to your potential sellers, guess what? They get it! The following is copied from last week’s Memo because it’s so important to remember:

Describe the psychology behind why you do what you do! Talk about the buyer with the short attention span. When you speak to potential sellers in this way, you build trust and rapport. This goes for your entire presentation, by the way, not just the writing part.

Do you know how many REALTORS® even talk about this stuff in their listing presentation? Practically none. And yet, when you do talk about it, and you back up your words with actual examples from your listings, it can have a massive impact on potential sellers.

The words you use are an essential part of your image. Start using them better!