But I’m a firm believer that you could generate more leads by managing an effective Craigslist advertising campaign. By effective I mean reposting on a frequent basis and optimizing ads to deliver leads.

I think a lot of agents don’t incorporate their primary marketing objective of driving leads into their online marketing plans. They get too caught up in traffic.

I am currently conducting a survey (only 5 questions) that will help quantify the effectiveness of Craigslist. Please participate in the survey by clicking the link below.

Survey: The Effectiveness of Real Estate Classified Ads on Craigslist

Postlets.com will publish your listing on several websites, including, but not limited to realtor.com, google, trulia…etc.

Does anyone know of any other sites / engines that will post listings on multiple sites?

Thanks,
Jodi Summers
http://www.santamonicapropertyblog.com/

I thought you did a great job in spelling out what agents do and what our cost are to market properties for our clients. I think many of the pulblic forget that we actually pay for many things when we market properties. Our marketing and expertise comes from years of knowing what to do and how to do it.

Joel, let me clarify what I meant by “staging” in my earlier comments. Staging is not just putting furniture in a home before it is listed. Staging involves an evaluation of the condition of the property well before it is listed. Recommendations are then made to a seller to before it is listed. Homes need to be in the best possible condition before going on the market. As Realtors, we know the competition, and we know what buyers expect. It is our obligation to tell sellers what needs to be done, so the home will sell in a reasonable time and for the seller to make the most amount of money. We tell our clients what needs to be done and what does NOT need to be done. We advise them to spend money that is only necessary to bring them the most money in a sale. Lat year, one client wanted to fix a large crack in the driveway before listing their home. It would have cost a few thousand dollars to redo the driveway.We advised them not to do so. It was a waste of money. However, we did advise them to put the money towards carpet replacement and countertops in bathrooms.

Here is more about what I mean with staging: My business partner and I are putting two properties on the market in Kirkland in September. One of the sellers is already out of the area. Angie, my business partner, and I have made about 10 visits to one of the homes and about 4 to the other, all in the last two weeks. We have met no less than 6 painters, 3 garage door people, one carpet person, and a general contractor. WHY? Because we recognize the costs involved and want to find good people who will do the work for the best price. Our first painter contact charged $6,000 more than the painter who ultimately won the job. A new garage door will be installed for $1000 less than the original bid. We want to get the seller the best values. We are saving the seller $7000 by having the work done for less money than if we had gone with the first bids. The buyers who buy on the Eastside are very busy people who do not have time to “fix” up homes when they buy. Couple that with increased competition on the market place, the homes that show the best sell for the most. Pretty simple.

So when I talk about staging it’s a lot more than putting furniture in a home. It’s often the process that helps a seller make the most money and not languish on the market.

It’s the same for me, but in reverse: we get a lot of emails from new or unqualified agents asking to work with our clients. We recommend agents we have personally interviewed – that means me or my co-founder Doug. We ask things like how many homes / condos do they sell in an area every year, what’s their approach to working with clients, who do they like working with. Recommendations for agents come from all over – my favorites are from people who are using our site who can’t say enough great things about their agents. Can’t beat that!

We ask for less than the industry standard for referral fees and we don’t have any signup or monthly fees, so nearly every agent we’ve invited to work with us has signed on. We don’t have a sales person because we don’t need one. Great agents like working with our clients, so we have no churn.