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Keller Williams Realty continues to grow in San Antonio because of it’s agent-centric culture, which emphasizes access to leading-edge education and promotes an economic model that rewards associates for the company’s overall perfromance.

Our company has caught the attention of many, including a crop of Standford and Yale MBAs.  A recent case study by the prestigious universities is now part of the MBA curriculum at both schools.  If you’d like to read more about the Keller Williams Case Study, you can do so here.

As Agents, we’re proud to be members of Keller Williams Realty.  Having worked at other San Antonio brokerages, we’ve seen the value that the Keller Williams culture provides.  We’ve found help from people at every level in the company, and we give back by providing assistance to our fellow Agents whenever we can–it is truly a phenomenal organization to be a part of!

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Two Main Approaches

The two main approaches are similar to those taken when marketing to Agents. You need to have great passive marketing, which will get the attention of potential homebuyers. Once you have their attention, you need to engage them through interactive marketing.

Types of Passive Marketing:

• Flyers
• Signage
• Videos
• MLS feeds

Types of Interactive Marketing:

• Web Sites

• Floor Plans

• Virtual Tours

Passive Marketing: Flyers

Flyers are an extremely basic form of advertisement, but they shouldn’t be disregarded or treated lightly. A well-designed flyer can serve a few different ends. For example, by placing a high-quality descriptive flyer in flyer box, people who grab one from the side of the road will get a good idea of what the home really has to offer, instead of just learning that it is for sale. Similarly, homebuyers who tour that home can take one with them to remind them of the home’s main features. Without a good flyer, the home will blend together with the rest of the homes they may have visited that day. It’s important that your flyer is customized to your home. People can see right through a template, so you don’t really benefit from printing off a canned-flyer. Any home worth visiting deserves a decent flyer.

Here is a quick example of the type of flyers you’re likely to see. We already covered this in the first marketing post, so I’m not going to talk about it, but you know you shouldn’t settle for this form of “marketing”.

Here is an example of a flyer that we made for a home in the Pinnacle here in San Antonio—it is compressed so you can see both sides. You’ll notice that the front shows and explains the benefits of the home—it is primarily narrative and pictures. You also see that the back of the flyer has the basics covered: you have the major features listed, as well as the price. For this particular home, we decided to highlight the building materials, as well as giving some background on the Builder. You’ll see that I also have information about myself, since it is necessary to provide contact information, but my information is definitely not the centerpiece of this flyer.

Passive Marketing: Real Estate Signage

Next we’ll talk about signage, specifically, I’m talking about the signs which you put in your front yard. Although each company has it’s own identity standards for signage, you should still discuss the idea of getting a sign custom-made for your home. If your REALTOR is receptive, they will try to do this for you instead of just saying no, and hiding behind “company policy”. At a bare minimum, the signage should have riders, or some type of information about your home. Ideally it will also guide people towards the interactive marketing mediums that you should have in place for your home.

Here we have 2 examples of possible real estate signage. The first is the kind you’re likely to see. You’ll notice that you have the company information, as well as the “For Sale” proclamation. You also have information about the Agent, as well as several ways to contact that Agent. Again, we talked about this in the first Marketing video, so I’ll move on. Here you have a different approach to the yard sign. You’ll notice that you still have the company information, you still have a contact phone number, but they are not the highlights of the sign. On this sign you actually have narrative about the home, and in big letters we advertise an interactive marketing medium—the home’s own personal website. It also highlight a few of the main point of the home: in this case, you see a beautiful eat-in kitchen, you see decks, and you see the water, all of which make this home appealing to someone looking for a waterfront home under half a million dollars. The narrative and pictures are intended to stop traffic—you want people to stop to look at your house—that’s why you market your home. With a normal sign, people have no reason to stop since the sign provides no information on the property.

Passive Marketing: Videos

Video marketing for homes is still in its infancy, but there are lots of way to market a home through video. We personally like have two types of videos. One is to create a short photo montage of the home, which can be linked to the MLS and distributed via e-mail. The second is a little more complicated and required full-motion video, audio, etc. It is essentially a commercial for the home. That commercial can be distributed via a web link, or can be put onto DVD, or other mediums. It’s also good to include footage of the neighborhood when possible, and if the home is historic or brand new, it’s nice to include a history of the home, or an interview with the Builder. Here’s an example of a video that we made for one of our Clients.

Passive: MLS Feeds

The key to marketing via the MLS is to enter the correct information into all the categories. That seems trivial, but it is very common to find mistakes in the listings. By having good MLS information and copy, you ensure that real estate websites that pull information from the MLS, such as REALTOR.com, SABOR.com, etc, will serve as effective marketing channels for your home. We discussed this in a previous post, so I’ll move on.

Interactive Marketing: Custom Websites

Custom websites are a very innovate and information marketing service that few Agents provide. I will cover this topic in more detail in our online marketing post, but I will say that your custom website needs to be the definitive source for all information and marketing materials related to your home. To see an example, you can visit the website of one our listings at: www.22319Lavaca.com

Interactive Marketing: Interactive Floor Plans

Interactive floor plans are starting to become more common in some real estate markets around the country, although you don’t really see them much in San Antonio yet. The interactive floor plan is a great marketing tool because it shows you how the home is arranged. In my opinion, the information it provides is more valuable than any single picture. The way the floor plan works is that people can click on the little markers on the plan, and they’ll be able to see the picture taken from that marker. You can see a working example at one of our listings

Interactive Marketing: Virtual Tours

Virtual tours are a decent way to give a tour of the home. Typically they’re done with panning and zooming of still images. While this is a nice feature to have, I think that the use of interactive floor plans and full videos can do a better job of giving a prospective homebuyer a tour of the home. One good use of a virtual tour, however, is to take a virtual tour of the neighborhood. You can highlight other homes in the area, so that the prospective homebuyer can see the neighborhood virtually.

Conclusions

So to recap this topic: I hope you’ve learned that marketing needs to be targeted to your intended audience. There’s a world of resources out there, and you need to make the best use of them so that you can sell your home as quickly as possible, and for the best price.

The next post in the marketing series is about internet marketing and how it can be used to sell your home.

Thanks, and have a great day!

Tactic 1: MLS Presentation

Proper MLS presentation is important. REALTORs often look at several listings online in preparation for appointments with their Buyer-Clients. If the Listing Agent inputs poor directions, bad instructions, incoherent copy, etc, then there’s a chance the Buyer’s Agent will just look past the listing altogether. For example, if a Buyer’s Agent is busy running a search, and the Listing Agent forgot to include information such as the school, the square footage, or something else that might have seemed insignificant (but which was important criteria to the potential Buyer), then the Buyer’s Agent might skip that house. Buyer’s typically have a few key criteria they’re looking for: if you miss any of those critieria, you may have lost your Buyer.

Tactic 2: Realtor E-mail

Another way to get the attention of Buyer’s Agents is through e-mail. Creating customized e-mail lists is a great way to promote a listing, and it is something you rarely see out of Listing Agents. In the past year e-mail communications amongst REALTORS in San Antonio have increased dramatically, and I believe part of it was spurred by our aggressive use of e-mail, which we always use to advertise our Client’s listings. The way to use e-mail effectively is to cater the e-mail to the professionals most likely to act on it. For example, 285 Agents sold homes in Rogers Ranch between the summer of 2006 and the summer of 2007. 64 of them have sold more than 1. I know this because my e-mail database is ready to go—any listing of mine in Rogers Ranch will IMMEDIATELY get sent to those agents. Why does that matter? Because who do you think is more likely to find a Buyer for one of those houses? A brand new agent who works in Cibolo or Schertz? Probably not. By creating personalized e-mails to the Agents who work those areas, you can create a better response, and get targeted exposure to your listing.

Tactic 3: Broker Open Houses

Broker Open Houses are valuable because, again, they are targeted to those Agents who are most likely to sell a house in your neighborhood. It doesn’t make sense to have an Open House in a gated community such as Summerglen where people won’t be stumbling by randomly. In general, people looking for more expensive homes don’t do it blindly or alone—they’ll have an Agent working for them. So by hosting an Open House for the Agents who work in that area (who learn about the open house through those personalized e-mails), you can get more exposure to your home. Again, you want the Agents most likely to sell your home to come see it–there’s no sense in having an event for every agent in town if they’re just coming by to get some free lunch.

Tactic 4: Incentives

Incentives speak for themselves. If you offer someone something of value, you’re more likely to get their attention. If you offer incentives for the Buyer’s Agent, that can make a potential difference for your home. If two homes are priced the same and are otherwise very similar, the one that has incentives for the Agent might become more appealing–and the Agent might help the Buyers make their decision. I’m not saying that you need to provide additional incentives to sell a property, but, as you’ll see in a second, there are instances where it can come in handy.

So does this really make a difference?

Yes, and I’ll give you an example. We once listed a property for a former REALTOR. It was a small multi-family investment property here in San Antonio in an area full of properties for sale. She asked us to list it for X amount of dollars, and under certain conditions. We explained to her the downside of promoting her property in that fashion since there were many other nearly identical properties on the market for up to 10% less. She stuck to her guns and we respected her wishes and followed her plan. 30 days later, there was no activity on the listing. I called my Client and asked if I could change the marketing approach. She conceded. That day we changed the MLS presentation, we INCREASED the price of the building, we changed the incentive for the Agents, and we sent a highly-personalized e-mail to over 5,000 Agents in San Antonio. The e-mail was sent out at around 8PM. At about 9 AM the next morning we had a full-price offer, and by noon we had 2 backup offers. The beauty of it is that the price increase paid for the Buyer’s Agent incentive–our Client got exactly what she wanted, and it happened quickly.

That’s the power of targeting your marketing to real estate agents.

16,000 Words: The importance of real estate photography

16,000—what do I mean? Well as the old adage says, a picture is worth a thousand words. Fortunately for homesellers, the San Antonio MLS allows up to 16 pictures for each listing, even though many Agents won’t display that many. In fact, it wasn’t until late 2006 that Agents were required to upload any pictures at all—you can imagine how effectively you can market a home where you don’t show any pictures!

The point is that your Agent, or their team, should have 16 good pictures of your home to display on the MLS, and the MLS-fed websites. Those pictures can be taken directly from the camera, they can be touched up with software, or they can be images of floor plans, the subdivision, etc, but you need to maximize the use of space by using all 16 picture slots in the MLS. It’s also a good idea to take more pictures so that you can have others available for other media, such as flyers, videos, etc.

So what SHOULDN’T you do with real estate photos?

Here’s what you don’t want pictures of. This picture provides nothing of value to your listing. Why? Because you can’t tell what it is. If I’m looking for a room that has several wall outlets, then maybe I just hit the jackpot! This is the most common type of picture that you’re going ot see in the MLS because it is the easiest thing to do. An Agent stands in one corner and takes a shot of the opposite corner. I actually took this picture– It’s not the type of picture that I normally take, but it’s the kind that I see all the time, so I thought I’d share it.

Here’s another shot. Look familiar? It should since it is the exact same room. That picture was taken about 5 seconds later from about 10 feet away from the first picture. This picture isn’t perfect, but I believe that it captures the room in far greater detail. You can still see the wall outlets and the master bath door, but you can also see the ceilings (which are beautiful), as well as the french doors leading to the court yard. We’ve also added the 2 simple words at the bottom which leave no question as to what you’re looking at. Most agents don’t take the time to do this because they don’t understand the value of taking framed pictures. As a result, you get lots of really poor quality pictures on their listings.

So you have a bunch of high quality pictures—now what do you do? Well here you have the 2 most common forms of “marketing”: the For Sale Sign, and the MLS printout.

For Sale Signs

The For Sale Sign serves one purpose: to make absolute sure that people driving near your home know that it is for sale. Does it market your home? Not usually. Occasionally you’ll see real estate signs with strips at the top or bottom (which are called “Riders”) that say things like “4 bedrooms” or “great view”. That is about all the marketing you’re likely to get from these signs. Next time you get a chance, look at the signs closely—you’re to find multiple ways to contact the Agent or their company, but relatively little about your home. These signs are not marketing—their ads for Realtors and the signs alone will not sell your home.

The MLS Printout

The second item up here is the MLS sheet. The MLS sheet is a lot like the nutritional value statement on food: it informs you of the contents of a product. In this case, the MLS printout informs you of the contents of a home. Is it great to know what’s in the home? Sure, it’s very important. Does this printout romanticize your home? Does it make it stand out from the homes for sale down the street? Not really.

My daughter doesn’t ask for Dora the Explorer fruit snacks because of the nutritional content. I’m not even sure she likes them because of the flavor. She wants them because she’s attracted to the marketing. Think of your home as a very expensive and slightly less delicious fruit snack: you need to market the flavors of your home. Homebuyers won’t fall in love with your home just because you told them how many bedrooms you have.

These printouts won’t do your home justice, but they’re very easy to do since you just print them out. The information on these forms can be cryptic to people, and they do little to make your home standout. You want to make sure that these printouts aren’t the only marketing materials that your Agent uses for your home.

Conclusions

In summary, we talked about the value of pictures and their importance to marketing your home. I hope that you’ve learned a little about what kind of pictures to avoid. I also hope that you’ve learned not to settle for the basic, easy, and lazy styles of “marketing” that some people settle for. If you want someone to fall in love with your home, they need to be attracted to it first, and that’s where marketing comes in.

In the next few posts we’ll talk a little more about how to target your marketing to the correct audiences, as well as how to use the internet to help you sell your home faster. If you have any questions, please feel free to give us a call or to send us an e-mail.

Thanks, and have a great day!

Aztec on the River
201 E. Commerce Street, Suite 300
San Antonio • TX 78205
Phone: (210) 227-3930
Fax: (210) 271-7077
Toll Free: (877) 432-9832
www.aztecontheriver.com

Buckhorn Saloon & Museum
318 E. Houston St.
San Antonio • TX 78205
Phone: (210) 247-4000
Fax: (210) 247-4020
bevin@buckhornmuseum.com • www.buckhornmuseum.com

Enchanted Springs Ranch

242 Hwy 46 West
Boerne • TX 78006
Phone: (830) 249-8222
Fax: (830) 249-1131
Toll Free: (800) 640-5917
www.enchantedspringsranch.com

King William Historic Area
1032 South Alamo
San Antonio • TX 78210
Phone: (210) 227-8786
Fax: (210) 227-8030
www.kingwilliamassociation.org

La Villita
418 Villita #900
San Antonio • TX 78205
Phone: (210) 207-8613
Fax: (210) 207-4390
www.lavillita.com

Market Square - El Mercado
514 W. Commerce
San Antonio • TX 78207
Phone: (210) 207-8600
Fax: (210) 207-4287
www.marketsquaresa.com

Natural Bridge Caverns
26495 Natrual Bridge Caverns Rd.
Natural Bridge Caverns • TX 78266
Phone: (210) 651-6101
Fax: (210) 651-6144
www.naturalbridgecaverns.com

Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch
26515 Natural Bridge Caverns Road
Natural Bridge Caverns • TX 78266
Phone: (830) 438-7400
Fax: (830) 438-3494
www.wildliferanchtexas.com

Old Spanish Trail
3400 Fredericksburg Rd.
San Antonio • TX
Phone: (210) 735-3503
www.oldspanishtrailcentennial.com

Plaza Wax Museum & Ripley’s Believe It or Not
301 Alamo Plaza
San Antonio • TX 78205
Phone: (210) 224-9299
Fax: (210) 224-1516
www.plazawaxmuseum.com

River Walk (Paseo Del Rio)
110 Broadway, Suite 440
San Antonio • TX 78205
Phone: (210) 227-4262
Fax: (210) 212-7602
www.thesanantonioriverwalk.com

San Antonio Botanical Garden
555 Funston
San Antonio • TX 78209
Phone: (210) 207-3250
Fax: (210) 207-3274
www.sabot.org

San Antonio IMAX Theatre Rivercenter
849 E Commerce, #285
San Antonio • TX 78205
Phone: (210) 247-4629
Fax: (210) 227-5432
Toll Free: (800) 354-4629
www.imax-sa.com
San Antonio Missions National Historical Park
2202 Roosevelt Ave.
San Antonio • TX 78210
Phone: (210) 534-8833
Fax: (210) 534-1106
www.nps.gov/saan

San Antonio Zoo Eagle
3810 N. St. Mary’s St.
San Antonio • TX 78212
Phone: (210) 735-7455
Fax: (210) 734-7291
www.sazoo-aq.org

San Antonio Zoological Gardens and Aquarium
3903 N. St. Mary’s St.
San Antonio • TX 78212
Phone: (210) 734-7184
Fax: (210) 734-7291
www.sazoo-aq.org
Spanish Governor’s Palace
105 Plaza de Armas
San Antonio • TX 78205-2412
Phone: (210) 224-0601
Fax: (210) 223-5562
www.sanantonio.gov/sapar
Sunset Station
1174 E Commerce
San Antonio • TX 78205
Phone: (210) 474-7640
Fax: (210) 223-2524
www.sunset-station.com
The Guenther House
205 E. Guenther St.
San Antonio • TX 78204
Phone: (210) 227-1061 • Fax: (210) 351-6372
www.guentherhouse.com

Tower of the Americas
600 HemisFair Park
San Antonio • TX 78205
Phone: (210) 223-3101
www.toweroftheamericas.com

San Antonio Rampage

One AT&T Center • Kirby • TX 78219
Phone: 210-444-5000
www.sarampage.com

San Antonio Silver Stars

One AT&T Center
Kirby • TX 78219
Phone: 210-444-5000
www.wnba.com/silverstars

San Antonio Sports Foundation

Alamodome •
PO Box 830386
San Antonio • TX 78283-0386
Phone: (210) 820-2100
Fax: (210) 820-2199
www.sanantoniosports.org

San Antonio Spurs

One AT&T Center
San Antonio • TX 78219
Phone: 444-5000
www.nba.com/spurs

Fort Sam Houston

1212 Stanley Rd., Bldg. 124
Fort Sam Houston
TX 78234-5004
Phone: (210) 221-1151
Fax: (210) 221-1198
fshtx.army.mil

Lackland Air Force Base

2051 George Ave., Bldg. 5206
Lackland AFB
San Antonio • TX 78236
Phone: (210) 671-5055
Fax: (210) 671-1053
www.lackland.af.mil

Randolph Air Force Base
1 Washington Circle, Ste 4
Randolph AFB • TX 78150
Phone: (210) 652-4407
Fax: (210) 652-5412