Want to Expand to the Luxury Market?
Average Home Marketing VS Luxury Home Marketing
There is no doubt that luxury homes need impeccable marketing campaigns. The photos should be amazing, and the video should capture the size of the home and the benefits of living in that particular area. Especially in Hawaii, where the location of the home really matters to the price, adding aerial photos and video footage will show the proximity to the ocean and help potential buyers to envision a lifestyle by the sea.
“Affluent consumers today are focused not just on a great property, but on the lifestyle that the property will provide their family. How do they see their family using the property? Will this property be a draw for their immediate and extended family to use for family gatherings?”
A Virtual Tour would also be essential, especially if the home is large and has a unique layout.
All of that’s great, and most real estate agent would be comfortable with that approach when selling a multimillion dollar listing.
But when it comes to the average home, shouldn’t they be given the best possible chance at a top sale price as well?
We know the commission for the selling agent is not as high, and the marketing budget won’t be as large, but a smart real estate agent will still know how to create an amazing real estate marketing campaign for an average home, and do it all on a budget.
What should a real estate agent spend on photography and marketing?
Laura Ure, real estate marketing expert, says:
“If the home being sold is for $2,000,000 could easily have $20,000 go into marketing it.”
In other words, she suggests spending about 1% of the sale price on the marketing of that home. That’s a third of the commission for an agent, which is fine for a large listing, but it gets harder for agents selling homes in lower price brackets.
But if you want to become a top agent, you must separate yourself from other agents and your broker and give yourself a unique identity, which buyers can easily tell from the brand quality of your marketing materials.
“Rather than selling a listing, sell the lifestyle.”
Jerry Rossi, author of Dog Eat Dog & Vice Versa: 9 Secrets to Put the Bite Into Your Marketing, suggests:
So if an agent is earning a 3% commission on the sale of a home, then that would equate to a marketing budget that’s 0.3% of the sale price.
That sounds fairly achievable even for homes at the bottom end of the market, so let’s see how that might work out with a few examples:
A marketing campaign for a 4 million dollars property:
Assuming a marketing budget that is 0.3% of the sale price = $12,000
With that, an agent would be able to provide top notch marketing content:
30-40 high-quality photos
A cinematic video tour of the home and surrounding area with actors or voiceover
A 3D Virtual Tour
Floor Plans and Maps
A designated website for the listing
Flyers with great branding
…and have some room to do social media Ads campaign
A marketing campaign for a $700,000 property:
Assuming a marketing budget that is 0.3% of the sale price = $2,100
That’s a healthy marketing budget, and with that an agent should be able to provide:
30 high-quality photos
A video tour of the home and surrounding area
A 3D Tour
Flyers
… and still have some change left over for an online ad campaign and more.
A marketing campaign for a $400,000 property:
Assuming a marketing budget that is 0.3% of the sale price = $1,200
That’s a tight marketing budget, but with that an agent should still be able to provide:
20 high-quality photos
A short video tour of the home OR a short aerial video of an oceanfront property
This is a low-priced home in Maui, and when I did a quick search of current homes for sale across the Maui in that price range, there were few homes around that price that were presenting decent images.
Most of them feature homes that present images that were taken by the real estate agent or homeowner.
So what could an agent that wants to stand out do?
Even if we assuming a marketing budget that is 0.1% of the sale price, a $400,000 condo will still have $400 to spend on photos.
That doesn’t leave much room at all, but an agent should still be able to provide at least:
20 high-quality photos minimum that shows the interior of the house and exterior
Most agents wouldn’t even bother to spend that much, but at the lower end of the market a high-quality marketing campaign is going to stand out head and shoulders above every other listing on the market, simply because no-one else is spending money advertising there. So when those buyers and investors are scrolling through their search results, looking at homes for sale in that sub-$400K range, a property with just few a few exceptional images is going to get their attention.
So even if an agent is trying to sell Kihei Villages or South Pointe, if he is willing to spend just 0.1% of the sale price, his listing will stand out with quality photos and get a higher offer.
Conclusion
Don’t neglect the visual marketing of a home just because it’s average or low-cost. Sure, it’s easy to justify outlaying thousands of dollars on a million dollar listing, but it should be just as easy to justify spending a few hundred dollars on any listing at any price. Every home deserves to be shown at its best because the photos you use in a real estate marketing campaign impact upon the number of buyers you attract, it impacts upon the sale price, and it impacts on how buyers and sellers perceive that agent.
Unless you want to sell your homes, and yourself, short of their full potential then hire a professional real estate photographer for every single listing you have. The numbers will work well for you if you do.
Chat with us to get a FREE listing photography audit and marketing advice session.
Reference:
The Best Real Estate Local Photographer, Average home vs luxury home marketing, 2018 Nov 19.