Daily Real Estate News  |  June 17, 2008  |   Practitioners Mix Old, New Marketing Ideas
Real estate professionals think online marketing is effective, but they haven’t abandoned the tried and true, including brochures and newspapers, according to a survey by VHT Inc., which offers real estate marketing services.

The survey of 1,304 practitioners from all across the United States found:

• 24.5 percent of practitioners spent an average of $250-$500 to market their listing; 20.6 percent spent $500-$1,000; 25.2 percent spent more than $1,000 and 18.8 percent said it depended on the listing.

• 90 percent of respondents said they used brochures for marketing their listings; 88.8 percent used postcards; and 83.3 percent used newspapers; 41.1 percent purchased TV ads.

• 49 percent said online ads were “very effective.” The most frequently used Web sites were: Realtor.com, CraigsList and Google.

• When asked what advertising their sellers thought was important, 92.4 percent of professionals said that their sellers wanted newspaper ads.

• 39 percent of practitioners feature an average of 5-10 different destinations in their listings; 24.5 percent have 10-20 different destinations.

The survey revealed a direct correlation between the amount an agent spent to market a property and the value of the property. For listings in the $250-500k range, practitioners spent on average $682 per listing. Practitioners with properties in the $1M-2.5M spent an average of $1,742 per listing.

Respondents surveyed had a broad range of real estate experience. The survey found 34 percent had 2-5 years of experience; 23.8 percent had 5-10 years of experience; and 38.6 percent had 10-plus years of experience

The average listing price for 59 percent of the practitioners was between $250-500k. But 23.2 percent had listings in the $500k-$1M-plus range; 8.9 percent had listings worth less than $250k; and 8.9 percent had average listings worth more than $1M.

Source: VHT Inc. (06/12/08)