It astounds me that any seller would tolerate paying a professional fee and they don’t even get the bare minimum of professional photography. Their agent is in the photo behind the phone in the bathroom mirror with toothpaste splattered all over it. The pantry has food cascading out of it. The dog is in the living room photos. Nobody made their beds. The photo that is most appalling is the door frame of the agent’s car because they are too lazy to get out to take the exterior photos. We only get one opportunity to make a first impression. Putting a home in the MLS is not a marketing plan. When you sell with one of our professionals, we want your home positioned to compete for attention from the moment it enters the market, so it needs to stand out.
Professional presentation starts with a strategy. Brochures don’t make themselves overnight, videos take time to come back. Before you think of listing your home, declutter. I have every house I list professionally cleaned before photos. Professional photography and video should be standard, not an upgrade. A marketing stack should include drone photography a video, virtual tours, and floor plans. Professional staging is another great marketing tool. This presentation will help buyers understand the home before they ever walk through the door, which can help stop unnecessary showings for buyers looking for particular floor plans or features that your listing does not have. More importantly, a clean, clutter free home, staged and prepped to sell will be far more desirable for a bigger pool of buyers, but beautiful pictures are only the beginning.
Today’s buyers are discovering homes everywhere: real estate websites, Google, social media, YouTube and increasingly through AI-powered search and recommendation tools. A modern marketing strategy should be built for the way people actually find and consume information today. That can include professionally produced video, social media campaigns, targeted digital advertising, AI-assisted advertising and audience targeting, property-specific content and strategic online exposure designed to put your home in front of the people most likely to care about it.
The strategy should also fit the property. A luxury home, horse property, condominium, 55+ community home and multigenerational property shouldn’t all be marketed exactly the same way. Different homes have different buyers, and the marketing should speak directly to what makes that property valuable to them.
We also believe presentation starts before the photographer arrives. Your agent should help you decide what to repair, what to update, what to leave alone and how to stage the home so the money and effort you put into preparing it actually make sense.
Because the goal isn’t simply exposure. It’s to create the strongest possible first impression, reach the right buyers and give your home every opportunity to stand out.
You spent years building value in your home. When it’s time to sell, the marketing should reflect that.
