Frequently I get comments from people trying to sell their homes who are frustrated about the marketing of their property. Many of these are sellers who are trying to sell on their own, others have hired a REALTOR and are unsatisfied with what they are or aren’t doing.

I often wonder why these discussions don’t occur beforehand?

He are 4 things you should expect when discussing the marketing of your property:

• AGENCY -  Timely disclosure of agency and your options surrounding agency are required. You have several options and this will form the basis of your relationship with your REALTOR. This discussion should be thorough, and you should be clear on your options and what that will mean for you.
• The EVALUATION -  Some time should be spent understanding your evaluation and the comparable listings and sales, the market trends, absorption and potential issues surrounding the marketing of your home.
• The MARKETING PLAN – The listing contract doesn’t specify all services that are, and can be available to you.  That is NEGOTIABLE between you and your REALTOR.
• The AGREEMENTS - There have been many substantial changes to real estate contracts over the years so depending on when you last sold a property it could take a while to review these.

So if you are going to expect a service you should discuss it up front. If a home owner thinks open houses, or newspaper ads or online ads are important, ask if you Realtor offers these services before signing a contract with them. Ask to see examples. If you assume that everyone does the same thing, then you are taking the risk that they will not be done.

It takes a significant amount of time to review the marketing options and services for our clients and potential clients. Once we are done reviewing this there should be no questions as to what is or isn’t included as far as marketing is concerned. Typically our services are agreed to upfront and this done in writing and attached to the listing contract.

For example, a number of years ago REALTOR opens houses were basically standard practice (the kind where REALTORS came to preview the home at a specific time). However, that seemed to disappear in the late 90’s in Edmonton. Attendance to these open houses dropped to nil with the advent of the Internet; you were lucky if you got people from your own office to go and look at your listings.  So if you haven’t sold a home in a while you might be really surprised if you want a REALTORS open house.

In St. Albert and Sherwood Park though the REALTORS open house is alive and well. This is generally because the market is substantially smaller and you can see new listings in your entire market place in one morning.

Some people have suggested to me that they’d like their REALTOR to have an open house lunch because it was successful in other markets. I know one thing is for certain - I won’t be attending. If it’s on MLS and I have a buyer I’ll find it. If buyers aren't coming to your hom there might be other reasons that should be discussed. 

Even in St.Albert and Sherwood Park if you host a REALTORS lunch, I suspect your turn out might not be what it would be if it was held in the normal time frame of 9:30 – 11:00 on the selected days. However, for the right type of property in the right location I wouldn’t rule anything out.

It’s been almost a decade since I’ve had a REALTORS open house per se. We’ve chosen different avenues to promote our properties and actually take very good pictures of our properties so that buyers and other REALTORS can clearly see what it is we are offering.

All that being said, if you want something badly enough ask for it. Remember though, it’s a two way street - if your requests are unusual, or problematic I might not agree to those terms.