Commercial Real Estate Agents – Best Practice Listing Processes for Today
Today, many properties are on the market for sale or lease. Therefore, every property we list should be optimised for the promotional process.
Care needs to be taken when it comes to listing, marketing, and negotiation. In saying that, everything starts with the listing process.
A quality property will create good enquiries in any market. For this reason, top agents focus on quality properties.
At least 75% of the listings taken by top agents are high-quality and more attractive to prospective buyers or tenants.
This practice of listing selection is simply a strategic listing process. You can adopt the same process yourself to grow your market share.
Positioning the Property
Here are some tips to help you position the property correctly when it comes to listing and marketing.
- Question the client as to the reasons for the current sale and the ultimate targets that they want to satisfy. Make sure that the targets are realistic given the current market conditions. If necessary, and if the client is unrealistic as to their expectations, you will need to gather some comparable property information and condition the client accordingly. Highly-priced listings are a waste of time today unless you have an abundance of enquiries.
- Comprehensively inspect the subject property to identify strengths and weaknesses. The strengths will establish the marketing focus that can be incorporated into the advertising. That will, in turn, impact the target audience ideally suited to the property. Any weaknesses in the property should be identified and addressed prior to the commencement of the campaign. The quality of your listings will determine your strength and market share as a local agent.
- Review local properties to ensure that the competition and the time on market factors are realistic for the listing that you are considering taking. The listing package that you create needs to be optimized for the prevailing market conditions. You should know the local property market and the current levels of enquiry, so help the client understand how the promotional package needs to be created. Give them some solid recommendations when it comes to marketing alternatives. Show them what works locally, and why other property owners have been unsuccessful.
- To be successful with property promotion today as a local commercial real estate agent, each listing has to be carefully focused on the local area. Most properties are sold and leased into the local area containing active business owners and property investors. On average, less than 20% of listed properties will be sold or leased to people from outside of the local area. This then says that your marketing strategy should be carefully constructed for the local buyer or tenant in mind. They will understand current market trends and will base any offers on those trends. Marketing a commercial property is not an experiment, it is a very specialised process. You are that specialist to create the necessary marketing package.
The first few weeks of any new listing are most important when it comes to attracting enquiry and converting the enquiry to inspections. Base your marketing around that point of focus, and you will be more successful locally as a top agent.