Selling your home is all about marketing and getting the maximum exposure to the largest pool of buyers that would be interested in your home. How is a brokerage with hundreds of listings going to set yours apart from the rest of the pack, especially when there is so much competition within their own brokerage? 

 In the “Old School” days, you needed to list it with a larger, branded brokerage in order to get the maximum exposure for your property, as it was still who you knew in the neighborhood and marketing was print based postcards, mailouts, magazines, and newspapers.

The “New School” approach has absolutely nothing to do with the brand or size of the brokerage, in fact the larger the company and the more listings they have, the less "feature" exposure your property will receive.   The reason being is that the internet has COMPLETELY leveled the playing field when it comes to marketing exposure.  With the powers of the internet and the impact on technology; smaller, internet savvy brokerages can be MORE effective than the Goliath's at getting your listing the exposure it needs.  Think about this, if you list with a brokerage that has hundreds of listings, where do you think your property will be on their websites?  Most likely, your property will be buried among all the other properties the brokerage has; not  featured on their main page or on an upfront spot on their search page.

A smaller, internet savvy brokerage can feature your property on their web sites, giving it more attention and front page exposure.  In addition, larger brokerages do not understand the powers of blogging, social media and other fantastic internet forward technologies available to feature your home.  With the recent changes on how Google searches property, blogs and other sources are coming up in home searches before main websites.  It is the smaller, internet savvy brokerages, the Davids,  that understands the new technology and uses it effectively to highlight and expose your home, getting it out there to the right pool of buyers; not just in your local community, but to the world as well.

 Before you list your home with a larger brokerage, look into that smaller, internet savvy brokerage first. Compare what they offer in marketing to the Goliath.  Is Goliath still offering to mail out post cards and have an open house while the David is offering front and center internet exposure, enhanced listings on Realtor.com , Virtual tours for real-time, all the time virtual open houses?  The internet and technology has changed the real estate world, understand it and allow it to fuel your decision on who to list with.  Give those smaller, internet savvy brokerages a chance to show you how they would globally market your property, while at the same time giving you and your home individual, highlighted attention.

Don’t let your property get lost with the Goliath’s of real estate who say it is about the brand name on the sign in your front yard.  Understand and embrace the David’s, as they are the brokerages who are going to bring your property to the head of the pack.  David may be small in size but big on the internet and interested only in getting the maximum exposure for your property!

PS. And if you are a Buyer?  With the internet everyone has the same information to share with you, but the David's can customize it for what you need - we don't have to call corporate to get permission to make changes - we just do what works best for our clients!

By Allyson Blackard, Broker in Charge

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