In an effort to improve the impact of the marketing of listings, I randomly choose current listings around the country in a variety of price ranges and comment on their effectiveness. No current clients of mine are used, nor do I know any sellers or buyers or have any additional information about the property.
2360 Centre St., (West Roxbury) Boston MA $249,997 3 + 1
http://realestate.boston.com/homes/listing/2205-71066925/Boston-MA-USA/2-beds/200000-250000-price/142-71072605--431-71072664--2190-71026759--2190-71026758--13699-136006--1049-71072671--2190-71026751--3195-71068710--2205-71066925--1745-71058035-ls/159-t/Price_Sales,1-ns
This one is typical of listing advertisements I like to use when meeting with a realty agent or group of agents who are potential clients. Here is an example of a home that has challenges but could be presented much better than this agent is.
The primary photo provides little more than an example of why agents need to ride herd over the photos of their listings. There is absolutely no reason for this to be such a wide shot from further back. All that does is show what a dreary weather day it was and the bare trees. (I found this ad in mid-May, so it is obviously an older photo, which is another negative.) We see a vehicle parked in the drive way on the right, and a poorly landscaped open stretch on the left. Both of those, plus some of the bare trees, would not have been in the photo had it been taken from closer in.
There is only one other exterior photo in the photo spread. While I understasd they want to show the "large yard", the photo that shows it with a clearly temporary fence not even completely upright and what looks like mud taking up much of the space. It is poorly landscaped. This photo does more harm than good, which is also the case on a couple of the interior photos shown.
Overall, the photo spread does more harm than good. Especially when it is obvious by the bare trees that it was taken weeks ago. Frankly, there is no excuse for these photos to be in a Boston Globe advertisement weeks after the fact.
Those who stick around long enough to read the copy read a careless description. It is then that we find out it is only the 2nd floor unit that is for sale. Because the primary photo is so far removed, it appears to be the entire house for sale. Nothing about this being a duplex or two-flat.
How about the copy reading "newer replacement windows"? One would think that an agent from a nationally known firm would know not to have "newer" and "replacement" together like that. Another red flag to a potential buyer. The "private driveway for 1+ parking" is not a plus when it tells us there is no garage while the exterior photos were taken on a rainy day.
At the end, the last sentence is "Walk to T, commuter rail....." and names a school. Besides "walk to" being an outdated term for Realtors in recent years, naming the school without telling a potential buyer whether it is a grammar school or high school does not help very much.
Based on a couple of the (good) interior photos, and with an exterior one taken to show this home properly, combined with description copy written by someone with expertise, this could be presented as an attractive property. This seller should be extremely disappointed in how their home is being presented.
GRADE: C-
Note: This commentary is uncompensated and for marketing purposes only and is no reflection on the featured property. Its accuracy is not guaranteed. Neither Dave Kohl nor First In Promotions shall be held responsible for any representations.
At this time, I have openings for more realty agent/office clients to critique current and brand new listings on an hourly basis. No current or past client listings are featured on this blog.Random listings are chosen around the country.
Your comments are most welcome!
Showing posts with label boston. Show all posts
Showing posts with label boston. Show all posts
Friday, May 14, 2010
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Finding the real estate resources...........
I was having one of those “If only I had…..” moments this morning when catching up on real estate related news. For as much time as I spend feeling like a preacher when talking to current and potential clients about ways to make the current real estate market advantegous, as well as friends and family, I could have been a contender myself.
Looks like it is time to circle back to an idea presented to me just over 20 years ago that didn’t materialize at the time. Maybe this will get you to think about this as well. This will not sound like a real estate marketing idea but stick with me.
Years ago when I had more time to devote to it, I was in a fantasy sports league with a group of 11 other guys aged between 25 and 40. That was back when I would constantly have to explain what a fantasy league is and does. About half of the group had gotten together for lunch one day when one of the guys said he heard about some land nearby that was about to be put up for sale. He went on to wonder to the group about what could happen if 10 of us would each put up $5,000. That would give us $50,000 as a down payment on a million dollar commercial property.
This happened to be around the time I was starting to get involved with a client looking to market a technology feature to real estate offices. (This turned out to be the springboard for what I have been doing ever since!) I thought that was an interesting idea, especially since someone I knew was making his living from managing family owned commercial properties and he had plenty of time to travel and enjoy his life.
As it goes with a group of casual acquaintances, the “group of friends” idea didn’t make it past a first meeting. Even though I have thought about it from time to time, it is a challenge to find enough people trustworthy enough to do this, let alone enough that would have a few thousand dollars to do this.
Personally, one of my investments is in a real estate syndication, but I don’t have any hands-on involvement even though I have seen a small profit in the past couple years. But now I’m kicking myself for not pursuing that sort of thing over 20 years ago, and then looking to move up the ladder. That’s how success in real estate starts. Do something like that and then buy out others in the group, or use the partnership success as a springboard.
Now I fast forward to today. This is totally pie-in-the-sky, but the story from Boston about Normandy Real Estate Partners buying the John Hancock Tower in Boston for $660.6 million dollars. Not that I would have been in a partnership with that much in capital. It’s more what they accomplished than the amount.
Upon further review, it turns out that the John Hancock Tower was about to go into foreclosure, and the property was being auctioned to attempt to prevent that foreclosure. Since much of my time now is being spent looking for single family homes and investment properties to go to auction, it shows the tremendous opportunities that real estate auctions are bringing.
In case you weren’t aware (and I wouldn’t expect anyone to know this off hand!), the Hancock Tower in Boston was sold to the ownership group that avoided foreclosure as recently as 2006. Less than 3 years ago the (now) previous owners bought it. For $1.3 billion dollars. To translate, this real estate partnership bought one of the most significant properties in a major city and “saved” more than a half-billion dollars.
To put it mildly, there’s no way I can kick myself for missing out on that deal. It’s not like I could have written a check and bid a few hundred thousand more for it.
The point is that it got me to think that there must be some lesser scale Hancock Towers out there, if only I and a group of others could be ready when they are found. Those of you with some money to invest might want to think about others you know in the same position and the power of group resources. And those of you in the real estate community might want to think creatively as well. What’s that saying? It’s not what you know, it is WHO you know.”
Looks like it is time to circle back to an idea presented to me just over 20 years ago that didn’t materialize at the time. Maybe this will get you to think about this as well. This will not sound like a real estate marketing idea but stick with me.
Years ago when I had more time to devote to it, I was in a fantasy sports league with a group of 11 other guys aged between 25 and 40. That was back when I would constantly have to explain what a fantasy league is and does. About half of the group had gotten together for lunch one day when one of the guys said he heard about some land nearby that was about to be put up for sale. He went on to wonder to the group about what could happen if 10 of us would each put up $5,000. That would give us $50,000 as a down payment on a million dollar commercial property.
This happened to be around the time I was starting to get involved with a client looking to market a technology feature to real estate offices. (This turned out to be the springboard for what I have been doing ever since!) I thought that was an interesting idea, especially since someone I knew was making his living from managing family owned commercial properties and he had plenty of time to travel and enjoy his life.
As it goes with a group of casual acquaintances, the “group of friends” idea didn’t make it past a first meeting. Even though I have thought about it from time to time, it is a challenge to find enough people trustworthy enough to do this, let alone enough that would have a few thousand dollars to do this.
Personally, one of my investments is in a real estate syndication, but I don’t have any hands-on involvement even though I have seen a small profit in the past couple years. But now I’m kicking myself for not pursuing that sort of thing over 20 years ago, and then looking to move up the ladder. That’s how success in real estate starts. Do something like that and then buy out others in the group, or use the partnership success as a springboard.
Now I fast forward to today. This is totally pie-in-the-sky, but the story from Boston about Normandy Real Estate Partners buying the John Hancock Tower in Boston for $660.6 million dollars. Not that I would have been in a partnership with that much in capital. It’s more what they accomplished than the amount.
Upon further review, it turns out that the John Hancock Tower was about to go into foreclosure, and the property was being auctioned to attempt to prevent that foreclosure. Since much of my time now is being spent looking for single family homes and investment properties to go to auction, it shows the tremendous opportunities that real estate auctions are bringing.
In case you weren’t aware (and I wouldn’t expect anyone to know this off hand!), the Hancock Tower in Boston was sold to the ownership group that avoided foreclosure as recently as 2006. Less than 3 years ago the (now) previous owners bought it. For $1.3 billion dollars. To translate, this real estate partnership bought one of the most significant properties in a major city and “saved” more than a half-billion dollars.
To put it mildly, there’s no way I can kick myself for missing out on that deal. It’s not like I could have written a check and bid a few hundred thousand more for it.
The point is that it got me to think that there must be some lesser scale Hancock Towers out there, if only I and a group of others could be ready when they are found. Those of you with some money to invest might want to think about others you know in the same position and the power of group resources. And those of you in the real estate community might want to think creatively as well. What’s that saying? It’s not what you know, it is WHO you know.”
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