Lightbulb Moment

By in Real Estate Career with 0 Comments

Call me a little slow, perhaps.  Call me a little behind the times, maybe.  Call me a moron if you will, but I had a lightbulb moment the other day.  Are you ready?  Here we go…

A listing agent is a public relations agent for the house that’s for sale.

I’ve always known that selling a house is more about marketing than anything else.  I’ve known it’s about negotiating.  I’ve known it’s about representation.  But this PR thing brings it all together for me.

The PR specialist makes sure that their client always presents its best face to the public.  If there is negative publicity, the PR person corrects it, and in some cases prevents its distribution.   Coordination, negotiation, presentation, are all part of both jobs.

Each city (Richland, West Richland, Pasco, Kennewick) and each price point ($100k-$500k), and each style of house demands a different campaign.  Even if two houses are side-by-side, and have the same floorplan and are similarly priced, the one which is ‘packaged’ best will sell faster and for closer to asking price.  The best agents understand this and make sure that they have settled upon the right plan for selling the house.  Just like each actor or corporation or politician requires a different presentation to the public.  Even two moderate Democrats from the mid-west of the same age and gender are going to vary vastly.  The PR for the one is not going to work for the other because they are different people, and there is always a better way to present anything.  The person who defines the best way to present his or her client represents the winner.

I just shudder to think that it took me three years to relate the two.  I almost want to call all the clients who have chosen me in the past and whose houses I have successfully sold, and ask them to sell the house they’re currently in, just because now I have a better understanding of the whole thing.  I’ve already started with my current listings and about-to-be-listings, but I can’t help wanting to go back in time!

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About The Author
Cari McGee

My husband and I came to the Tri-Cities in 1994, and we thought it would be a temporary stop on our way to larger cities. He was a television sports anchor at the time, and we planned to go wherever the "next step up" took us. Twenty-plus years later, we're still here and we've loved every minute of it! We have two children now, and we've found the Tri-Cities area is a wonderful place to raise a family. It's a great place to do outdoorsy things -- I like to hike Badger Mountain or run along the river path. I also love reading ... by a cozy fire in the winter or a beautiful picture window in the summer (with the A/C on!). I've been a licensed Realtor since 2004. I earned my managing broker's license in 2016, which means I can run my own brokerage, or create a team of real estate agents and supervise them, which is exactly what I did when I formed the Cari McGee Real Estate Team in 2018! We have administrative and marketing personnel, as well as additional agents to serve you. I became a director of the Tri-Cities Association of Realtors Board of Directors in 2016, became Secretary/Treasurer of the organization, and was elected to Vice President in 2019. Want to talk about real estate? Click here to schedule a meeting with me!

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