Discussion
A rental listing lives or dies on friction. If a renter has to read three sentences before they learn the rent, the bedroom count, and whether parking is included, they have alrea…
Discussion
I believed that for years too. Cleveland investors and the agents who work with them ran on cheap and fast, and anyone who tried to charge $250 for a shoot got laughed out of the…
Discussion
Closing on a small marketing shop next month, eight agents on monthly retainer averaging $380, and I keep getting stuck on the same clause buried in their vendor template. The sho…
Discussion
Six months into mailing a 40 mile loop around Warner Robins and Monroe and I have sent 407 pieces total, hand-addressed envelopes on the first two batches, yellow letter format, a…
Win
The 12-acre waterfront parcel in Skagit County had a weird access issue, a peninsula that narrows to about 40 feet at the connection point, and I needed something that showed scal…
Happening Now
Anybody had this happen and actually gotten the fake ad taken down fast, or is it basically just wait and flag and hope?
Discussion
Cross-checking MLS license claims against the city portal is one of the cheapest pieces of diligence in this asset class, and almost nobody does it. Consider a sample of 35 licens…
Loss
I've been studying listings in the $280k to $340k range in the Columbus suburbs because that's where I'm trying to buy, and I keep running into the same thing. Bad exterior photo…
Happening Now
Say a content provider prices a first service package at $375 a month and an agent responds that it is less than her Canva subscription with the add-ons. That lands strangely, bec…
Happening Now
Paid $890 for a full package on a townhome in Garfield Park, Chicago, closed in November. Professional copy, floor plan graphic, the social tiles, everything. Unit sat 47 days and…
Discussion
I'm getting ready to list two parcels and the agent's marketing person sent over a menu. There's a one-time line called brand kit at $1,200 and then per-listing packages under it.…
Win
Take a full gut on a 1,340 square foot three bedroom, all in around $228,000 including purchase, listed at $265,000. A typical agent-preferred marketing shop quotes something like…
Poll
I do fast flips, thin margins, and I've been writing my own listing copy forever because paying for it never penciled. An agent I've closed two deals with asked if I'd write copy…
Poll
I've been calling around asking agents what marketing work they outsource, because I'm trying to figure out whether there's a service here I could learn. Four of the six I talked…
Happening Now
Take a broker-services shop in a metro of about 900k where the owner wants the buyer's lender, or the seller, to carry most of the paper. Reading notes like this for a year turns…
Discussion
A listing presentation package typically runs a few hundred dollars a month through a marketing person and covers two related things: the materials an agent brings to a seller app…
Discussion
When one proposal says full marketing program included and another itemizes photography, floor plan, property site, social campaign and print, the itemized one is usually the more…
Win
A useful case for anyone doing land content work. A two-broker land shop asks a writer to formalize what had been an informal favor into a retainer: $1,900 a month for up to three…
Discussion
Contract is $650 a month, 12-month term, and the IP clause says the vendor retains ownership of all produced work and grants me a license for the duration of the subscription. Sep…
Poll
Take an agency running twenty or so retainers around $700 to $800 a month, mostly listing presentations and property packages with a monthly email, where drafting structure is don…
Happening Now
A scenario worth working through. Take a rehabber who shoots every project for the record: framing, mechanicals, the ugly parts, then the finished rooms. Nothing fancy, a phone pl…
Discussion
Sat down with a listing agent about a duplex and she had clearly written her whole property description with AI. It read fine. Better than the last three descriptions I read, hone…
Happening Now
Say a listing agent offers a comp analyst $250 per listing presentation, roughly 6 a month, plus early access to her expired and withdrawn pipeline ahead of her calling the owners…
Discussion
Whether a seller pays separately for an enhanced marketing package on top of commission varies by market and brokerage. Marketing used to be folded into commission, but tiered add…
Discussion
Take a small agent-marketing outfit where the revenue mix ought to bother a buyer. Roughly $40k a month recurring. Two brokerage teams are about 60% of that on annual agreements.…
Win
Take a small house on 1.4 acres in a town of about 2,800 people, three bedroom one bath, listed at $118,000, four months on market, six showings, no offers. The original listing h…
Poll
An agent's income shows up when a deal closes, which can mean three closings in a month or none for two months. That timing mismatch makes a fixed monthly marketing bill look stra…
Discussion
Looking at a small provider doing agent marketing, 34 retainer clients, average $740 a month, gross margin around 55% after contractor costs. Median client life is 11 months, whic…
Happening Now
Take a 62 acre listing this spring, mixed pasture and timber, county road frontage on one side, a seasonal creek, no utilities run to it, list price around 410k. Taxes run about 1…
Discussion
A question that comes up for tradespeople who are already on site: agents ask them to shoot photos and put together the listing flyers. Anyone from a construction background is us…
Happening Now
A listing marketing service built around flyers, a social set, and a listing description rewrite, priced per listing rather than by retainer, tends to produce volatile months, str…
Happening Now
Take a flip closing rehab in about ten days, a 1960s three bed ranch on a decent street, ARV underwritten at $340k. The agent's standard package includes basic photos in the commi…
Discussion
Trying to size up the service side before I put money anywhere near it. I've seen a provider quoting $150 per property marketing package and another quoting $1,200 a month for wha…
Poll
Nine deals in, mostly light rehab resale in a mid-size market. Last four listings I wrote the copy, built the renovation one-pager, and shot the before-and-afters myself, and my a…
Poll
I've been building this thing sideways for a year and I'm now at the point where the next six months picks one shape. Current mix is nine solos paying $380 to $520 a month for a l…
Discussion
Say a seller is interviewing agents for a family property and has read that the listing presentation is essentially the pitch meeting. Two of the agents offer to come present, one…
Loss
I've been at this six months with zero deals, and part of why is that I spent five months and $5,400 on a marketing engagement that was built for listing agents while I was trying…
Discussion
One of the agents I write pre-listing material for asked for conversion numbers before she renews. She goes on something like 30 listing appointments a year and signed 12 of them…