You've flipped through the paper and seen real estate ads so bad that they make you cringe to be part of the same profession. Favorites include hokey glamour shots that look more appropriate on a matchmaking ad. Others are so full of hype that they could have been written by a TV evangelist. Meanwhile, the houses these agents are promoting look like an afterthought by comparison.

What makes these ads so awful? Simple economics. Advertising is expensive. These agents are trying to get the most bang for the buck by combining personal marketing with property promotion. This is a prescription for overdoing it, but it's not all the agents' fault. Matters of taste aside, print is a difficult medium to accomplish very much with only a few inches or less.

In fact, these agents have the right idea - they just picked the wrong advertising medium. In the paper, no one is going to tell agents how to design their ads, that's an advertising firm's job. All the paper does is print what you give it.

In the unique world of real estate sales, where agents of every broker are competing against their own office mates as well as other brokers' personnel, it's every man/woman for him/herself. Agents have to combine advertising with personal marketing and farming to get consumers to choose them over their competitors. But the limitations of print make it impossible to do it all without shelling out a lot of money. On the Internet, however, you can market yourself and your listings at the same time very reasonably, for as little as under $100 a month to a few hundred dollars a month - far less than you would spend on the typical classified ad each week.

That's what Realty Times has been saying for years. The Internet is more than an advertising medium. It can do things other mediums can't do - like allow you to add enhancements and communication tools to online ads. Listings can be enhanced with additional information, graphics and virtual tours. Agents can be in direct communication with prospects via e-mail capture. What's not to like about that?

To make the deal even sweeter, Realtor.com, Homes.com, HomeSeekers, and other portals have advertised listings for free. Personal promotion was up to the agent, and that's why having a Web site is about as necessary as having a cellular phone.

Some, who understood what a bargain the Internet was compared to print advertising, took to Realtor.com and the others like a duck to water. They signed up for Web sites and are renewing them, as well as other lead generation tools.

The faith of these early adopters is paying off. Now the Internet is overtaking print publications as the number one resource for home buying and selling consumers. The NAR's 2002 survey of buyers and sellers showed that since 1995, newspapers have lost and the Internet has gained percentages as the number one source real estate consumers use to buy a home.

Not only is the Internet a richer viewing experience for the consumer, it is also a richer marketing medium for agents and their listings.

With print media, you have to pull your ad elements together yourself, and the results are sometimes less than professional-looking. With the Internet, marketing companies like Realtor.com and the others do much of the work for you. You have choices in template Web sites, so that the outcome of your Web marketing is predictably attractive. You also don't have to make a choice of whether you want to promote yourself or your listing because you can do both at the same time, and often on multiple channels. For example, if you have a listing and a Web site on Realtor.com, you are also featured on AOL's House and Home Channel, one of the largest on the Internet. Likewise, a listing and Web site on HomeSeekers and Homes.com get you found on MSN's House and Home channel.

Depending on the sites where you want to promote yourself and/or your listings, you can give your listings to online sites, and attach your Web site for personal marketing. Or you can do the opposite with a personal marketing service such as Market Conditions Reports, and let your Web site and listings be attached to your profile.

You can get a company like Best Image Marketing to design a custom Web site for you, and let them promote it for you through their advertising connections throughout the Web where you can be found on banner ads in key placements.

The portals that carry your listings through agreements with your MLS will feature your listings until they are sold. Other portals such as Yahoo! have classified advertising available for listings, but you have to buy your placement, and your ad will be alongside those of for-sale-by-owners.

Personal marketing is not free anywhere, but there's no reason why it should be. How are these sites supposed to turn a profit and stay in business to continue to serve you?

No one questions the business models of newspapers which are advertising-driven, but the Internet sites have their business models, too. And if you choose wisely, whether you choose a custom or a template Web site, or other marketing means, your expenditure should still be well below the costs of a typical classified or block ad program.

Published: November 12, 2002

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