We as agricultural professionals know how hard we work to find buyers and sellers of land. We spend years of hard work to build our clientele and our reputation. Marketing a property correctly and in a timely manner is paramount to selling the property. Getting the listing is just the first step in the process of selling the property. There is still much work to do. I am sure that most of us are already marketing our properties in an informative, professional manner, but we can all improve our marketing efforts.
Most medium to large brokerage firms have an in-house marketing department which handles flyers, mailers, websites, etc. Other smaller firms may use an outside marketing company. The first step as the listing agent is to get all the pertinent information to the marketing team in a timely manner. This information should include: The full address of the property, GPS coordinates, acreage, photos, aerials, the property description, property highlights, improvements, soils and topo maps, production records / yields, well information, location maps, zoning, permitting, future land use, and demographics. Multiple location maps should be used, as many buyers may live out of state or out of the country and need detailed information to understand the property location.
The completed flyer or brochure and any other pertinent information should then be posted on the company website. After this, the flyer is emailed to recipients in the company database. The recipients should be filtered based on his or her property interests. For example, if the subject property is a citrus grove, the email blast should be sent only to people interested in citrus groves. People tend to trash these emails or even block a sender who constantly sends information that is not relevant to his or her wants and needs.
The next step is to post the flyer and all pertinent information on the various real estate marketing websites. These may include MLS, LoopNet, Land Flip, Total Commercial, and Lands of America, just to name a few. You should make sure to have any additional pertinent information posted on these websites. There is plenty of room to add additional information such as detailed soils map, location maps, demographics, etc. The greater the amount of information, the better. In many cases, we are dealing with very sophisticated buyers. They need all the information they can get to make an informed decision. It is very frustrating when the only information provided is a plat map and a brief description of the property. We are professionals and should market our properties in a professional manner.
Sometimes, you have to get creative with property marketing. There are a few other methods which could prove effective or even critical. Some people, believe it or not, don’t have an email address. In this case, direct mail might be called upon to reach the buyer, whether through personal letters or postcards. There are various trade magazines and newspapers in which to advertise as well. Lastly, let’s not forget the old phone, whether a cell phone or land line. We must keep in touch with our buyers and alert them when we have new listings that might interest them.
I hope this article was helpful and informative. Good luck marketing your properties!
Chip Fortenberry, ALC, MBA