It’s a buyer’s market right now – agents need to work harder to garner attention for the properties they list, and that means getting creative.
Most conventional marketing strategies have already been tested – glossy brochures, news-paper and magazine advertising, open houses, postcard drops in a neighbourhood – but now agents are looking to attract attention in new ways, especially for higher-end listings.
Of course, the higher the listing price, the more an agent can afford to spend on marketing the property. But it doesn’t all come down to dollars and cents. Clever marketing means creating a buzz. For Charles Sezlik of Prudential Town Centre Realty in Ottawa, that means shooting mini films to showcase homes with a story or spectacular setting.
Two years ago, he started with a short video and voice-over for a high-end home. Since then, his product has become gradually more sophisticated, to the point where he recently hired actors, a makeup artist and a professional film crew to produce a short film for a condo listing. At $3.2-million, the two-storey, 3,385-square-foot penthouse is one of the most expensive condo listings in Ottawa.
The film sells a lifestyle. Beautiful people are shown enjoying twinkling views of the city from the rooftop terrace, sliding into a hot tub, going out to dinner at a nearby restaurant and shopping. “The idea is to convey all the benefits of living at this amazing address,” says Sezlik. “The film gives you a feeling for everything that this property can offer a buyer.”
A second film was shot at a house that backs onto the Rideau River. Dreamy scenes of fishing with children, breakfast on the back terrace, setting off for a run along the river and launching a kayak from the lawn create the story of an unusual house in the middle of a city. That home sold in seven days for a few thousand dollars less than the $1.189-mil-lion listing price.
Sezlik has been disseminating his films as widely as possible, posting them to his website, Face-book and YouTube hoping that many will watch them and pass them along.
That’s certainly what happened to a short film by Neo Properties to promote a contemporary glass home on the Gold Coast of Australia. The film, shot in black and white, shows a curvaceous naked woman asleep on a sofa and a man who gets out of bed, lifts some weights in the gym, takes a plunge in his swimming pool, makes some coffee and answers the door all while naked. As he waltzes off down the driveway tugging on a pair of jeans, the real estate agent at the door, Ian Adams, finishes with: “92 Savoy Drive. So private you can walk around naked.” The film has garnered more than 37,000 views in the six months since it was posted. The house sold for $1.73 million Australian three weeks after being listed.
Back in Ottawa, Royal LePage agent Karen Scott has taken a different approach with a new listing. At an open house last week-end, Scott brought in works by members of the Artists of Stone-bridge and held an art exhibition in an innovative bid to tempt visitors to the home, which is listed for $859,900. More than 60 people came to the open house and show on a stormy, wet day.