I remember going back-to-school shoe shopping one year as a kid.
I had my heart set on a pair of red Adidas Sambas.
With cash in hand, I biked to the mall and made a bee line for K-Mart’s sneaker section.
But the Sambas were nowhere in sight.
I searched high and low before approaching the cashier.
After hunting around for awhile we finally tracked the shoes down – they’d been mistakenly placed in the women’s sandal section!
If I hadn’t gone out of my way and made the effort I would’ve had to settle for a lesser shoe (British Knights, anyone?).
And the Sambas would’ve sat in the sandal section, unsold.
Why did this happen?
If you ask me, it boils down to one thing - poor marketing.
What does this story have to do with the Toronto real estate market?
Last week, a one-bedroom condo popped up for sale on MLS.
The suite has a lot going for it – it’s located in a great area (St Lawrence Market) and it’s in a highly sought after building.
However, the listing has one major flaw... the property is listed as having “0” bedrooms.
That's right. It's a one-bedroom condo that's actually listed as a bachelor/studio!
Anyone who has searched for real estate online knows that “minimum bedrooms” is one of the key criteria to be entered.
Naturally, anyone searching for a one-bedroom condo ticks "1" in the drop down box so that all bachelor suites are excluded from the results.
Guess what? None of these potential purchasers will see the listing for the above property!
Because of this careless marketing error, there are a number of important questions that the sellers will never know the answers to.
Here are a few that immediately spring to mind:
How many potential buyers didn’t see this property when searching on Realtor.ca?
How many automated search programs failed to capture and deliver this listing to buyer clients?
How much more market exposure could this property have received if the listing was posted correctly?
How much more $$$ could it have sold it for?
The key takeaway here? Not all realtors are the same!
Some are better than others (and if you’re considering going with a discount brokerage… you'll get what you pay for).
Be sure to find out exactly what you'll be getting for your commission dollars and make an informed decision.
If you’re thinking of making a move and would like to know how we can help, contact us for more info.