Mary Opfer
RE/MAX Unlimited Northwest
I ran a one-page color ad last year in the Luxury Waterfront Market, a special magazine the Northwest Herald put out, and included it as an insert in the paper for a home on the river in Cary listed for $775,000. The ad cost $750 (I got it at a reduced rate as the paper still had available pages to fill and the rep gave me a discount to half of that). I received no calls from it at all. The seller liked the ad, and it looked good, but another Realtor brought the buyer in. I don’t think I’d do it again.

Ralph Binetti
RE/MAX Suburban
About a year ago, I was working with transferees for a few months. I showed them 80-100 homes. They finally chose a luxury home, and two weeks prior to closing, their company relocated them again elsewhere. So, we closed on the house and put it back on the market the next day for thousands less than they purchased it in order to sell quickly. I took the listing for nothing because the people were going to take a loss on the home and I felt it was the least that I could do to help.

Rich Kasper
Century 21 Sussex & Reilly
We listed a beautiful $2 million home in Lakeview and, because its price point and target audience warranted strong marketing, spent $7,500 to promote it. The marketing included extensive staging of the home, a six-page/four-color brochure, virtual tour, dedicated Web site and catered broker’s open house. The result was a close-to-asking price sale in several weeks.

Santo Rizzo
Rizzo Realty Group
The most that I’ve spent in the past 31 years to market a luxury home was $1,000. Was it worth it? Of course! The money spent helped to increase awareness. However, the final sale resulted from my proactive sales approach. I picked up the phone and called everyone I knew in my personal network. This tactic greatly accelerated the sale of that listing, and every listing I’ve ever sold since. The power of personalizing the sales process is immeasurable.

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