Michael LaFido

Broker and Luxury Home Specialist
Jameson Sotheby’s International Realty

Fourteen years in the industry has taught Michael LaFido the importance of superior marketing versus “traditional marketing.” He considers that realization the turning point of his career.

“The ‘traditional marketing’ that is taught in real estate schools and that I learned from my first brokerage wasn’t marketing at all, but simply, ‘put a sign in the yard, host an open house and throw it on the MLS,’” he says. “The problem with our industry is most agents think like real estate agents and not like marketers. Fifty-one percent of homes listed for sale last year failed to sell; selling a home is much more than price, condition and location.”

The method LaFido and his team have developed over the past 14 years takes a more comprehensive, proactive approach to marketing a home. “Marketing is much more than which websites a home will be seen on,” he says. “When selling a home, my job is to make the home ‘stand out’ from the competition and be ‘more memorable’ to both agents and buyers.”

Those strategies might seem obvious, yet such attention to detail and his personal marketing investment is one area where most agents often cut corners. A case in point: LaFido is turning one home around for a client whose previous broker simply kept lowering the price, as most do when a home hasn’t sold. The luxury homeowner wanted a fresh new approach to marketing his home, so he hired LaFido to implemented his marketing systems and give his home an amazing “mini transformation” look. LaFido is attracting buyer interest with it listed at $5.5 million ($1.3 million more than when it was listed with the previous agent).

Because of his proven marketing plan and his track record of selling homes that other agents fail at, LaFido has been in high demand. “We are very selective in choosing the clients we decide to work with,” he says. “Licensed agents with other companies have hired us to market their own homes. Our proven systems work, no matter where the home is located or the price point.”