For Sale in Leesburg, VA: The Dog Does Not Convey

My business was founded three years ago on the conviction of one person that there is a market out there for someone who understands marketing, technology and real estate.  That in fact, such a market is HUGE because there are so many real estate agents out there who don’t know how to use online tools.  That person isn’t me, it’s Dennis Bruce, the Managing Broker for Long & Foster’s Ashburn Office. I’d quite likely still be at Long & Foster as the Director of Home Service Connections had he not convinced me I had a winning combination of skill and knowledge, a solid business model and a ready market.  He was right about that. Although I have diversified over the years and now work in many different industries, I still do a lot of work in real estate.

Basically, I teach real estate agents how to use websites, blogs, social media, client relationship management tools and property marketing websites in creating effective marketing strategies.  However, I’ve never been a agent myself.  Never had a license, never sold real estate.  I just teach them how to develop their business using these new online tools along with basic principles of good marketing.

Dennis is selling his home in Leesburg, VA, which is known as “Sadie’s Eleven.” Sadie is his faithful black lab of 14 years and Eleven is the acreage.  He asked me if I wanted to put my theories into practice by helping him market the property.  I jumped at the chance to see what I could do using what I teach to everyone else!

There is a listing agent involved here, Pamela Jones.  She is a well respected career agent in the Long & Foster Ashburn Office who is a consistent top producer in Loudoun County and Northern Virginia – for decades now.  She clearly does not need our help to do her job.  However, our knowledge of this fact has not deterred us in the least from “helping” anyway.  [Pam is also a long time friend.  I subscribe to the definition of "friend" as someone who knows all about you and still likes you anyway.  It applies here.]

My first Big Marketing Idea was to put pictures of Sadie’s Eleven on the photo sharing site Flickr.  The pictures have a high resolution, the site itself has extraordinary traffic, and each photo can have a unique description which better showcases the property.  I can also access it without being an agent, and have dropped in a link to the listing information on the MLS.  I use a Flickr application for Facebook that automatically posts new photos to my Facebook page.  Flickr albums can also be posted and shared by others. The slideshow feature on Flickr works just as well as similar ones on real estate websites, but the photos are sharper.

Currently there are 122 photos in the Sadie’s Eleven album that show multiple aspects of the house, the in-ground pool, deck with a hot tub, guest house, detached 6 car garage, and horse barn.

Shooting the photos was our first big collaborative marketing effort.  [Think of my use of the term "our" like the royal "we" - it indicates more than one person but generally only one of us is in charge here.]

I would shoot the photos and put them on my computer.  Dennis would scroll through and delete the ones he didn’t like and make helpful suggestions about additional shots.

Dennis: “You should take an “x” shot from a “y” angle.”

Me: “That’s a great idea!”

Dennis: “I’m surprised you didn’t think of that yourself.”

<repeat>    <repeat>    <repeat>

What you don’t see in the photos is that we were shooting around a painting crew for most of the day.  The house is all stone, windows, skylights and wood – cedar and mahogany.  For most of Saturday, a crew of three moved every piece of furniture away from the walls in all the rooms and removed all the blinds from the windows to rub gallons of teak oil into the wood trim.   They moved, we moved. Then we put everything back together when they left.  The house looks great in the photos with no hint of the activity behind them.

The other thing we quickly discovered is that the dog, the famous Sadie of Sadie’s Eleven, kept turning up in the pictures.  Some of them I re-shot and some of them I just left her in.  I leave it to Dennis to decide whether we need to add a disclaimer to the MLS listing that “the dog does not convey.” [See if you can find her.]

This is truly a test for me in using alternate methods of marketing in real estate, in addition to using the traditional ones. I’m willing to think outside the box and Dennis is willing to go along for that ride.  He often tells me (and many others too) “What isn’t tried can’t fail.”   And fear of failure shouldn’t keep us from trying new things.

This is kind of like having my own reality show.  Sort of.  I’ll keep you posted on “our” progress.  And feel free to jump in with your own suggestions and feedback.  I learn something new every day and no one has cornered the market on good ideas!  I will certainly welcome yours!