The Best Marketing Piece for a Seller

Back when I was in high school the Coca Cola Company announced it was changing its secret formula.  I was addicted to Cokes maybe having up to seven a day.  I was so excited to try this New Coke. Imagine if it was better than the old Coke? Coke and Pepsi back then were much bigger rivals as there was no Monster or Red Bull or flavored waters and alternative fruity drinks.  People rooted for Coke or Pepsi like their favorite football team or political party.  So, when New Coke tasted like a Pepsi sugary knock off, millions of people including myself were crushed and angry. I secretly bought everything from the shelf and stockpiled it my bedroom cabinets.  I told my Dad who was in on the heist but never let my Mom in on it as she was the sugar police and way ahead of her time on all things health.

Anyway, it was a marketing debacle that turned brilliant as old Coke became Coke Classic and the secret formula would stay on the shelves. Other companies like Kentucky Fried Chicken have their secret formulas that they guard in the vaults (or at least on a napkin behind the cash register).

Echo Fine Properties has a secret formula on the listing side of things. Actually,  57 of them through our Home ECHOnomics Guarantee. However I will reveal our biggest secret weapon today.  When you put your home on the market, we lower the price once a month.  Yes, you read right. The secret is lowering the price once a month.  Huh?  What!  &%$&@* you say!  Anyone can do that and “Give It Away”!  Actually, we only lower it ten dollars.  More *%&#!@, I’m sure you are saying, and now maybe you are getting ready to email me an angry letter vowing to never read another Jeff’s Journal.

Ah, but now that you’ve gotten your anger out, let me explain and give you the “rub” (I think I’m using “rub” in the right context btw). 

Actually, let me ask you first.  Why do you think changing the price by 10 bucks is the best piece of marketing ECHO does?

Top of the list?  Refresh?  Kind of… if that was your guess.

Here is the deal….Hundreds of thousands of Buyers in search of homes are set up on automatic searches.  Sometimes by their Realtor and sometimes by themselves.  Tens of thousands of Realtors locally do the same thing in constant search of the perfect home for their client. There are two ways this occurs. The first is a new listing alert. The second is a price change. That price change could be $100,000 or 10% of the purchase price or ten bucks.  Ten dollars is the price of a decent lunch tip and it’s not even the selling price unless you got a full price offer.  If your home has been on the market at $899,990 and someone after 30 days offered you $899,980 – are you telling me you wouldn’t take it?

The ten dollar price change is basically a way to manipulate the computer into sending out tens of thousands of free ads directly to the end consumer and their sales representative. 

So, now you ask, why would I let out such a valuable secret?  It’s because the execution of doing this consistently is too hard. Our model of internal paid support staff makes all of this happen. Basically an agent on their own will never make this happen as they don’t have the internal support staff that we do.

So, now when you see those weird Echo prices and oddball ten dollar price changes, you’ll know it isn’t some dumb new Coke strategy!

Jeff Lichtenstein, originally from Chicago, got his start in the home furnishings textile business where he traveled over 35 weeks a year selling fabrics. After the family business was sold, Jeff moved to Florida and became a real estate agent. Today he is the owner and broker of Echo Fine Properties, a luxury residential brokerage voted best brokerage of the year. Jeff manages a non-traditional model of real estate that mimics a traditional business model. Echo has 80 agents, an average of one million dollars per transaction and over 500 million in annual sales. Between traveling for work and annual family trips to national parks with his wife and 2 now adult children, Jeff has visited 49 states. He is also one of the few Chicago White Sox fans you’ll ever meet.  Some publications he has been quoted in.

Feel free to ask him a question directly at jeff@EchoFineProperties.com including a complementary  valuation of your home.