If I Could Only Hire a Real Estate Advertising Agency

Branding, logos, videos, mailers, letterhead, business cards, email marketing, newsletters, Facebook ads, tag lines, slogans, print ads, radio ads — the list goes on and on.

That's a lot of stuff to know, understand and maintain! And I bet a lot of those things are on your to-do list.

At one time or another, you've probably thought, 'I should just put a real estate advertising agency on retainer and be done with all of this!'

Wouldn't it be nice to call a top real estate ad agency and say, 'Yeah, I want the uber-mega-platinum package. The one that will take care of my every branding, marketing and advertising need. Sign me up, I have my credit card number ready.'

Nice? Certainly. Doable? Probably not. If you're like many real estate agents and brokers, you can't afford a real estate advertising agency. You end up doing most of these tasks yourself.

How do you eat an elephant?

You might have heard this saying, 'When eating an elephant take one bite at a time.' (Generally attributed to Creighton Abrams if you're interested.) In other words, when doing something difficult, do it slowly and carefully.

As with any seemingly daunting task, breaking it down into bite-sized pieces will make it easier to manage. And swallow. Try taking one item from your ad agency wish list and tackle that. When you finish that item, take on another task. You can get through it, one bite at a time.

Do it yourself or hire it out?

When is it better to hire someone rather than do it yourself? That depends on many factors, primarily your skill set and your budget. I once had a grand idea to create a new banner graphic for my real estate blog. While I'm not a designer by education, trade or experience, I do have what I think is a 'good eye' for design.

I had some ideas in my head, I just needed to translate those ideas to paper. Or the laptop screen. Whatever. I needed software. Back in those days, a graphics program cost hundreds of dollars. Then I needed to learn to use the software. A few hours on Google and YouTube should be enough, right?

A few hours, right. Have you ever tried to do one seemingly simple thing using unfamiliar software, and then found yourself spending hours reading, learning and whining about it? At some point, it becomes cost effective to hire out the work rather than do it yourself. Where that point is will vary from person to person, but it's a point worth identifying.

Time is money. In my do-it-yourself scenario, not only did I spend time learning new software, I also spent several hours actually creating the graphic. Your time is valuable. The time you spend prospecting, following up with contacts, and working with active clients is all value-added time. It drops revenue straight to the bottom line. Make sure you consider the cost and value of your time when determining whether to do something yourself.

Ultimately in my quest for a new banner graphic, I hired the job out for $300. It probably would have taken me 20 hours to produce a marginal result. At a cost of $300, that means those 20 hours of my time were worth $15/hour. My time is worth WAY more than $15 an hour so it made perfect sense to hire that work out. Ideally I would have evaluated the cost before sinking cash and time into it. Live and learn.

What about crowdsourced solutions?

One option that comes up often in conversations about real estate advertising is crowdsourced solutions. What's a crowdsourced solution?

According to Wikipedia, which happens to be one of the best examples of the technique, 'Crowdsourcing is a distributed problem-solving and production model ... problems are broadcast to an unknown group of solvers in the form of an open call for solutions.'

Looking for help designing a logo? Google 'crowdsourced logo design' and you'll be presented with dozens of options for sites that facilitate crowdsourced logo design. You pay a fee, enter your requirements, and multiple people respond with designs for you to consider. You select a design, and that designer gets your fee.

How do you pick a good crowdsourced solution provider? The same way you pick any other service provider, through research and asking others for their recommendations. One good place for those opinions is the Facebook group, What Should I Spend My Money On?

Crowdsourced solutions can be a viable option to use in place of a real estate advertising agency, but they are not without pitfalls. Some argue that the work is inferior, that you get what you pay for, and that you are better off hiring an individual directly. Do your due diligence. Here's one article that makes a reasonable argument against crowdsourcing.

What not to do

Do not go cheap. I spend a lot of time, too much time, in various forums and groups on the Internet where real estate agents share and discuss the trials and tribulations of being an agent. It seems like at least weekly someone will ask, 'Where's a cheap place to get a logo?' and invariably someone will respond, 'Fiverr! You can get anything on that site for just five bucks!'

Please. Crowdsourcing is one thing, farming out something as critical as your branding, marketing and advertising work for five bucks is another.

Bite, chew, swallow and repeat

Should you hire a real estate advertising agency? Sure. If you can afford it, a great agency will probably do wonders for your business. Most individual agents probably can't afford to retain an ad agency. So get after that elephant one bite at a time. Tackle the tasks one at a time. Investigate crowdsourcing. Do some of the work yourself. Hire out individual pieces. Take it slow and steady, that's what usually wins the race.