Marketing Plan
Instead of trying to sell everything in-house like the big companies, we cooperate fully and give our listings as much exposure as possible. We make less money per deal but all our listings sell and the client is better served. Every real buyer is working with at least one broker, and there are over 55,000 brokers in L.A. County. Thoughtfully marketing your property to all of them gives you ten times the power of in-house marketing. Leo’s 5400 sales record proves this.
Multiple listing services: The semi-antiquated MLS is still the most important and valuable marketing tool in commercial real estate. We are members of LoopNet, AIR, Costar and every MLS in Southern California. Leo still writes all the remarks and picks all the photos. It sounds simple, but knowing how to effectively market property is an art that most agents never master.
Web: Loopnet, Costar, Cityfeet, Commercialsearch, Zillow (Godzillow), Trulia, Redfin etc. are the monsters of real estate marketing now, but they’re highly fallible, often auto-populating the before photos on rehabbed buildings, etc. We input everything ourselves and re-proof everything every couple weeks. Sounds like a no-brainer, but most brokers don’t do this.
28 year broker/investor network: Over the years we’ve built great relationships with hundreds of brokers and investors. When we input a new listing they automatically get it emailed to their phone or computer.
Constant monitoring: Vacant properties are watched carefully. We befriend the neighbors, use SimpliSafe when appropriate, and have a full-time field rep who inspects them daily. Problems are taken care of immediately, and if there’s a break-in we often have the police there in time to catch them.
Transparency: In order to get the highest price possible, Leo doesn’t represent buyers on his own listings. Representing both sides of a transaction is the equivalent of a lawyer representing the plaintiff and the defendant in a lawsuit. (Truth be told, double-ending deals wouldn’t even be legal if not for the extremely powerful national realtors lobby.) Our buyers’ agents are great but don’t get special treatment. Sellers are better served if outside agents have as much chance of selling our listings as we do. We get multiple offers on most of our listings and outside agents play a critical role in our program.
Stay busy: Having a lot of listings is a huge selling advantage, that’s why every top broker has a lot of listings. More listings means more broker calls, more buyer calls, more opportunities to put deals together.
Instant response: We answer all calls live from 8:00am until 6pm, 7 days a week, and Leo puts his home number in every listing. No other commercial broker does this. Questions get answered immediately, and our buyers’ agents are always available to show property and write offers.
Sell it in 30 days: We try real hard to sell everything as fast as possible. ‘Days on market’ is the first thing anyone looks at when they’re deciding how much to offer. The longer it’s been on the market, the lower the offer!
