MLS- Dues based fee. I pay yearly dues to my local Board of Realtors, and I also pay monthly for MLS key access.

Real Estate booklets- Depends on the size of the ad. You pay for "spaces" on a page. Pages can be split between realtors to cut costs.

Signs- $25-350 each, depending upon which size/how much personalization. Photo signs are more. Larger, heavier grade signs are more.

Flyer boxes- around $30 each

Newspaper ads- Several ways to do this. "Group Ads" within the local realty office where each "spot" is paid for. Brokers can often subsidize some of this cost. I pay around $150 month just to keep my "spots" open for my use. Additional line-ads in the Real Estate section can be anywhere from $50 and up.

Realtor.com- Free for no-frills, no description, no additional photo. For "enhanced service", they charge you based upon the number of listings you had the previous year. When I renewed this year, I paid around $500. Next year it will be more, as my listings are doubling from last year.

Flyers- Around $75/month per listing. (But I do EVERYTHING in color, so my paper fees are higher than some.)

Open houses/broker's opens- Open houses usually run me around $150. I run an ad, I run flyers, I buy food/drinks, sometimes if it's empty I'll buy a few "staging" touches.

Broker's opens are usually sponsored by a hungry-for business lender. They'll cater the food, etc.

Not mentioned, Virtual Tours- Around $150-$200 per tour, under 3000 sq ft.

Staging- I do this for vacant houses. A minimum of $250 for 90 days of "borrowing" the staged items.

Also not mentioned, and not a direct "marketing" cost, but the cost to just be in business includes:

-Desk fees to brokerage. Anywhere from $0-$1500 per month, depending on which brokerage you're at.

-Monthly dues

-All other expenses

-Self-paid taxes/insurance

-Cut to broker

Those are some of the ways the commission dollars go toward marketing (and the cost to be in business.)

Hope that helps!

Thanks
So that's about it in terms of ways to market?

OH - TV ads too right? Cable shows?

What constitutes a virtual tour? I have 9 pictures, you put your mouse on the number and the picture comes up, you don't have to click.

I'm surpirsed by the Realtor.com thing - my realtor was adamant about not doing this and it doesn't seem that expensive. So...if she was just putting my listin up, say with just the one photo - would it be more expensive because she doesn't have a lot of listings on there? I.e. does the individual cost of a listing go down as you use it more?
She won't put up corner road signs (and I'm rural so that I think would be really helpful), no flyer box either.

Mostly though I was just wondering what more we could do. If I could convince her.

I'm surpirsed by the Realtor.com thing - my realtor was adamant about not doing this and it doesn't seem that expensive. So...if she was just putting my listin up, say with just the one photo - would it be more expensive because she doesn't have a lot of listings on there?

A Realtor can't enhance just one listing. They must buy a subscription that covers all their listings for a year. The price is dependent on how many listings they had the previous year. Depending on what kind of subscription they get it can be thousands per year. As far as road signs go, some cities and counties will not allow signs on public property.

Signs are not a problem with the county/city.

For a basic 1 picture subscription for the year if they only had a few or no previous year listings?

There is not a "1 picture subscription". Realtors don't pay extra to have their listings on Realtor.com - if it's on the MLS it should have one picture and basic information on Realtor.com. It is the "enhanced" listings that have up to 6 pictures and a more detailed description that agents pay extra for.

I just did a realtor.com search for a house in your town from $200,000 to $300,000; yours was the 1st listed :)

I'm surprised the house isn't sold yet, I'd buy it if it was in NJ.

How come you went with a smaller firm instead of one of the national companies?

Oh! Thanks Roselvr for checking on that. I'm ok with with a basic listing I guess - anyone interested in my property would I think be interested because of the acreage and if that's the case I think they'd go find it on the brokers website for more info.
Realtor.com isn't much help for me in that regard since you can't search for acreage even if you have it in an enhanced ad. That's one reason I didn't flip out on my realtor when she said she didn't use Realtor.com
NP Dodge is I think the second largest REA in the Omaha area. I've heard CBS is the biggest but not so I've ever noticed in terms of number of signs I see out or offices etc.
So its local but has a significant presence in this area. And "Omaha/Council Bluffs" is really the only "area" around here LOL! Lincoln is not quite an hour but with gas prices I don't think I'm going to get a buyer from Lincoln.

It doesn't have that much curb appeal, only 2 showings in 30 days. I put the living room window in the back where the view of the sunsets are really nice. Its biggest problem is its too small.
What seems to happen on rural properties a lot is that by the time someone has bought land, if they have limited funds their choices are (1) build on a slab or crawlspace to get more square footage and have some money for a barn or (2) put it on a basement but decrease the size of the house. Not that there are plenty of houses out there with both basements and more sq footage.
When I was looking to buy an existing house it seemed that most people at the lower price range chose option one. When I couldn't find anything to buy and decided to build I chose option 2. The basement is poured, dry and finishable but I haven't done it myself. So....more than you wanted to know!

If the company is that large, perhaps they should rethink paying realtor.com at least to get a link to their web site. They may not know that the listing goes there any way, maybe you could print the page & show them?

As for searching acreage, yes you can. Click on the Advanced search it gives the option under lot features - Lot Size.

I like how the house looks like a rancher from the front, but is dug out in the back. We've had our eye on one similar that's a few miles away. It finally went for sale but is way over our price range :(

You are still advertised on militaryby owner.com, I'm surprised you haven't had more lookers.

I'm in the middle of getting a few rooms ready for a Tuesday showing and am pressed for time right now; but how does your house compare price wise with others for sale?

Here is a link that might be useful: search results

So you think getting a link from Realtor.com for every NP Dodge listing is something the company/broker itself should consider (vs. an individual realtor)?

Advanced search. I use that on the MLS and broker websites, guess I never noticed it on realtor.com - thanks again!

Someone said it recently in a different thread - if you know you are going to have to resell buy something somewhere that everyone wants. Military types these days here really like GOOD SCHOOLS, new construction, HOA's, kid friendly neighborhoods (i.e. where other military families live, easy commutes and easy resale. There are a lot of new construction neighborhoods right around Offutt that might as well be base housing.
I live in a small town south of town where military don't usually buy. A neighbor who is a marine's husband has his master's in education and taught at the school for a year. He didn't like the administration but has no problem with his kids being in that school system. However the school systems in the suburb/towns around the base have really great reputations so military does not tend to come down here. Mostly civil service like myself. So that's 1. 2 - what's a military family going to do with 9 acres for 3 years? Maybe if someone was going to retire here.

Essentially I'm in the unenviable position of need a very specific buyer. Someone who doesn't like (1) HOA's, (2) wants 9 acres for 4H or sheep herding dog practice, feeder calves, horses - all of which means they have to foot the price of a barn since I don't have one and put in pasture since I lease the property to a farmer. I was going to put it into native grasses and wildflowers to try to increase my wildlife experience. (3) has only 1 child, max 2 (4) a handy husband to finish the basement.

I did an acreage search in Cass County and you can see acreages tend to be all over the map. Bigger houses, not quite as new, less acreage, more trees, same price as mine which is smaller house, more acreage, not as desirable with few trees but much newer. Every acreage property is a little different with a lot of little trade-offs. Very hard to price. I'm on a paved road which can be a very big deal. But its south east of Omaha but all of Omaha's growth and a lot of the jobs have been to the west. Etc. etc. etc.
I was shocked that Cass County which is very rural had 501 properties for sale total - Holy Cow that's insane and scary. I don't dare look at Sarpy county.

As for the back - I hate decks that hang on the second story. But that hill wasn't dug out, at least not entirely - I had dirt brought up from the bottom of my acreage and packed around the house. (See why I'm losing money right up front? :)

Here is a link that might be useful: acreage search on cass county

I have never heard of a broker/office paying for the upgraded realtor.com. That is a individual agent expense. Some agents may like it others may not. I don't use it and have never had a client ask for it. I would rather spend my marketing money in other places.

Also, just because you are the biggest company in the area doenst mean you have the best agents. Some of the most experienced/best agents are with the smaller companies because they don't need the big name for business they can rely on their reputation. Size doens't always matter!

Somehow, I managed to post only some of what I typed out. After I said I'm in the middle of getting a few rooms ready for a Tuesday showing and am pressed for time right now; but how does your house compare price wise with others for sale? I also had something to the effect of, when looking at your competition, check to see who else in your area has the realtor.com enhanced listing. If your house hasn't sold (how long is the contract?) you may want to think to switch to one of the other realtors that has it. For a house like yours, you need all of the exposure you can get.

I have never heard of a broker/office paying for the upgraded realtor.com. That is a individual agent expense. Some agents may like it others may not.

I'm not a realtor so I have no clue who pays for what. I wouldn't doubt that all places are different since this forum serves all over the world. What an office / agent might do in NJ, they may not do in Kansas.

I don't use it and have never had a client ask for it. I would rather spend my marketing money in other places.

Realtor.com seems to be really popular. Reading posts here since January, there are people looking out of state and rely on realtor.com. At some point, it may be one of the main search engines and may end up losing agents money if they don't start using it.

As a buyer, it's a valuable tool, especially when I can click on the agents web site link and go right to their page. For the houses I've found that don't have the link, I try to google, which is another step. I've found that these smaller offices are harder to get to, some I have to go through a few pages of google results to find the page.

This may be regional, but on top of the above, I also pay
NAR Dues
Association of Realtor Dues $380 per year
RE/MAX.com Dues, $45 per month
RE/MAX Francise Dues $378 per year
My own personal website, sponsored and non sponsered link, (Per clicks, I turn it off at $400 per month
The website itself is $1000 per year
My monthly desk fee is $1900 per month
Three MLS's at $500 per year each
All the essentials which are small but add up, like paper, ink cartridges, fax cartriges
$395 per month for the Realtor Magazine that is "free at the grocery store" :)
$175 for each add in sundays paper, (2 inch)

Im sure there are some more, but i'm getting depressed right now, so im gonna stop :)

Virtual tours are done by photographers with special camera features. Usually placed with music. Alot of realtors have gotten away from this since there are so many programs now that allow you to do it yourself and its a pretty nice job.

Linda, ....geez.
3 MLS? What's that about? National, regional and city or something? And it all just looks like one portal?

Do you use the tv shows?

jlpcarter - your right but it doesn't guarentee finding the right realtor and it can be harder to figure who to use among the smaller companies. What do you think of my thoughts on this?
Smaller brokerages - Maybe I'm wrong but the smaller brokerages seem to have "natives" working at them. Not always but often. And that can be an advantage.
Its the whole tap into the people who have lived somewhere forever and knows everyone thing. Transplant realtors who have been somewhere 15 years may know an area very well but sometimes natives really know an area, all the stories, who owned what when, its almost an instincitve gut thing.
I struggled with that decision as I think that can be important in Nebraska. There are sort of two groups here, those who have family going way back and the more numerous transplants who may have lived here quite awhile. I'm not sure how much the two groups really mix.
I didn't go that route but am not sure it was the right decision.

I don't hear from my realtor unless I track her down. I left a message about a price drop and she left me a message saying she didn't think it was time. The 2nd showing realtor says he thinks I'm priced ok. That's a surprise to me really. Hm. now what. I'm thinking I need corner road signs (I'm in the middle of nowhere) but can't seem to get her to do it.

This company is free and they are in a building mode for realtors so they are pass discounts onto your clients too...
Hey if it's free, I'm on it! They seem to be getting a lot of interest from the realtors on the site. I found the on active rain but you can go to directly to their site here's both:

http://activerain.com/blogs/agentmarketing

or

http://www.offerangel.com/?v=affiliate

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.offerangel.com/?v=affiliate

Linda, ....geez.
3 MLS? What's that about? National, regional and city or something? And it all just looks like one portal?
Do you use the tv shows?

Mary, 3 MLS's in my area is pretty much necessary. Within a half hour in any direction, you can be in another county, so all counties are important.

No, I don't use the TV advertising because it is sporatic. The whole county doesnt get it and most of the people buying are coming from another county or using the internet. I know an agent who has been on the TV for four years. SHe hasnt gotten one call. She puts her ads on there because it makes her sellers happy to see their house on TV. To me, thats not cost effective.

Hm. The MLS' here cover more than one county during a search. Maybe its just transparent to the user then.