Managing the marketing and sale of your highly valuable real estate asset, whether it's your home or an investment property, is a serious responsibility.

When I started working in real estate in 2005, I was surprised how ad hoc most Realtor's services are. Coming from a professional commercial product development, marketing, and management background, I created a marketing plan, went on to learn deeply about the property selling process through research and experience, and continued to refine the elements of the plan accordingly.

On this page I outline my property marketing plan, the services you can expect, the options you have, the breakdown of marketing costs between me and you as the property owner, and the Brokerage fees you pay. On my Selling Your Property Page I describe in more detail the elements of my marketing plan and how the tools and tactics differ from most real estate agents . For now, I'll tell you in one sentence why my services are different, almost every step of the way, than the services provided by the typical agent or "team":

If you're hiring an agent to put your home on the market and get it sold, shouldn't you understand your agent's marketing plan and exactly how each element of the plan is designed to improve the sale of your home?

• Net you more money after costs?
• Hit your target closing date?
• Survive financial, insurance, inspection, appraisal, and other challenges posed by some prospective buyers?
• Employ the best offer strategy to capitalize on behaviour of buyers in your local market at this precise time?

Naturally, you want to work with someone with a track record of success, who is professional and personable; but how do you measure their success? How do you separate personality from performance? What is performance? If a realtor makes a lot of money or "sells a lot of houses" does that necessarily mean they are getting the best results for each client? 

Many a real estate agent has built a profitable business through neighbourhood socializing, and ensuring everybody around knows about every house they "sell". But a closer examination reveals that there is no correlation between the agent's success, and the results for each individual client. Simply getting your home sold is a mediocre accomplishment. Ensuring the best results requires the investment of time and money, attention to detail at every step of the process, and an unwavering commitment to actions designed for your benefit.

There are a few secrets about the real estate industry that consumers don't think about when hiring an realtor. One key secret is this:

That's why most of the "services" provided by typical real estate agents and "teams"...

• open houses
• coming soon signs
• posting on "off market" portals like "knokd"
• exclusive or "pocket listing" marketing
• lawn signs (yes, even lawn signs - we will explain!)
• "buyers in waiting" lists

...are designed for one purpose: to use your property to generate more business for themselves. I couldn't sleep at night if I operated that way. I critically analyse every marketing action and deploy those that focus squarely on delivering better results for the client (you, the property owner) with no thought to leveraging your property for my benefit.

A smart plan ensures that every dollar spent (by you or by me) generates (for you) tens, hundreds, or thousands of dollars in return. The OttawaAgent.ca property marketing plan is built on a framework I call The 5 P's Of Property Marketing. This is the plan I originated in 2005 and have worked hard to continuously refine, augment, and improve over the years.

The 5 P's of Property Marketing, embarked upon only after adopting a Product Mindset, are:​

• Preparation
• Positioning
• Pricing
• Presentation
• Promotion

​There is a 6th P that comes into play to varying degrees as well, depending on market conditions: Persistence. Persistence is really part of Promotion, but deserves some individual attention. This is not some trite list of words - you will see there is meat in the plan, and lots of examples of how it has been successful for clients over the years, sometimes where others have failed before. Read all about the 5 P's of Property Marketing here:

The Plan:

Comparison Table: