Preparation refers to the planning and work that must occur before a property hits the market. For re-sale homes this typically involves repairs, upgrades, touch-ups and enhancements to the property itself. It is also crucial to understand your objectives and time frames.

As an example, key activities within the marketing plan must be timed properly if you have purchased another home – not only for your logistical benefit, but to ensure negotiating leverage is in your favour when offers are most likely to come in.

Perhaps the most overlooked or worst-implemented aspect of property marketing is positioning. When I've taken over the marketing of properties that did not sell under the management of another realtor, in some cases I've determined that poor positioning was the biggest flaw in the previous agent's marketing.

All the flashy marketing in the world is useless if it targets the wrong buyers. Understanding the impact of excellent positioning is easiest to explain through counter examples.

Click the "our property marketing plan" button above to read more about the OttawaAgent.ca framework and project plan for selling. We explain how conscious, carefully targetted positioning nets you the best results, and show you concrete examples of how the best of intentions in poor positioning can seriously undermine the sale of your property.

Pricing is so important that many agents espouse the philosophy that price is all that matters. They suggest that if you price a property properly, it will sell regardless of what else you do. In my opinion, this is too often used as an excuse for passive or ineffective marketing.

There is no question that price is extremely important – however, a property priced at market value may not sell if it is not presented properly or if it is attracting all the wrong buyers because of ineffective positioning.

A wise person, the owner of the first Brokerage I associated with, said to me in my early days in the real estate business: “a well-listed property is half sold.” Back in those days, "well-listed" was mostly constrained to getting the facts of the property correct, including a decent write-up with clear but unsensational photos, having a visible yard sign, and launching on the best day of the week.

The stakes are much higher today. Buyers expect all homes to look like models when they are for sale and are distracted or deterred by the slightest flaw in the presentation of a property.

Having properly prepared a property and crafted the marketing channels, the final act is to promote it through those channels. In the 21st century, the bulk of promotion is performed online, because that is where the vast majority (nearing 100%) of potential buyers are shopping.

There are many opportunities to employ ineffective methods of marketing a property offline, and some of these are still used widely by many realtors. Furthermore, many traditional property marketing and sales tactics are designed only to benefit the agent, in some cases undermining the seller's position.

While online marketing is paramount, it is not all created equally for your benefit as the property owner. Most agent marketing online benefits the agent, and not so much the property or the seller. We think critically about online marketing and explain clearly how our work is exclusively designed to get you the best results possible in current market conditions.

The biggest myth in real estate in the 21st century is that the latest versions of old-school collusive, self-serving realtor tactics are somehow the best practices to look for in real estate agents.

What am I talking about? The many ways agents use your property to build their business or increase their income before putting it on the open market for all potential buyers to see: "coming soon" signs, "exclusive" listings, promoting to their "network", and shadow listing systems like knok'd's "FirstList".

All of these are designed purely for the agent's benefit: to give them more time to attract new clients using your property as bait, or to increase the chance they can double end the sale.

The second biggest myth about working with a real estate agent to sell your property is a holdover from the earliest days of the industry: the idea that the best agent to hire is the one who "quotes the highest sale price" for your property. The fallacy of this one should be obvious: if you're going to hire the agent who gives you the highest value assessment for your property, then the best way for an agent to become the "top producer" is to simply quote high prices, and then work you for price reductions once you're on the market.

This "list and reduce" strategy is empowered by the public's misconception of the job of the seller's agent. In the days before buyer representation, the seller's agent would interact directly with buyers and indeed try to "sell" them the property. This would include all those archaic sales tactics to bamboozle the buyer on value and price and "handle" their objections.

This is not how the industry is regulated to operate today. Buyer representation and the vast resources buyers can access on the Internet render these practices obsolete. Yet the myth persists.

The third myth about hiring a real estate agent to sell your property is that the best agents are the ones who already "have" the buyer(s).

If a real estate agent tells you they have a buyer for your property - or that they have "all the buyers" in the area, or "hundreds of qualified buyers in their database, ready to buy" - then why do you need or want them to list your property?

If an agent already "has a buyer" then the agent's duty is to that buyer. Hiring that agent to represent you is a terrible idea. Another terrible idea is to sell your property to that agent's buyer (if their claim of having a buyer for your property is true, which in most cases it is not) without finding out if there are other buyers who are also interested and might pay more, or induce this buyer to pay more.

Here's an idea straight out of 1940. Let's open your house to the public, for anyone and everyone to show up and march through every room, whether or not they have any interest or capacity to purchase it.

In 1940 this made sense. It wasn't necessarily easy for buyers to get an idea of what your house was like inside before arranging a private showing. And private showings were more time consuming to arrange than they are today.

Today, we have this thing called the Internet that allows everyone to get a pretty good idea of your property before booking a private showing. Buyers simply text their agent to ask them to book a private showing, which the agent can easily do using an online showing management system.

Open houses enable anyone to come have a look: neighbours, strangers, thieves, insurance adjusters, and of course, people just starting to think about buying a house who want to get a feel for what’s out there. That last group are not ready to buy yet. Once they are, they narrow their search and their agent books showings on homes that best suit their needs, whether there are open houses or not.

This is a tricky one. Even credible sources like RECO include selecting an agent who is active in your local neighbourhood as one characteristic to look for in hiring an agent who will do a good job managing the sale of your property and representing your interests.

Many myths have a grain of truth at their core, which is what makes them so compelling. The idea that hiring the agent with the most "for sale" signs in your neighbourhood is a good idea is a myth.

Space is limited on this page so I'll give just one reason. This one reason is kryptonite to the wisdom of hiring the neighbourhood "star": suppose it is true that agent Jane "sells the most houses in the area". Jane represents more buyers and sellers than anyone else in your neighbourhood. This means, by definition, the probability is very high that Jane will be, 1. representing buyers interested in your home, and 2. representing your competition. Reason 1 puts her in direct conflict of interest in serving you, and reason 2 dilutes her focus on your property.

The reality is that neighbourhood stars focus on one area because it is convenient - easier to become well-known and less expensive and time consuming to serve clients. Doing a lot of business in one area does not necessarily correlate with doing a superb job for each client. There is nothing inherently wrong with hiring the neighbourhood star - nothing prevents them from being an excellent advocate - but there is nothing in their stardom that provides that assurance either.

There is some correlation between achieving a sale price at or above established market value and time on market; but there are a lot of "buts" in that assessment.

Performance is highly dependent on market conditions and the specific property. "Above asking" is irrelevant. Established market value is the benchmark. Often, especially in a strong seller's market (for a specific property - even if the broader market is slow), selling in one day means missing the opportunity to sell for a much higher price.

If you have 8 showings booked for tomorrow when your home went on the market yesterday, ask your agent why they are encouraging you to accept the offer than came in this morning from the first buyer to see your property. In hiring an agent to represent you in selling your property, look for strength, not expediency.