Third-Party Sites: Looking for an Edge, Staying Professional
| May 07, 2013
Third-party sites such as Kijiji or Craigslist have become increasingly popular for real estate industry professionals to promote their listings, usually without any cost. These third-party sites have sections to advertise homes for sale or rent; often times these sites are used by the actual owners of the properties – but sometimes they’re used by the industry professionals hired by the owners to sell the property or find a tenant for it. Beyond that, though, industry professionals sometimes use these sites as a means of working around the advertising rules.
An example of a real estate industry professional using a third party site in a misleading manner would be a sellers’ representative who had a listing on MLS® at one price and also advertised it on Craigslist at a different price with the condition the buyer use their services to purchase the home. Equally misleading would be if one associate took pictures and descriptions of a property listed by another associate and then posted an ad on Kijiji as if the property was their own listing, in order to attract new clients. Behaviour like this is misleading and could undermine the public’s confidence in the industry.
Using third-party sites can be a very effective way for a real estate professional to gain more exposure for a listing, at a relatively low (or zero) cost. When industry professionals use third-party sites for marketing while abiding by the advertising guidelines that are in place, they are an effective way to reach out to an even broader clientele base. The may give real estate professionals that extra bit of exposure it takes to move a listing.
Generating new business is often about finding an edge, and no place offers more ways to promote yourself than the Internet. But when looking for that edge, make sure you don’t fall off of it.
RECA encourages industry professionals to review the Advertising Guidelines and the Information Bulletins on advertising.
Do you use third-party sites to market your listings or yourself?
