In an era when most brokers and agents have consultants banging down their door to try and teach them the latest and greatest way to optimize their site, drive traffic with Twitter and become everyone in the neighborhood’s friend on Facebook, one Waltham brokerage has opted for a different path. For the past seven years, the core of McGeough LaMacchia Realty’s marketing effort has been local TV ads.
Anthony LaMacchia, co-broker/owner, says it works. “I’m cautious when I talk about it. I mean, I’m not over here counting money [all day]. But it definitely works. It brings in a lot of sellers and some buyers, and we have a good system for converting them,” he explained, with the majority of their clients first contacting the firm in response to the ads.
They’re practically alone in using such ads: of the four major local TV networks contacted by Banker & Tradesman, none had any other local brokerage clients, though some had run such ads in the past.
They may even be unique in the whole country, said Matthew Ferrara, principle of Matthew Ferrara & Co., a Boston-based consultant who advises real estate brokerages across the country on sales and marketing.
While the major franchises advertise on channels like HGTV to create brand-awareness, individual brokers rarely spend money there, believing their clients don’t use TV ads as a source of information when trying to select an agent, Ferrarra said.
“Brokers have spent about six, seven, eight years, saying, ‘If I can’t measure it, I don’t want to buy it.’ They’ve become enamored of clicks,” Ferrara said. “But I think there is an argument to be made for TV, and some people are missing out.”
They may have been put off by high costs. Most agents operate as independent contractors, and for them, the thousands of dollars necessary to cover professional production may put even a single TV ad out of reach.
But McGeough Lamacchia hasn’t had that problem, because it’s structured differently than traditional brokerages. The bulk of its 20-plus agents are salaried, in-house listing specialists. They’re backed up by 10 field agents located around the state who conduct showings and act as buyer agents.
The unusual structure is one the brokerage put in place from the beginning to position themselves to conduct a high volume of sales.
“We knew that there was a big opportunity there. We’re in a market with some of the highest-priced homes, nationally. And I decided – I mean, I’m 31. And I had decided, back when we first started going on TV when I was 25, I don’t want to be like every other Realtor and earn a lot of money when I’m 50. Because it takes that long, to build up a clientele. I knew that TV would help us to make a jump. To do things on a larger scale,” explains LaMacchia.
The Payoff
The unusual strategy seems to have paid off in increased attention. Both McGeough and LaMacchia have made frequent appearances on Fox 25 and WCVB Channel 5 to talk about the state of the real estate market and provide tips for home sellers.
It’s also made a difference in their bottom line. Over the past few years, their volume-centric model led them to focus on short sales, where having a strong in-house management systems gave them an obvious advantage. That’s helped the firm grow during some of the worst years for real estate the Boston marker’s ever seen. According to data from MLS-PIN, in the metro Boston area, the firm did 469 sides in 2012 and $95.7 million in volume, up from 176 sides and $43.8 million in volume in 2009.
Their ad buy also covers southern New Hampshire, promoting the firm to become licensed in that state three years ago. That market now accounts for an additional 100 sales a year for the firm, LaMacchia said.
The firm is now attempting to pivot into more traditional sales and expand even further. Earlier this month, they hired Nicole Pirnie, formerly a recruiter with Keller Williams, to help it do so.
“Their model’s actually fascinating. Having experience with some of the more traditional [brokerages], and Keller Williams which is kind of a hybrid — this one is unique,” she said, explaining what had attracted her to the firm. “Nothing falls through the cracks — I’ve never seen anything like it. And that’s how they’re able to handle the volume that they have, otherwise it would be a disaster.”
By the end of 2012, the firm is planning to double its roster of field agents, as well as add an additional five to 10 traditional, established agents who will act as independent contractors. In 2014, they hope to add another 30.
Even LaMacchia, the more voluble of the pair, acknowledges that may seem a little too confident.
“I think we’ve gained a lot of market share in a very poor market. I’m a business nerd, I read a lot of books, and companies that have five, 10, 20-year plans, one of the biggest things they do is try and gain market share in bad times. Because if you can gain market share in bad times, you should light the world on fire in good times. So that should happen. We’ll see! Come back in five years,” he laughed.
Email:
