Just had a great call with a very cool listing agent in San Diego about advertising.  They are top producers, have a large team and spend a lot of money advertising online and in magazines and newspapers.  I mean, A LOT of money.

They have the requisite “glamour” headshots which everyone knows how I feel about those.

When I asked the lead agent what percentage of their business income they spent on advertising, they shocked the hell out of me. 

They spent almost 65% of their income on ads.

And that doesn’t count the other expenses of cars, staff, office supplies, insurance, etc.

I asked them how are they keeping their business going?  It’s a crazy business model that, unless I am missing something, won’t be able to continue.

Remember, it’s not what you make that counts, it’s what you keep.

I would encourage all of us, myself included, to always be analyzing your business expenses, especially your ad budget and keep it small.

Don’t mean to be a jerk about it, but sometimes it’s easier to spend $1,000 on an ad layout in some glossy magazine than to actually call people and ask for referrals.

And many times these ad spends are just sophisticated ego spends.  Isn’t it gratifying to see your name and glamour shot on a bus bench, grocery cart or billboard?

NOT.

So keep your ad spend down, find ways that are free or low cost to find sellers like my emails talk about and keep a lot more of your income in the bank where it belongs.