When you choose an agent to sell your home, that agent will have to develop and implement a custom marketing plan for your home. The reason they develop a custom plan is because every home is different, every neighborhood is different, and there is a unique target buyer for each home that must be identified and reached through the custom marketing plan.

Even though the plan they design will be unique to your home, there are basic marketing expectations that you should have from any agent or broker. These marketing basics should be included in any custom marketing plan.

The first thing that any agent should do is place your home in a local Multiple Listing Service (MLS). Any other agent that has a client looking for a home in your neighborhood, will expect to find it on the MLS. This system is the internal information network that all agents use to research available homes and it is considered the "authority" source on homes for sale.

In addition to the MLS, your agent should have an advertising plan for your home. This could include classified advertising, a Craigslist campaign, listing the home on home search websites, publishing ads in local real estate magazines and guides, and even using radio and television time if there is a particular show in your area that allows for homes to be advertised.

These advertising campaigns should be supplemented with your agent placing a sign on your lawn with a brochure box attached to the sign where prospective buyers can find information on the home. Your agent may also mail an announcement of your sale to your neighbors, this is a very effective technique because people that live in the area oftentimes know others that would like to live there also and it is also a good way for the agent to find out if anyone that is renting in the area is interested in owning a home.

The last of the marketing basics is the open house. This specific technique has sold many homes and certainly if you have told your agent, "Do what it takes to sell my house," then you should expect that they will hold an open house repeatedly until sold.

These marketing basics should be used by any real estate agent in order to sell your home. Allow them to design and implement their custom plan, but if it does not include these basics then you should consider interviewing more agents. Wait until you find an agent that is willing to work hard and creatively for you, even though you have simply told them to, "sell my house", they are immediately thinking of a dozen ways to market it and make your instructions a reality.