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A clever agent has been recognised for turning his vendor’s tale of heartbreak into an attention-grabbing advertising campaign that yielded a strong result.
Santos Sulfaro from Richardson and Wrench Leichhardt won his group’s annual property marketing award for the campaign he created to sell a Sydney property damaged in an arson attack.
Mr Sulfaro told REB that the unusual marketing video was the key component of what became a high-profile campaign.
"There was no way I could do a typical real estate video for this property, so I had to work with what I had and I turned it into an action movie trailer," he said.
Mr Sulfaro used dramatic music and shots of the fire-damaged property to create a video that resembled a preview for a thriller film.
"Within a week it had over 1,000 views on YouTube," he explained.
"I think that’s what grabbed even the media’s attention, because they even commented on how the video was so different and got people intrigued about coming to see the property."
Mr Sulfaro said the video got about 3,500 views and generated more than 10,000 hits online.
The vendor "pretty much lost everything in the fire" and had no insurance to cover the damage, according to Mr Sulfaro.
He also lacked the funds to fix the property or even move out, so his family put him up in a hotel, he added.
The first thing Mr Sulfaro did when he won the listing was to advise the vendor to leave the property as it was.
Mr Sulfaro then used Richardson and Wrench’s corporate team to help generate as mainstream media coverage as possible.
"We were able to sell it for $790,000, which was just shy of what it probably would have been worth if it were in its original condition," he said.
"Considering that the property needed to be completely stripped, the roof replaced and new electricals throughout, I think we achieved a very good result."
Mr Sulfaro also won the Best Sales Campaign category at this year’s Real Estate Business Awards.
[Related: R&W office hails power of EBU structure]
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