I will never understand real estate agents who do a lousy job marketing a home.

Go do a search of your local MLS for an average-priced listing in your market. Look at, say, five listings. How many of those do you think are well-marketed? And by that, I’m not even talking about the FANCY STUFF – videos, 3D walkthroughs, floor plans, photos taken by killer flying robots, etc.

I’m just talking about the basics: they have a reasonably comprehensive and engaging property description, and they have a full range of pictures showing all the features of the home with well-lit, high-resolution photos?

How many of the five? If it’s any more than one or two, then you probably need to raise your standards. Because most property marketing is horrendous.

I went through the home buying process three times in the past six years, twice with my primary home and once with a vacation home. As a buyer, as a client, here’s what I will tell you: you can’t do enough marketing for me.

I literally cannot get enough. I will devour every single picture. I will parse every line of every description. I will pore over floorplans. I will obsess over videos like they’re the Zapruder film. I’m insatiable.

But most agents, they leave me hungry. Starving, even. Listings without enough pictures. Listings with three-line descriptions rife with clichés. And forget the good stuff – the videos, the 3D walkthroughs, the floorplans, the robots. Almost none of the listings had those.

I don’t get it. A really good camera will set you back $500. Learning how to take good photos and videos will take you some time, but it can be done. And if you don’t want to learn, you can spend a few hundred dollars and hire an expert to take photos, make a video, do floorplans, and even get a 3D walkthrough, and even fix you sandwich (editor’s note: all true, other than the sandwich).

So why are so many listings still being marketed like it’s 2004?

As it happens, and maybe this is not a coincidence, but the property I bought was exceptionally well-marketed by an agent who has actually won national awards for her marketing. Over 35 great photos. A description that explained the historical nature of the home.

The listing even had a Matterport 3D video, which was amazing – and even better, because a great tool for helping get my pre-school kids comfortable with the new house. It became a bedtime ritual while we were in contract to walk the kids through the home to show them their rooms, although we did have to explain to them that the toys didn’t stay. And then, of course, we had to buy all the toys….

And it’s not just about marketing your listings. It’s about marketing yourself as well. The best tool you have when you’re trying to get a listing is to show a potential seller the marketing you do for the listings you already have. You should be eager to show them your listings, and confident when comparing them to anyone else’s in your market. You should welcome those comparisons. If you don’t, then something’s wrong with the way you’re executing one of the fundamental responsibilities of your profession.

Frankly, great listing marketing is more important than any other personal marketing you do. For example, I always tell potential clients – if you want to judge the quality of an agent’s work, go look at her listings. Even if you’re looking for a buyer agent, go look at that agent’s listings.

Why? Because reviewing those listings will tell you a lot about how that agent does her job. Does she pay attention to detail? Does she go the extra mile? Does she execute?

After all, you only need a taste of the soup to know if it’s any good. An agent who does a good job marketing listings is probably pretty good at any aspect of her job.

And an agent who doesn’t, probably isn’t.

Editor’s Note: This was originally published on Inman Media on October 6, 2015 as “Why You Simply Can’t Do Enough Marketing for a Buyer.”