He wore a bathrobe to a listing shoot. It sold for $500K over asking.

Most listing marketing is forgettable by design.

Upload the photos. Write the description. Post the Reel. Hope something sticks.

Today’s featured agent does none of that.

His most recent listing, which closed at $2.3 million, was $500,000 over asking.

Another closed at 48.5% over asking.

And the marketing that preceded both wasn't an accident.

Here's exactly what he did. 👇

Here’s what is on this week’s B.I.T.S. agenda:

🏆 [B]est in Class: The bathrobe, the sauna, and $500K over asking
💡 [I]deas That Work: What to do the moment a competitor cuts price
📈 [T]raffic & Attention: What Cedar Cliff's $100M listing teaches every agent
🔔 [S]eller Signals: They're not pulling their listing because they gave up

Let’s dive in 👇

Mark Slade of the Mark Slade Homes Team in Maplewood, NJ, recently closed a listing on Euclid Avenue at $2.3 million.

That was $500,000, or 27%, over the $1.8 million ask.

Another one of his listings closed at 48.5% over asking.

The results aren't a coincidence. Neither is the marketing.

Before every shoot, Slade walks each property looking for what he calls a visual hook, one specific detail that stops a buyer mid-scroll and makes the listing feel distinct from every other home in the feed.

The Euclid Avenue listing had a sauna. In the walkthrough Reel, Slade steps out of it in a bathrobe: "There's nothing better after a hard day at the office than coming home and throwing yourself in the sauna."

A different listing had yellow brick running along both sides of the road to the front door. He closed that video: "Where else do you get to follow your own yellow brick road home?"

Neither moment was improvised. Both were scouted on the walkthrough and built into the narrative before the camera arrived.

The rest of the prep is just as deliberate.

In the 36 hours before the photographer shows up, the team is at the property multiple times, touching up dark wood, checking every room, putting real flowers on the dining table because they read differently on camera than fakes.

For a $1.25M listing in South Orange, they noticed the front porch railing posts had been left with flat-cut tops after a renovation. Caps were ordered on Amazon overnight and installed before the shoot.

At that price point, an unfinished detail visible from the front walkway isn't a small thing.

After the photographer finishes wide-angle room shots, Slade goes back in himself to photograph millwork, leaded glass, door knockers, switch plates, and decorative hardware, the details that signal care and character, and disappear entirely in a standard frame.

The takeaway

Most agents document what a home looks like. Slade documents what it feels like to live there and scouts the one moment that makes a buyer stop, screenshot it, and text it to their spouse.

You don't need a sauna or to be brave enough to be in a bathrobe on camera.

You need to walk every listing with one question: what's the thing nobody else would notice?

Then build your entire marketing narrative around it.

Monday ✅

The bathrobe wasn't a gimmick. It was the result of a walkthrough specifically designed to find the one moment that would stop a buyer mid-scroll.

That's the discipline most agents skip, and it's the gap between a listing that gets attention and one that gets offers.

Before your next shoot, walk the property once with a single question: what's the one thing nobody else would notice?

Scout it. Build around it. Let everything else be the supporting cast.

See you tomorrow,

- Chris Smith and Jimmy Mackin