Shotguns are useful if you want to increase your chances of hitting something and aren't concerned about "collateral damage".  The spread pattern increases your chances, though most of your shot will miss the target and be wasted.

In the current real estate environment, there is a version of this strategy being employed by some Realtors:  list everything possible at just about any price and, if 20% of them sell, you've made a decent living.  That may work OK for the agent and the 20% whose homes sell, but what about the other 80%?  If you list your home for sale with a Realtor who operates this way, clearly your odds of selling are only 1 in 5.

The attraction to the agent, obviously, is that they get to run impressive ads with lots of homes for sale, which generates more calls from new sellers; and they have lots of homes for their assistants and sub-agents to hold open on weekends, at which they meet buyers for other homes.  This all nets them a pretty good living.

If you're a seller actually wanting to sell your home, does this kind of approach make sense for you?  Would you not be better off with a competent agent who might do less business overall, but to whom each listing is more important and receives a lot more attention?  I've always thought so, which is why I limit my business to the amount that I can personally handle with no assistants or sub-agents.  It's also one reason that pretty much all my listings sell.  Frankly, it's as important to me that your house sells as it is to you.  I don't have 40 listings, where if 5 sell it pays the rent for the next 6 months.

So remember this when you see those ads bragging about how many listings an agent has, implying that you should be one of them.  You don't want to be a listing; you want to be a sale.