Shouldn’t a Listing Agent Do More Than Just Put Your Home on the MLS?

The short answer is “yes,” of course.  But let’s talk about a how much a listing agent can and should do to promote your home.

First, there’s a lot more to entering a home on the MLS than you might realize. Not all MLS fields are mandatory, and too many agents enter only the mandatory fields. Some of the optional fields are really important to promoting your home.

For example, in addition to the “public remarks” describing your home, the listing agent can enter a description about each individual room. This is an opportunity to describe the kitchen appliances, the bathroom flooring, or the view out the master bedroom window, etc. — all great selling points for a home.  Yet, a quick analysis of 50 random listings just now shows that roughly half the listings in the MLS have little or no description of the individual rooms, or even their measurements, which are also not mandatory.  Here's an example from one of my listings, which went under contract in five days:

The following is from another agent's listing of a similarly priced listing in the same ZIP code, which is still not under contract after 129 days on the market despite a $35,000 reduction in listing price.

Not only are there no room dimensions and descriptions, but the agent only listed the bedrooms and bathrooms, because if he hadn't, the MLS would show 0 bedrooms and 0 bathrooms.

 

I’ve mentioned before that there are both “public remarks” and “broker remarks,” and sellers can’t see what their listing agents have entered under broker remarks, which are seen only by other agents.  The broker remarks might say that any offers received after 6 pm won’t be presented until the next business day, or that no deadlines should be on a Sunday.  How would you, as a seller, feel knowing that your listing agent isn’t checking his inbox (or answering his phone) after 5 pm or on weekends?  Here's an example from the same ZIP code:

We all know that pictures are critical to the marketing of a listing.  Before you list with any agent, try searching for that agent on the MLS (http://www.recolorado.com/pages/find-real-estate-professionals) where you can view his or her listings (if any), not only to see how complete their data entry is, but also to view their pictures. Are the windows in each room a white blur, and are the dark and light elements of each picture properly exposed and visible?  By using High Dynamic Range (HDR) technology, the view out the windows is perfect, as is the exposure of the room’s interior.  Choose agents who have great pictures on their listings.  Here is an example of an HDR photograph from one of my listings:

Remember, the best predictor of how an agent will market your home is how they have marketed other homes.

 

At Golden Real Estate, we see great value in doing narrated video tours of our listings, because they simulate an actual listing, which is helpful to out-of-town buyers.  We add aerial video tours using a drone, too. Click on the “virtual tour” link of an agent’s listing to see if it’s merely a slideshow with music.  Video tours should be uploaded to YouTube (with full sales pitch there, too), because that adds additional exposure to your listing.

 

Below is a flyer describing other things which Golden Real Estate does to promote its listings.