Preparing your home for the market is a daunting task. But getting your home MLS listing ready is imperative to a successful sale. The whole process starts with being as organized as possible. While photos and staging are integral to your online image, the data about your house is equally important. Nothing can do your listing more harm than having incorrect data. This can cause you to lose a buyer, or it can irritate a buyer when they think data is misrepresented.
Get the data ready
Your listing agent should meet with you to fully understand the facts about your home. There is a lot to cover and this can be an arduous process. This includes:
- how many zones of heat, or AC
- how many circuits and amperage is the electrical system
- measure all the rooms so that dimensions are correct
There are many more, and your agent should have a printout from your local MLS of the data fields required to get your home MLS listing ready. Make sure this is filled out correctly and to the letter of the law.
Description
There is nothing worse in real estate than a listing description that states the obvious. The MLS listing will tell me how many bedrooms and bathrooms there are, and it will also tell me how large the lot is. So, please don’t tell me what I already know in the listing description. A good listing description will tell me what it is like to live in the home. It will provoke me to want to see the home, to sense the home, to feel the home. Telling me what I can read elsewhere on the MLS sheet is telling me the obvious. As a home seller, you can assemble some thoughts on what it is like to live in the home. This will help create a strong, compelling listing description.
Seller’s Disclosure
After staging and packing, filling out the seller’s disclosure is one of the worst homework assignments in real estate. It is a multipage document that encompasses the history of the home and its mechanicals. This can take a bit of research about what was done when to the house. And it will cover what sort of maintenance has been done over the years. While the seller’s disclosure can be a bit of a chore, it can really help correctly answer a lot of buyer questions about the home. And if you, the seller, have maintained your home really well, this will come across in the seller’s disclosure and become a valuable sales tool for your home.
Staging
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- Staging Before & After
Yes, staging is a key piece for getting your home MLS listing ready. I often joke with my home sellers that home buyers only see what is in front of the camera. What they don’t see is all the decluttering that takes place before the photo is taken.
A common mistake is to take great photos to attract a buyer, then not have the home show well because the decluttering was only for the photo shoot. Be sure the home matches the photos when a buyer comes to tour your home. The phrase you don’t want to hear is: “The photos are better than the house.”
Photos
Photos are everything in real estate. They should be taken by a professional. There should be proper lighting. The angles of the shots should show the home in its best view. The exposure should not be kicked up by washing out the windows. If a home has a view, you should be able to see it through the windows while still seeing the room correctly. Photos should be crisp and clear and in high resolution.
Since photos are usually a buyer’s first view of a home, they must be of the utmost quality. They should make a buyer call their buyer’s agent and set an appointment to tour your home. If the photos are of poor quality, the phone won’t ring and the home won’t get shown. And time on the market is never a seller’s best friend.
Floor Plan/3D Tour
Floor plans are key to a home sale. They allow a buyer to envision their things in your home. Once a buyer has mentally moved into a home, they may very well pay more. Be sure to have accurate floor plans for your potential buyers. Not only do I like to have a copy of the floor plan available for buyers, I like to include a 3D tour as well. A 3D tour is where the buyer can digitally walk through the house and tour the home. This is similar to a preview tour. I have seen buyers make comments about how much they loved the 3D tour and how helpful the 3D tour was.
Getting your home MLS Listing ready is the short list of the key steps to a successful home sale launch. You need to have the data ready and the home story polished to the point where it emotionally appeals to the buyer. When this is all lined up properly, the home sale becomes a much smoother process.
Do the work upfront, you will be glad you did. And if I can help, please do not hesitate to reach out to me. Thanks for reading my post and good luck with your home sale.
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