Is Your New Listing a “WOW” or a HoHum?
March 25th, 2008 categories: Fairfield, Ohio, Mason, Ohio, Real Estate News, Real Estate Selling, West Chester, Ohio
According to the greater Cincinnati Multiple Listing Service in the past 14 days there are:
- 62 new listings in the Fairfield School District (Fairfield and Fairfield Township)
- 112 new listings in the Lakota School District (Beckett Ridge, East West Chester and West West Chester)
- 65 new listings in the Mason School District (Mason)
If you are the proud owner of one of the 239 properties did your house soar onto the market or are you still waiting for something to happen?
In today’s very competitve real estate market- premarketing a property is more important than ever before! What do I mean by premarketing? Think of some product you heard or read about that piqued your interest -but the actual item was not on store shelves just yet. Did you cut out the article or make a note to remind yourself to check for the item in the future?
Most homes hit the market with a sign in the yard on day one and in the multiple listing service on day one or day two. No buzz, no excitement and no anticipation. Nice photos, maybe a virtual tour (in my book a waste of money and bandwidth) and marketing sheets placed in the house. A week or so later, a “Just Listed” postcard hits the neighbor’s mail boxes. The Open House is held the first or second Sunday after it goes on the market. Sound familiar?
Premarketing starts in advance of the “For Sale” sign and Multiple Listing Service (MLS) but after you sign the listing contract. It is a little known fact that in the Multiple Listing Service of Greater Cincinnati, a seller is allowed to request the property be held out of the MLS until a specific date. For example, sign the listing contract on 3/26/08 and at the bottom of the contract the agent inserts a line “seller does not want property posted in MLS until 4/10/08. The seller needs to date and intial the change on the contract.
Now the fun begins.
- Since it is listed, your agent ( or if you are a FSBO follow the same timelines) photographs the property inside and out and prepares great marketing materials. (1-7 days depending on complexity of materials and where the printing is done) .
- Schedule an Open House advertisement in the Enquirer for the 4/13 - first Sunday.
- Utilize reverse prospecting tool in MLS (sorry FSBO’s) to find agents with clients looking in the area. Contact them, send marketing material and invite them to send their clients to the Sunday Open House.
- Use your neighborhood phone book or church guide to invite neighbors and friends to a private “preview” open house on Saturday 4/12. Even if 3 neighbors actually show up- the buzz has been created because they will tell other people.
- Put the yard sign and Open House sign out on 4/10- but remember no showings until the Sunday Open House. Nothing like a few people looking at your home at the same time to encourage timid buyers into action.
- The Thursday or Friday before the Open House, call up and down a few streets of an area where potential buyers currently live and personally invite them to visit on Sunday.
- The Tuesday after it is listed in MLS, host a Realtor Open House for any agents who may have interest in looking at your property without their clients.
Please note, all the marketing/advertising “buzz” in the world cannot sell a property in poor condition that is overpriced- so make sure your “product” is market worthy.
Is your property “soaring” or just “sitting” on the market- share your stories.
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Although this whole post is amusing, I am saddened by the fact that so many will heed its advice and take it upon themselves to do the job that the agent is already grossly overpaid to do.
Find agents with clients looking in the area using reverse lookup? Are you out of your mind? That is the job of the “professional” I hired to list my property.
Invite neighbours and friends for a viewing? That also is a rudimentart part of the agent’s job.
Just what exactly, is the agent paid for anyway?
Don’t bother to answer that. The Real Estate Association themselves is publishing doctrine indicating the sorry state of the MLS business model, and crying out for stop-gap measures to be taken to quell the mass exodus taking place out of traditional real estate listings and in private sale.
I am personally responsible for keeping over $1,000,000 out of the pockets of MLS agents and keeping it in the pockets of homeowners, where it belongs in the southern Ontario area last year alone.
I expect that double this year, as does CREA.
Nonetheless, I do get a chuckle when I see the almost infantile commercials on the television about how only an “agent” can protect me from the “legal pitfalls” of real estate selling. What bunk. The only legal pitfall is making the mistake of signing a binding MLS agreement.
I guess this is why so many agents are looking at new careers. :>)
Mr. FSBO,
Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts. While I am not as familiar with Canadian real estate as you are with U.S. real estate- please note the sellers do not sign a contract with the MLS, they sign with a broker. In our local MLS system, any licensed broker/brokerage may apply for membership and display their listings. This includes companies offering FSBO services.
As for the MLS business model- well that would many pages of commentary and I would agree there is a need for updating. However I suspect the MLS’s in the US and Canada move slowly toward change because MLS’s do more than just diseminate real estate data to its members.
Great post! I found it very interesting. Thanks, Kathy! -Julia