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Showing homes to potential buyers start these days at the computer. Agents search for homes using criteria that is given to them by the buyer. It has to be in a certain city or it has to have four bedrooms. If you've bought anything, you've been through this process.
Realtors input this information into the Multiple Listing Service (MLS). What most of them fail to realize is that each input is a possible connection with the buyer. The more you input, the greater the chance that the buyer's agent will find it in the MLS. If you put in a typo that the price is $3,500,000, instead of the correct price of $350,000 (one extra zero), than no one is going to see your home. If you leave a field blank, than it might limit the showings as well.
Here's an example. I have a client that needs a ground level unit that is one level. She's disabled and she cannot do stairs. I found 37 properties in the area she wanted to live in that were single level. Now, you can have a single level home on the 2nd floor. I then narrowed it to how many were ground level and found five. Now, I thought the number would be higher. So, I went back to the first search and manually looked at each listing. Sure enough, I found about 15 properties that were ground level, but wasn't listed as such. 15 agents that left the field blank and 15 agents that are getting less showings because of it. Look at the picture, there's other boxes that might need to be checked. All in all, there are hundreds of places for agents to mess up on.
If your home is listed for sale and you are not getting enough showings, I'd check your MLS listing to make sure it is accurate. If you are in the process of interviewing your next agent, ask him or her for an audit of your current listing.
Here's the five top things I'd check for:
1. Is the location correct in the MLS map? I was looking at a Queen Creek property the other day. When I clicked on location, the map showed dozens of properties pinpointed far from Queen Creek. One, was in Salt Lake City, Utah.
2. Can you get to the home with the written directions?
3. If you live in a condo/townhome is the level, shared walls, unit style correct?
4.Under features and room details is everything possible listed?
5.Are there pictures and virtual tours attached to your listing? Did you know that agents can choose to send only listing with these items. I've seen properties on the MLS for over a year and no picture of the home.
has been going down steadily. It is necessary for this to happen in order to bring the market back into balance. We have dropped from 2940 in July 2007 to 2308 in July of 2008. This represents approximately 7 months of inventory currently on the market down from a peak of over 14 months of inventory in September 2007.
has been going down steadily. It is necessary for this to happen in order to bring the market back into balance. We have dropped from 2940 in July 2007 to 2308 in July of 2008. This represents approximately 7 months of inventory currently on the market down from a peak of over 14 months of inventory in September 2007.
