Listing Agent Mistakes

Sometimes I can’t believe the things that listing agents do, or fail to do, that cost their sellers time and money. 

If you need to sell your home, and list it with me, I promise that I will not make these mistakes, that I see regularly on our SoCalMLS: 

• Put a home on the MLS before it is ready to be shown.  If it’s not ready to see, it should not be on the MLS.  The damage that is done to the #  of days on the market will offset any chance that the right buyer will buy something else because he didn’t know your home was coming soon. 
• Put a home on the MLS without good photos of both the inside and outside.  Sometimes, agents put in 2 photos of the front, and maybe the back yard, but none of the inside.  It always makes me wonder if the listing agent didn’t have a key to get in, or if the inside is so ugly that it would be a turn-off to buyers. 
• Inaccuracies, or missing information in the MLS.  Wrong tract names, wrong HOA dues amounts, missing or incorrect assigned schools, missing critical info that buyers may search for that are “must haves” such as “ground floor bedroom” or “air conditioning.”
• Fail to make recommendations or point out the corrections needed to make the house show its best.  It needs to be neat and clean, neutral and un-crowded.  If the agent doesn’t have the courage to tell the seller that the house is dirty, crowded, smells bad, is cluttered, or poorly decorated, he needs to send in a stager.  Neutral paint (no wallpaper) and clean neutral flooring will add thousands to the final selling price.  Buyers typically guess the cost to remove wallpaper and change carpet at about twice what it will actually cost!
• Failing to point out the “details” that need attention and that buyers will focus on.  Just because the sellers are used to looking at it, doesn’t mean that buyers won’t see it.  Is the front door covered with dirt, spider webs, and have an old rusty doorknob?  What about the welcome mat?  Are your bathroom or kitchen faucets 25-year-old ”builder standard?”  What about the light fixtures?  Home Depot, Lowes, Walmart and Costco carry a lot of these reasonably priced items that are well worth investing in to increase or justify your value.
• Property descriptions that don’t tell about the best features of the property, or that are full of typos and spelling errors. 
• Property descriptions that include statements about special features, like “remodeled kitchen” or “fabulous back yard with view”, and then don’t provide the photos to show those features.
• Property descriptions that include statements like “now reduced” or “motivated seller”  or “won’t last long.”  I often see “won’t last long” used on homes that have been on the market 6+ months! 
• Property descriptions put in the “Agent-only” remarks section, instead of the public “General remarks.”  The potential buyers can’t see this – so it looks like nobody cared enough to even describe the property!
• Agent-only remarks that say “lockbox coming soon,” but the house has been on the market for 2 months!  If the lockbox isn’t on it the first day (which it should be) the remarks should say “lockbox to be installed “mm/dd” by 5 pm.
• No modifications to the listing in over 60 days.  The agent should be changing the remarks, or photos, or the price to refresh the listing at least monthly.  The agents who just “throw it in the MLS” and ignore it are not doing their jobs.
• REMARKS WRITTEN IN ALL CAPS – IT MAKES IT HARD TO READ AND MAKES THE AGENT LOOKS IGNORANT!
• In the ”Directions” field, put in the phrase “google maps” instead of saying something meaningful like “north of main, west of broadway, turn left on ….”
• Failing to return phone calls from other agents, or buyers who have questions about the property.
• Using a combo lockbox instead of an electronic lockbox.  In addition to providing more security for the property, the electronic lockbox will provide a record for the listing agent of which buyer agents have shown the property.  On vacant properties, where agents often don’t leave business cards, the electronic lockboxes allow the listing agent to check for feedback, or to monitor the number of showings to determine whether the home is even being shown.
• Failing to provide the seller (at the time of listing) with a reasonable estimate of their net proceeds.   When an offer comes in, the seller should be prepared to evaluate it and respond promptly. 
• Failing to keep the seller informed on conditions of the market and how his home stacks up in the competition.  If the market is slow, it should be expected that the listing agent provide a market update at least monthly.  If a price reduction needs to be done, it is better to do it sooner than later (or it will end up costing much more!) 

I’m sure this is not a complete list, so if you think of other mistakes, please add them for me in the comments section. 

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To appreciate the negative impact of these errors, you have to understand how the MLS system works. 

1 – Listing agent enters the listing in the MLS.

2 – The buyers who are serious are on “email alert” and get a notification that a new property has just come on in their size and price range.

3 – Buyers look at the email and see no description, no photos, and just the check-the-box details.  Buyers delete email (Seller just lost a chance for a motivated buyer to consider it).

4 – Local agents check the “Hot Sheet” for new listings, see the lack of description, lack of photos, and then go look at the next property listed on the hot sheet. (Seller lost another chance to have the property viewed by agents who might bring the buyer!)

At that point, the listing agent just lost the best opportunity to have the most interest generated in his new listing, and he blew it!

Usually, the photos are the last thing to be done after the sellers have taken care of all the de-cluttering and staging before putting a house on the market, but in the SoCal MLS, the agent can begin entering the data and build up the info over several days while keeping it from showing up in the MLS “before it’s ready for prime time.” 

Step 1 – Listing Agent can set up the basic info into the MLS form, as soon as the listing contract has been signed by the seller.  The basic information includes the address, numbers of rooms, physical size, year built, lot size, current property tax assessment,  (much of it “auto-populated” from the tax data base).  There are also a lot of “check the box” fields such as: Pool, Air Conditioning, Fireplace, # of Garage Door Openers, School District, Separate Dining Room, Homeowner’s Association Dues, HOA recreation facilities, etc.  Other information to be entered originally can be the showing instructions, lockbox location, owner’s phone number, agent’s contact info, etc.  So far, this information is simply facts, not marketing.  (Some agents simply load this raw data without any description or photos and click the button to make it live on the MLS.) 

Step 2 – This begins the marketing task of the MLS property listing input.  It is the least expensive marketing for the agent, but probably the most valuable and critical.  The remarks in the description shows up on all the IDX websites where potential buyers are looking.  The purpose of writing this is to make it sound attractive to the buyers.  Features and benefits need to be emphasized, such as “fabulous sunset view” or “just one block to best elementary school,” in addition to remarks about the condition of the home.  “Hardwood floors, updated appliances, remodeled bathrooms, dual-paned windows, large yard, sparkling pool,” etc.  paint a picture in the mind of the potential buyer reading it. Abbreviations should be avoided, or at least minimized, so that someone outside the real estate industry can understand what you are saying, and not be distracted trying to decode the information.  The motivation of the seller should never be revealed in a description, nor should the phrase “reduced to sell!”  Reducing the price may be necessary, but by declaring that it was “just reduced” translates to “we started out greedy or stupid ….”  

Step 3 – Provide good photos and lots of them!  The SoCal MLS allows up to 20 photos per property, plus a virtual tour.  If you have included remarks in the description section about some fabulous upgrade, feature, or view, don’t forget to include a photo of that!  Some agents prefer to use a photography service or virtual tour service to take the photos of the house.  These photos are usually very good quality, but the number of them may be limited.  The photographer’s schedule may also mean having to wait for 10 days to 2 weeks.  If the weather is overcast or raining, he won’t get those beautiful views, or blue sky backgrounds.  Even if using a professional photographer, the listing agent should take preliminary photos to include with the listing the FIRST DAY it is on the MLS.  If it isn’t ready for photos, then it isn’t ready to be seen by buyers or agents.