I speak to and coach thousands of people every year, and their success and your success as you prepare to enter the real estate business, matter to me. That’s why most of the time what I do from the stage, or on a webinar or in one-on-one coaching is to help agents see a clear path to what they should do. Daily. Weekly. Monthly. So that they can design lives and careers worth smiling about.
Sometimes coaching takes a different turn though. Sometimes you have to show people what they should not be doing first before they can see the path to what works. That’s what this is about.
If I were to ask you, when you become a real estate professional, who do you think you should market a listing to? You might say, “to the general public and potential buyers.” It would be a trick question, however, even though that’s what most agents believe. You are best served to focus on marketing that listing to other agents instead. Agents can be cynical, picky and quick to judge another agent’s poor listing description and photos. If you can’t impress them, you’ve got a problem. Do a great job and get them excited and the buyers will be lined up at the gate. In other words, if you capture the attention of the agents, they’ll bring you the buyers.
There are six things you should never do on your MLS listing. When you are ready for this step in the business, these tips will go a long way to making you a better agent, help you earn a better living and live up to your highest standards of service:
- Don’t copy the last agent’s mistakes. Relisting an expired property? Use your own words and photos. Too often we see agents simply copy what the last agent did, which, when you think about it, is probably going to create the same results: an expired listing! Get creative and original.
- Don’t post 15 pictures of just the front door or just the outside of the house.Visually represent the entire home—inside and out. That means all the rooms—the works! (Pro tip: If the rooms are not in good shape, fix the rooms or fix the listing price.) If you can include a virtual tour, do it!
- Don’t skip the details.Did you verify the square footage? Did you choose the right property type for the listing? Did you check and double check the amenities? If a homeowner is paying you thousands of dollars, you should respect the industry by getting all the details correct.
- Don’t take terrible pictures.I’m not kidding when I tell you that I’ve seen a listing photo that had a Glad trash bag box as the focal point for the picture. Are we selling trash bags or a listed home? (Another pro tip: If your pictures could end up as a prime example in the Bad MLS Photos Facebook Group, you’re doing it wrong.) Check all of your photos for quality before uploading to the MLS.
- Don’t skip the remarks section. Fill out the entire listing description. Verify the information. Be robust. If you have room for 500 words, use 500 amazing words, not 62. This is your opportunity to make that listing jump off the page. Make it spectacular. Don’t skimp on the descriptions. Think of this section as your billboard and put your marketing hat on when filling it out.
- Don’t forget to spell check. There are so many tools to help ensure your spelling and grammar are correct. Use them and use proper English, not the text message shortcuts you see so much of now.
When you’re ready to do all of these things, I promise, your business will be better for it. Your referrals will start to flow, and the respect for not just you, but our industry, will rise as well. Head here to get a free copy of our Best Practices for Entering Your New MLS Listing Checklist.
Darryl Davis, bestselling author of “How to Become a Power Agent in Real Estate” and owner of Darryl Davis Seminars, has trained and coached over 100,000 real estate professionals around the globe for more than 27 years. He is the founder of the Next Level® real estate training system, The Power Program®, which has helped agents double their production over their previous year. For more information, and the new agent tools that can help take you to your Next Level®, please contact darryl@darrylspeaks.com or visit www.ThePowerProgram.com/NewAgentSuccess.
