» Ten Simple Things Can Make or Break Getting Your Home Sold

Ten Simple Things Can Make or Break Getting Your Home Sold

Are you selling your home? If your home is not listed with the correct details, the buyers won’t come, and they won’t buy.

Here’s what prompted me to write this post:

I watch certain neighborhood real estate activity like a hawk. I know every home that’s on the market, how it shows, and if it’s priced right. Today I got a call from someone selling in this area. I was floored when he told me he had his home on the market. How did I miss it? Simple, the agent he’d been working with at the time had listed his home in the wrong area. His home was showing up on the MLS, the real estate listings, in a completely different area from where it actually was located.

This is simple carelessness.

Do real estate agents/buyers miss seeing a home if listed in a different neighborhood than where its actually located? Sure. If real estate agents/buyers don’t find your home’s listing, they will not come, and they will not buy. Many agents and buyers set up prospecting programs and are notified as soon as homes are listed, reduced or sold. The prospecting programs include a location factor, so a home listed in the wrong area will not show up in a search.

Seems simple and it is. Before you lists your home, interview your agent. Try to get a sense for whether the agent is detail oriented. If they seem really nice, but not business-like, that will be your first clue. A red flag should go up if the real estate agent is not organized, knowledgeable, and detail oriented. Try to pick up some clues from your initial meeting, because no one is going to admit he/she isn’t detail oriented and accurate. They may not even know they’re not! So as a home seller, you need to verify that the listing information is correct.

Here are 10 simple things to look for when checking your listing paperwork:

What MLS (Multiple Listing Service-where Realtors list homes for sale) area is your home listed? The areas in the NWMLS, which generally do not follow city boundaries, have numbers attached to them. Check what the area number is for your home and ask your agent to describe which area is represented by the particular number. Redmond, for example, has more than one area number. Your home could either be in area 530, 550 or even 600. Make sure the number is right, so your home will be found when a buyer or agent searches for it.

Is the correct map and grid listed? Is your home listed on the correct map page? For example, map 506, not 560? Is it on Grid D3, not grid D5?

Is the address correct? I’ve seen homes listed as 97th NE St. when they were located on NE 97th St., a totally different location. On Seattle’s eastside, the direction placed before or after a street name makes a huge difference as to where the house is located.

Do the directions to the home actually lead you to the home? Does it say take a left when you should take a right to get to your home?

Location, location, location-the most critical piece of information. If buyers don’t find your home when they’re searching on-line or in real-time, because it’s listed in the wrong area, on the wrong map, with the wrong address, or with the wrong directions, they will not come. If buyers don’t come, they don’t buy.

Here are some more things to look out for in your listing:

Is the style of your home listed correctly? What if your home showed up in the MLS as a one level home (a rambler to Seattle home owners and a ranch in many other areas) and it really is a two story? Buyers searching for two story homes will miss it. A “style code,” which is also a number, is used to describe the style of a home. A “10″ is a rambler, a “12″ is a two story. Check the style number listed and make sure it matches to your home.

Is the total number of bedrooms listed and on the right floor(s)? This can be huge for a buyer looking for a master on the main or all the bedrooms on the second story.

Is the right number of bathrooms and their location listed? If your listing calls the first floor bath a 1/2 bath, when in fact, it’s a 3/4 bath (a bath with a shower) you’ve lost the buyer who needs that 3/4 bath on the first floor.

Are the right schools listed? What if the buyer is looking for a particular program only available at a particular school, your neighborhood school, but the school given in the listing is not the correct school?

Is the correct bus route listed? What if the buyer needs a certain bus route to get to work and doesn’t know this bus line is really nearby?

Is the backyard fenced? What if the buyer has a big dog and is looking for a fenced yard and it’s not checked off in the listing?

Realtors must accurately proof their listings and marketing pieces before they are advertised to the world. Sellers also need to look at the listing information in the MLS and the marketing pieces to double-check the accuracy of the information, Make sure the facts about your home are correct. If they’re not, the buyers won’t come and won’t buy. It could cost you as sale, which is very expensive in any real estate market.