Maximizing the Marketing of Your MLS Information

The Photos – This is the most important aspect of your MLS listing. Before buyers look at anything (besides price and address), they will look at the photos of your house. The pictures are the buyer’s first introduction to your home, and they can make or break your property. It’s prudent, therefore, to hire a professional photographer so that the spaces look as large, focused and well-lit as possible. If the photos are fuzzy and make the rooms look small, dark, and unappealing, a buyer will surely dismiss your property. It brings to mind the saying, “You only have one chance to make a first impression.” In this case, the first impression is an online one, which makes the quality of the photos that much more paramount.

The Copy – The MLS description of your property is also important and conveys aspects of your home that the numbers, figures and even photos don’t. For example, perhaps the home technically has only four bedrooms because of the septic size, but it functions as a 5 bedroom home. This is crucial information to share with buyers and can be articulated through the MLS description.  In fact, reading this could cause a buyer with three children, who was feeling that the bedroom situation wasn’t adequate for the size of her family, to ultimately decide to come see your house. Mission accomplished!

The Room Sizes/Floor Plan – We look at the room sizes/floor plan using the “buyers are looking for reasons not to come see your property” filter. And when we look at it this way, there are some crucial guidelines to remember. First, if the room sizes seem small, you may not want to include them. Perhaps your dining room is 8′ x 12′, but feels much bigger when you’re actually in the room. In cases like these, including the room size could be detrimental to the listing and become a reason for a buyer to cross your property off her home viewing list. In addition to leaving room sizes off the MLS listing sheet, you may decide not to attach the floor plan as well. Let’s say that the buyer doesn’t like it when the family room and kitchen aren’t open to one another, but in truth, when you’re in the house, they do feel open to one another. If the floor plan is attached and they see the lack of openness on paper, they could very well dismiss your property and move on to other properties. For these reasons, you may decide not to include the room sizes and not to attach the floor plan to the MLS listing, thus motivating buyers to come see the spaces, layout and room sizes for themselves.