Marketing a seller’s home requires many skills in today’s market, in addition to a series of events; duties and service oriented follow up; by the listing agent. The old days of popping a sign in the yard, putting it in the MLS and waiting for an offer are history.
Here’s a suggested list of guidelines that may very from market to market, however will give you an idea of why you, as a listing agent should expect a full service fee for your services being offered to a seller, in the mist of a buyers market. The products and services suggested below are only what I use and by no means are being suggested for you to change providers of comparable products. I can only tell you what works for me.
I follow these guidelines, however, I also have expectations of getting a full fee for service, I expect the seller to price the property at market value based on my findings, and I expect a 180-day marketing agreement. The services and activities below are only what they can expect up to the time an offer is placed on the property. Handling the pending sale is another post for another day that would include an equal amount of effort and service that requires hard work and persistence.
Prior to Listing Appointment:
1. Drive the neighborhood, identify other properties, conditions, amenities and overall market area.
2. Take a photo of the subject property to use in your presentation
3. Research MLS for previous sale, listing or expiration of subject property. If found: run history, previous pictures and line side
4. Run Realist and print property tax and mortgage details
5. Visit the county websites for property information, Tax history, legal etc. 6. Do CMA, using ToolKitCMA, linking comps from MLXchange for Sold, Active, and Expired, Select presentation topics needed, including price adjustment sheet. 7. Go to: Transaction Desk to Input client information, property information, DocBox contacts, and Select forms needed for listing. 8. Do a net sheet for seller based on suggested list price
9. Run a copy of Point2Agent Listing Presentation to add to Tool Kit CMA. 10. Separate your Marketing material into plastic folder for seller to review from your CMA Material for discussion. Separate your personal resume and the letter of how you arrived at value to give them at presentation.
11. Print all listing forms completely with exception of price, with additional copy to leave the seller.
12. Take your personal real estate sign (that has your website address and phone in addition to companies) with riders, and lock-box with you to install when listing is completed.
Keep in mind, that I am doing all the above prior to even getting a commitment for a listing agreement. You win some, you lose some. By coming in prepared, with the right tools, marketing agreement, and comparables, you will win most of the time. It is better than going in blind to facts that are needed to give the best service.
Congratulations, you have now listed the property at the right price, now the work begins. Here’s some follow up duties, assignments, and procedures I suggest you follow for good service, risk reduction, and reaching your goal of SOLD:
1. Listing Contract with complete Legal Description, terms, ALL required fields filled in, explained and signed
2. Net Sheet Review, explain and have signed
3. Agency Relationship Disclosures
4. Seller’s Disclosure Statement and Addendum
5. Lead Based Paint Disclosure explained and signed
6. Home Warranty Signed – Accepted or Waived
7. Concierge Form – Accepted or Waived
8. Open House Release Form explained and signed
9. Complete Point of Sale Addendum for well and septic (currently required Ingham, Eaton, Shiawassee, Barry counties)
10. Title Affiliated Business Arrangement Disclosure, explained and signed
11. Addendum to Listing Contract explained and signed
12. Obtain a copy of seller’s previous title commitment, survey, and mortgage details.
13. Title Support Documents (Death, Divorce, Personal Rep., etc.) Questionnairecompleted & signed
14. Mortgage Payoff Request Form 2nd Mortgage or Equity Payoff Request Form, completed, and signed
15. Sign Installation Form
16. Ad Request Form
Duties after the marketing agreement is completed:
1. Install sign and lock-box
2. Take 30-50 pictures of the house, including close-ups on special features.
3. Complete MLS Double Brochure
4. Have Listing entered into MLS, with completed folder and required forms
5. Load Pictures into MLS
6. Give email or word format of double brochure to staff to load double brochure in MLS
7. Load listing information into Point2Agent website (what it looks like)
8. Load minimum of 20-25 pictures of property in walk through order
9. Scan the disclosures, survey etc to load as attachments on Point2Agent and MLS
10. Select Blog new listing when loading property information
11. Syndicate to Craigslist from Point2Agent for professional looking ad
12. Copy and paste virtual tour and send to staff to load on MLS
13. Go to Point2Agent Blog and touch up Blog Post and post with proper key words.
14. Ping the Blog post and listing on www.KingPing.com and ping your blog,
15. Do flyer ad on Postlets, SawItOnLine and GoogleBase
16. Go to www.Postlets.com , copy and paste listing and post to twitter, share listing with Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter from Postlet’s site.
17. Go back to ToolKitCMA after listing is complete design and print flyer for property either to have in the house or in a flyer box out front.
18. After Listing is posted in MLS, it should go within a few days to your compny site, Trulia, Zillow, or Realtor.com, Go to these sites and claim your listing, brand it, promote any upcoming open houses. Better yet, is to load these sites yourself from your Point2Agent web address and link listing information, virtual tours etc back to your own Domain.
19. Develop promotional folder to be displayed at Sellers home during showings to include unique features, utility costs, any benefits, repairs & updates.
20. E-Mail a MLS printout to Seller to review information and confirmation in addition to a copy of Website home description; for their review and additions so you can update with additional features
21. Submit copies of listing to sales staff for their potential purchasers via Constant Contact or VerticalResponse
22. Telephone your seller regularly to discuss showing activity and/or prospective buyers.
23. Tweet properties, price changes, open houses, sold properties, and other related items on Twitter throughout the day, with settings set for posts to forward on to Facebook, Friend Feed, Plaxo, and others. Ping.fm is a great program for distributing posts to a variety of social networking sites. I am sure there are additional services and activities that could add here. I am a student of learning and open minded to always look at new technology, ideas and suggestions, so please feel free to offer your comments or email them to me.
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