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Saturday, December 28, 2024

Listing Descriptions

    You know the story: you labor over your listing descriptions, trying desperately to come up with just the right words to describe your brand-new-listing-that-you-want-to-sell-today.

    In reality, you should be paying closer attention to the images. Why?

    Because the agent’s remarks are ignored by more than 40 percent of buyers.

    Tip #1: Spend less time describing a listing and more time photographing it
    Multi-Photo Just Listed postcard shown above. To see more, Click Here

    I’m not making this up – studies prove it. An ocular tracking study (tracking eye movements of buyers on a real estate website) showed that “the real estate agent’s open remarks section is viewed” last and that viewers place “very little emphasis … on this section.”

    In other words, you’re stressing over nothing.

    Now, if the home’s photos are sub-par, you do need to stress because more than 95 percent of your website visitors will look first at a home’s photo. Then, they turn to the “quantitative property description.” That’s the MLS template stuff, like the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, square footage, etc.

    Now, here’s the really surprising part of the study:

    “In our experiment, participants comply by viewing the remainder of the home, but in an actual setting, one has to wonder if the agent remarks would ever get read if the home searcher does not like the initial photo of the home.”

    In essence, you could probably fill your agent remarks section with “Lorem Ipsum” and nobody would even notice. Now, I’m not advocating that; just trying to make a point.

    Tip #2 Who started this one?

    It’s common knowledge that kitchens and bathrooms are the most important to buyers, right? Isn’t that what we all tell our sellers? Don’t photos of those two rooms dominate listings? Where did that come from?

    It’s amazing how we do things without questioning why. Sure, at one time, kitchens and bathrooms may have been buyers’ hot buttons, but are they today?

    Nope. New-home buyers crave a laundry room over anything else. The second in-room preference is a dining room, according to annual research for the National Association of Home Builders.

    Whether you hire a photographer or DIY your listing photos, don’t neglect to feature a home’s usable outdoor space (whether a full backyard or a patio or lanai) as well. Anecdotal evidence from agents across the country hints that this is still a wildly popular feature in existing homes.

    Some of the other popular outdoor features mentioned by agents include:

    • Updated lighting
    • Outdoor ceiling fan on the patio
    • Ample fences to keep kids/pets safely enclosed in the yard
    • Firepit or fireplace for those chilly nights

    Allow space for photos of these items in your online listing photos.

    We won’t always be in a hot sellers’ market. Someday buyers will rule and you’ll need every tool in your belt to lure them to your listings.

    The Get More Listings Series is shown above. To send a one-time mailing, Click Here. To launch a Get More Listing Campaign, Click Here.

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      Bathrooms and kitchens. Anyone who has been listing real estate for more than a minute is aware that these two rooms dominate the consciousness of every homebuyer. Or, so we’ve been led to believe.

      Sadly, the adherence to the perceived need to sell these two rooms leaves the rest of the house feeling like the neglected stepchild.

      Nobody expects your listing descriptions to read like they came from the fingertips of the world’s greatest copywriter.

      What buyers do expect, and seldom get, is value for the time they spend reading them. That value remains undelivered when important information is left out. And the good news is that the information doesn’t need to eat up your valuable MLS word count if you can convey it with photos.

      The Neighborhood Update postcard is available under the Postcard section.

      We’ve noticed that there are three areas of a home in particular that agents tend to ignore. Three areas, we assure you, buyers want to know about.

      1. The Backyard

      Why does a homebuyer prefer a single-family residence over a condo?

      There are several reasons, as you know, and chief among them is the backyard. Even a tiny backyard is better than a condo’s lanai. If the buyer entertains a lot, loves to tinker in the garden or has kids/pets that crave the outdoors, a condo won’t work.

      For the past few years, outdoor living spaces have been in-demand with homebuyers. Last year, however, became the year of the patio, at least according to studies by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB).

      More than 80 percent of homebuyers surveyed said that a patio in their new home is a must.

      How often are patios staged? More important, how often do you see patios featured in listing descriptions?

      Convince your listing clients to stage the patio. Then, ditch two or three of the 500 kitchen photos you’d planned on posting and use patio photos in their place on your next listing description.

      Get patio staging tips at Pinterest.com.

      The Free Local Market Statistics postcard is available under the Call to Action Series in the Postcard section.

      We’re willing to bet your efforts will build traffic through the listing – especially if you also highlight the rest of the areas of the home most listing agents neglect.

      1. The Garage

      We’re going out on a limb here to guess that the reason listing photos don’t include any of the home’s garages is because most garages we’ve seen are akin to the kitchen junk drawer, but on a larger scale.

      It’s going to take a lot of convincing to get your clients to clean out the garage. Maybe if you let them know that nearly 90 percent of homebuyers say that garage storage is essential, they’ll act.

      In other words, there’s a real good chance that if your clients’ homes don’t clearly show potential buyers how much storage space there is in the garage, they’ll find a home that does.

      Decluttering is a good first step, but staging the garage will wow potential buyers. If your clients already have storage solutions built in, use them in the staging. Otherwise, convince them to buy racks, shelves and ceiling storage units.

      Online ideas abound, but nobody does it better than Pinterest.com.

      Your listing’s garage is so much more than home to two or three cars – so prove it to garage-hungry buyers.

      1. The Laundry Room

      It’s a rare agent’s remarks space that includes mention of a laundry room. Typically, one needs to look beyond the listing description into the features section where you will or won’t find an “X” in the box next to “Laundry Room.”

      When one considers that the number one feature that most homebuyers claim is essential in their new home is a laundry room, according to the NAHB survey, neglecting to play up the feature is nuts.

      By the way, nearly three quarters of repeat buyers say that a laundry room is more important to them than a living room.

      A lot of this desire has to do with the storage a laundry room provides – at least enough room to stack folded laundry and stow dirty stuff.

      Even the smallest room, however, will please would-be homeowners. If your client’s budget allows for the addition of a laundry room, suggest a basement remodel.

      Paul Sullivan, president of a Massachusetts remodeling firm explains to the editors at Kiplinger.com that since the “utility lines are already there” and the addition most likely won’t involve demolition, the cost can run as low as $1,000.

      The Neighborhood Update postcard is available under the Postcard section.

      Make 2020 the year your listing descriptions and photos show buyers the features they’re truly interested in.

      Send the Neighborhood Update postcard from the Neighborhood Update Series to an area where you want more listings.

      Need help targeting the perfect niche of buyers or sellers? Use our mailing list tool to create the ideal list (it’s easy) or call our support team for assistance at 866.405.3638!

      PLUS: When you have time…here are Free killer tools to help your success this year!

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      4. Become a Listing Legend Free eBook 

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      Wanna hear a secret? Few potential home buyers actually read agent descriptions when viewing a listing online – at least according to a university study that tracked their eye movements.

      Home buyers take in the photo first and then they view the property’s statistics. This leaves the listing description for last, according to a study by researchers at Old Dominion University.

      In fact, more than 40 percent of study participants didn’t even get past the photo to look at the agent remarks. This lead the authors to question “In an actual setting, we wonder if the agent remarks ever get read if the home searcher doesn’t like the initial home photos.”

      Key takeaway? Ensure your photos are impeccable.

      Once that’s done, it’s time to write a brilliant description for that listing. Start here.

      Who is the likely buyer?

      When you understand which pool the likely buyer will come from, you can write a more focused description.

      For instance, if the home is larger-than-entry-level (a move-up home), your most likely buyer in 2018 will come from Generation X.

      Do some research and you’ll learn that these buyers crave a home close to good schools and within a reasonable commute time to work.

      Compel them with a Free report offer (Available in the Free Report Section)

      They need extra square footage for the kids and a bit of privacy for Mom and Dad. In addition, their lifestyle includes keeping fit (parks and trails are worth a mention) and time spent with friends and family (that outdoor deck is great for entertaining).

      Remember the law

      Later, I’ll show you an example of a common problem I see in listing descriptions. If the mention of the “family neighborhood” doesn’t set off your Equal Housing alarm, perhaps you should brush up on the laws before diving into an explanation of your listing.

      While proofing your listing description, ensure that nothing you say can be construed as steering (describe the property, not the neighborhood). Although you should know who the buyer may be for the home, resist describing the ideal candidate (family, young couples, etc.).

      And, although the rules about “forbidden” words are common-sense, refresh your memory with a quick glance over a list. The State of Massachusetts Department of Consumer and Business Affairs offers a list on its website.

      Don’t waste valuable space

      A whole section of the typical MLS listing is devoted to a home’s basic features, such as the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, square footage, lot size, the number of fireplaces and more.

      Remember, by the time the viewer gets to your carefully-written description, he or she already knows the basics of the home.

      Don’t waste valuable description space by repeating what the buyer can find elsewhere on the page. For instance, here’s an actual description I found today:

      “Remodeled 4 bedroom house with 2 Full Bathrooms, Approximately 1,739 square feet of living space, with Separate Family Room, Formal Dining Room, and Formal Living Room in an excellent family neighborhood.”

      Let them know you’re thinking of them with a St Patrick’s wish (Available in the postcard section under the Holiday Series)

      Thirty of the thirty-one words in that sentence are wasted. The fact that the home has been remodeled is a huge selling point. The agent could have done better by replacing that redundant information by describing the upgrades.

      Speaking of descriptions

      While I haven’t space here to teach you how to channel Hemmingway, I can offer some bits of advice on how to craft the one piece of prose that confounds most listing agents.

      Take a look at the listing description I mentioned earlier as an example.

      By ridding it of the redundancies, there’s room to describe the home’s fresh landscaping in both the front and backyards. Plus, the laminate and tile flooring that blends seamlessly with the existing hardwood and the new granite counter-tops and stove in the open-concept kitchen.

      Plus, there would be room left over to let potential buyers know that shopping and schools are within walking distance to the home. And, in addition, that the park and golf course is a less-than 5-minute drive.

      Think back to when you took the listing – do you recall any positive words or concepts that popped into your mind? Chances are good that buyers will feel the same way, so use these in your description.

      Then, let your reader see what you’re describing by using rich, descriptive imagery. But, don’t go overboard.

      Proof and then proof again

      Gone are the days when the only people to ever see your listing descriptions are other agents and appraisers. Today, they are available to the entire world, so spelling and grammar are important.

      And, no, that’s not just the writer in me waving her red pen. A Redfin/Grammarly study finds that 45 percent of home buyers would think twice about touring a home if its description contained spelling and grammar errors.

      Yes, they will notice that you think the home has a thankless water heater, a walking closet or a remolded bathroom.

      If you’re selling a $1 million or higher home, be extra careful with the listing description. A similar study from a few years ago found that high-end home buyers and sellers don’t trust descriptions with spelling and grammar errors.

      In fact, this group of listings takes longer to sell and “have the lowest percentage of homes that sell over list price,” according to the Wall Street Journal’s Sanette Tanaka.

      There may be several reasons behind this statistic. The chief among them is that many of us believe that taking the time to check spelling, punctuation, and grammar shows an ability to attend to small details.

      When proofreading your descriptions, fix the following:

      • Spelling errors
      • Grammar errors
      • Punctuation – watch your commas. “Let’s eat, Gramma” becomes sinister without the comma – “Let’s eat Gramma.” Avoid the use of exclamation points.
      • Never use all caps to describe a home.
      • Don’t be boring.

        Stay on their mind by sending Holiday wishes (Available in the postcard section under Holiday Series)
      Send at least 100 St Patrick’s Day postcards from the Holiday Series to your Sphere, Farm and anyone else you want to make sure knows you’re there for them.

      Need help targeting the perfect niche of buyers or sellers? Use our mailing list tool to create the ideal list (it’s easy) or call our support team for assistance at 866.405.3638!

      PLUS: When you have time…here are Free ways we can help you have an INVINCIBLE 2019!

      1. Become a Listing Legend Free eBook 

      Ready to take a vertical leap in your real estate career? If you’re looking for inspiration…and the tools and methods to dominate a market and go to the top in real estate…you’ll find them in this free book. – Click Here 

       

       

      2. “Get More Listings” Free Online Webinar

       

      “Get MORE Listings & Begin to Dominate Your Market!” Free online webinar. Learn the 3-7-27 strategy for explosive growth, why 95% of agents have less than 20% market share, and how to become the agent everyone competes against. – Click Here

       

       

      3. The 12 Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Plan

      The Real Estate Marketing Planner is a powerful 12-Month-Guide that strategically defines what marketing to do when. Four key market segments are included, Niche Marketing, Get More Listings, Geographic Farming, and Sphere of Influence. – Click Here

       

       

      4. The Free One-Page Real Estate Business Plan

      Treat your business like a business it is vital to long-term success in this industry. Some agents may put together elaborate business plans, yet there’s something powerful about keeping it simple. Check out our one page Online Real Estate Business Plan.  – Click Here

       

       

      5. The Free Online ROI Calculator

      Consistency and automation are the keys to success. Discover how effective direct mail marketing can dramatically increase your bottom line. Enter your statistics in our Free online ROI Calculator and click the ‘CALCULATE MY ROI’ button to see your results instantly! – Click Here

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