Editorial
Front Page - Monday, November 09, 2009
House to House
Maximizing your MLS listing
Ethan C. Nobles
By Ethan C. Nobles
Arkansas Realtors Association Ethan@ArkansasRealtors.com
One of the most effective marketing tools a Realtor has is the multiple listing service, but is your agent maximizing its potential?
An MLS, simply put, is a database where information on properties for sale are stored. All Realtors® who are members of the MLS can show its properties to potential buyers. Furthermore, national sites such as Realtor.com pull data MLS systems around the nation so people from, say, Colorado looking for homes in Arkansas can conveniently browse through properties on the Internet.
Amanda Tester, executive officer for Cooperative Arkansas Realtors MLS in Little Rock, said around one-third of the approximately 7,700 Realtors in Arkansas are members of her MLS. There are thousands of active listings in CARMLS at any given time and the MLS covers houses in the six counties in central Arkansas; it is also the primary MLS in other areas such as Fulton County, Hot Spring County, Hot Springs Village, Izard County, Mena, Paragould, Pine Bluff, Searcy and Van Buren County.
While CARMLS is the largest MLS in the state, there are others that contain a large number of listings, too. Arkansas Regional MLS, for example, covers Benton, Carroll, Crawford, Madison, Sebastian and Washington counties.
In other words, people listing homes through CARMLS, ARMLS – or any MLS – should make sure their home stands out from the pack. Tester said sellers can help their Realtors make those listings as effective as possible by knowing a little bit about the MLS and making sure their agents submit listings that present homes in the best possible light.
Tester said a few things to keep in mind are:
• Any MLS allows for a maximum number of photos of a property to be included with a listing. Since prospective buyers will often determine whether to look at a home based on the quality and quantity of photos included, sellers would be wise to see to it that the maximum number of photos is included with a listing.
• Quantity is important, but so is quality. Photos should be clear and present the home accurately.
• Clear, easy-to-follow directions to the property in the listing should always be provided. If a buyer can’t find the house, he can’t go see it.
• Misspellings in the listing reflect negatively on the property, the seller and the listing agent.
• The MLS includes categories meant to describe a property for a reason. Buyers want information and they hate to run across phrases such as “unknown” and “not available” when trying to find out all they can about a home.
• The listing should be complete as soon as it is entered. Cashing in a Mulligan on a listing is a bad idea as information entered in the MLS is “live” and viewable by prospective buyers as soon as it’s uploaded.
In this day and age, sellers need to take advantage of every advantage at their disposal when it comes to marketing their homes. The MLS is a great tool for sellers, so make sure it’s complete, contains good directions to the home and has a lot of high-quality photos.
House to House is distributed weekly by the Arkansas Realtors® Association
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