The First Seven Steps Your Realtor Must Take

You’ve signed the listing agreement, now what?

Between the signing of the listing agreement and the second week your home is on the market, there is an enormous amount of work for the listing agent. Done right, completing these tasks lays a solid foundation for a successful marketing plan for your home.

Here are the first seven things a listing broker must do once a new listing is signed.

1. Paperwork. There is lots of paperwork. Some paperwork is mandated by the Commonwealth, some of it is by the company. The agent has to have all of the paperwork complete and in order. I even fill out paperwork for the sign installation, but some agents in very small firms will install the sign. If your agent is not highly organized and complete, it may reflect on a sloppy company or other sloppy work.
2. Preparing the home for sale. It is you duty to prepare the home to look it’s best. But it is your agent’s duty to be helpful. Your listing agent should spend time with you and either advice or referring you to a staging professional. It is vital you take your agent’s advice or hire a staging professional. The home you live in should not look like the home you sell.
3. Photographs. The listing agent’s third order of business is to arrange to take photographs of the property. Preparing the home for sale and great photos is the groundwork for a successful marketing campaign. Photographs, and any other media such as floor plans and home tour, are the materials necessary to market the home online and to attract the right buyers.
4. Calendar. You should know when the agent plans to hold open houses and establish a schedule for showings. Some people refuse to show homes on Saturdays or need a day or two notice. Your agent must know your limitations and work with them. You should know what happens when, including any promotions, mailings, office tours, broker open houses, etc.
5. MLS. With photos in hand, the agent is ready to enter the home into Multiple Listing Service. If done right, this takes some time. A complete MLS entry is the goal, including room measurements, building and area information, public records data, description, related documents, etc. The MLS entry of your home must look perfect the first moment it is published. Once it’s “live”, it is send to anyone in the system looking for a home like yours. People tend to skip homes with incomplete information and bad pictures. The very first days of the listing are most important to your marketing plan!
6. Online Promotion. MLS and some brokerage firms syndicate listings all over the web. Listings will feed into websites such as Homes.com, Zillow, Trulia, Realtor.com, etc. These syndication are the lifeblood of the online marketing campaign. When 88% of home buyers searched online for homes last year, this is a big piece of successfully marketing a property. Tech savvy agents who understand the importance of online marketing pay for their own syndication feeds which override any company or MLS feed. This gives the listing agent more control over what the audience sees and allows buyers to directly contact the listing agent, rather than the office.
7. Direct Mail. A “just listed” card to a radius around your home should be sent the first week the home goes on market. Just listed cards peak neighbors’ interest and they spread the word about your home in their beloved neighborhood. This is also a perfect marketing opportunity for a neighbor considering a new home who want to stay in the area.

There is so much to do the first few weeks of a listing. After that, the work load is lessened until the offers come. Still, you should expect updates on activity and a regular marketing effort that continues through the life of the listing.

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