Real Talk!

The number one selling tool for your property is your MLS ® listing, if it is going to be displayed on www.mls.ca. There are some things that Sellers need to be aware of, in order to get the most out of the opportunity provided by the Canadian Real Estate Association’s website.

It isn’t mandatory for all local real estate boards to participate with www.mls.ca. Most boards, yes, all boards, no. The Internet is currently THE place to advertise your property for sale. Statistics range from the high 70s to the low 80 percentages as to how many sales originate from the Internet. It gets higher, every year.

www.mls.ca works and your Realtor ® ought to be displaying your property on that site for you. Ask if your Realtor® belongs to a board that participates on www.mls.ca.

There are a multitude of “fields” for data on the MLS ® system. Some boards are quite lax about the data; others are very stringent in their guidelines. In the not-so-olden days, the theory of many Realtors ® was to use the “listing” as a teaser- meaning, you want to entice a Buyer to have to contact you- therefore, they assumed that by leaving some information out of the listing, prospects would call for the information, directly.

Or, is it simply that (a) the Realtors® didn’t trust the internet or (b) the Realtors® were hopeful that they would personally achieve the sale (and make more money) & therefore wanted first dibs on an interested party or (c) some other silly reason… because frankly, missing data causes a lot of frustration and I think it can lose the interest of a prospective Buyer.

The more, the better. Today’s Buyers want lots of information and lots of pictures available to them, before they view. This means that the Seller’s agent should be diligent about getting every bit of information when they list the property. Things like “exposure” (meaning the direction of the view), property taxes, building age and square footage of buildings, rental equipment (like hot water tanks) are commonly missed items on a listing and often details that Buyers will ask about. There are a surprising number of listings that go without any kind of photo… and they say one picture is worth a thousand words. What are they hiding?

The listing agent should have copies of all documentation, such as survey/sketches, TSSA approval for oil tanks, WETT certificates for wood burning devices and septic use permits, etc. etc. This can also be noted on the listing at www.mls.ca and should be, as it will be of huge comfort to a prospective Buyer.

The remarks section of a listing on www.mls.ca is critical. This is the ideal opportunity to express the essence of your property and to provide sufficient detail to assist prospective Buyers in assessing if it is a match to their criteria. The remarks should be thoughtfully developed and well presented.

The items that are included and the items that are excluded with the purchase are very important and unless your list is ridiculously long, there is room for it on the MLS® listing. Too many just say LBO (meaning, contact the listing brokerage). A Buyer client, under an agency contract with another Realtor® should not be calling another brokerage… so why would anyone put such notes on a listing?

Directions to the property should be clear and concise. This is a real pet peeve of mine. The rumour is that some Realtors® intentionally put poor or wrong directions on a listing, again… so that newer Realtors® will have difficulty finding the property and the prospective Buyers will seek out the listing agent for assistance. I’d like to think this rumour isn’t true…. However….

Our code of ethics prevents me from making disparaging remarks about any of my colleagues.

Just last evening, Fabian and I took another preview tour. One listing said: “From Bancroft take Hwy XX to XX Rd” (so far so good) “to XX Rd” (road name incorrect but similar- we had to guess) “to X Rd” (it’s actually X Trail) and it doesn’t tell you which way to turn. When you are off in the wilds, on winding and hilly gravel roads, this seems to be quite the adventure.

Over the years, I have seen directions that say, “turn left at the pig” or “turn right at the field of cows”… what if the cows are inside??

Back to last evening’s tour… the same listing with poor directions suggests you contact LBO to learn what is included or excluded and it’s blank for square footage, rental equipment and building age. It also claims “year round road access” which is a little suspect. Hmmmm.

Sellers, I suggest you ask your Realtor® to provide you with a “print out” of your listing. Sometimes there are separate views for “Realtors®” and “Clients”. You might like to review them both. Remember, your listing on www.mls.ca is quite likely the source of your Buyer.