One of the first things I do when I get to the office is open my laptop, log into the MLS (multiple listing service), and look through all the new listings that came on the market overnight. It still shocks me how many of them come on the market with no photos. The sellers have no idea how badly that hurts them the first day their home is on the market and do not realize they’ve actually chosen the wrong agent to get their home sold. It’s more than just the simple fact that people like to see photos. Let me explain in detail.
When you list your home with my real estate team, we take quite a bit of time to prepare all the photos and information on the MLS. We want all the data to be as accurate as possible and that includes 25-50 high resolution photos of the home. We do this at least one day before the listing goes live. The reason is that we have it set up to automatically go live on a specific date. We understand how the MLS works and I now realize most agents do not.
At any given time during the year, there are literally thousands of consumers in Kansas City that are set up on what’s called an “Automated Email Alert.” They are registered on Zillow, Realtor.com, or any number of other real estate websites. In addition to all public websites, most active Realtors have all of their clients set up on an automated search directly from the MLS. When a new home flips to “active” on the MLS, it immediately sends out an email to any consumer (or Realtor) that has one of these automated alerts set up to show them this home. It also feeds out to the thousands of real estate websites as well. If the seller’s agent hasn’t loaded the photos into the MLS, then the listing goes out to the public websites with no photos. It literally feeds out to thousands of consumers that are looking for a home like this, but because there are no photos on the listing, no one “sees” it.
During the last two years of Covid, my real estate team has sometimes taken advantage of this and rushed over to the home to preview it in person. If it fits what our clients are looking for, we then get our buyers into the home within hours and make an offer before the seller’s agent gets the photos loaded.
In addition to this, what most agents do not realize is that when they finally load all the photos on the second day on the market, this does not trip all the automated emails again. It’s no longer a “new” listing and has already been on the market for 24 hours. The MLS doesn’t know that you’re just now loading the photos and you’ve now missed out on the single most important day to market the home, the first day!
When sellers are interviewing a Realtor to help them sell their home, there’s much more to it than they realize. If you don’t want to leave any money on the table when selling your home, then call me or one of my experienced team members.