We are talking real estate marketing for listing specifically, and today I want to talk about listing foundations. Your foundation needs to be rock solid. Now, you’ve heard the old tale, the wise man built his house upon a rock versus the foolish man who built his house upon the sand. I want to talk about some rock solid foundation pieces, three, to be specific, that you can use and should be paying attention to in your listings to make sure you have a listing foundation.
Now, when you have a listing foundation, your foundation, when it is rock solid, can carry over into all of the efforts that you do in your business, so that you can leverage that listing to the fullest and turn average listings into rockstar, lead generating machines. And that’s what we help you do at Real Estate Listing Masters. What is your listing foundation? I see the foundation as three components. Number one, your photography. Number two, listing comments. And number three, the little things that are the big things. Let’s talk about each one of these.
Number one is photography. You think, “Oh, Amber, I’ve heard it a million times. Hire a professional photographer.” While yes, that is part of it, it goes much deeper than that. Did you know that there actually is a psychology to selling things online? Yes, there is. You can study it for probably 25 years in college if you wanted to. There is that much information out there, but the reality is that it’s simple. We are trying to connect with the buyer. We are trying to draw out the emotion from the buyer that makes them go, “Wow, I have got to see this property.”
Because when we take advantage of that first exposure and that first opportunity that we have online with this property, when we can connect that exposure with the buyer and have them go, “Wow, I’ve got to see this property,” that gets us showings. When we get showings, when we get people in the property, that’s another connection point where we can then help them feel like this property is right for them. That’s when we create the opportunity for getting offers on our property. Leveraging your first exposure on that property is absolutely critical, and photography plays a big part in that.
The other thing that you want to think about in photography and the psychology of selling is the order that you put your photos in. Photography is number one. You want to use professional photography.
Now I do get a question a lot of times from agents who say, “Well, Amber, my client’s house isn’t the cleanest,” or, “These pictures make the house look way better than it actually is.” That’s a whole other training in itself, but I want to just put out there for you that the quality that you produce online, no matter the work and effort that your clients put into getting their property sold, that reflects on you as the real estate agent. And so it’s still important for you to use high quality photos. That also is going to reflect in the comments and the feedback that you get from showings. When the comments come back and say the house is dirty, it showed better online, that’s feedback you can then take back to your clients to be able to get some of those changes made and enhanced for them, and help you in the listing process as well. Okay. That is a little bit about photography.
The second thing I mentioned is the listing remarks. Again, this is another critical aspect and point for you to be able to reach the public. When you are reaching the public through your listing remarks, this is a chance for you to draw out that feeling. What is the emotion you are trying to create when you’re selling this property? Are you trying to say handyman special, this house needs a lot of work, come on in? Because you absolutely can say that in a few short words. But if you’re trying to say that this home is worthy of you coming in and getting rest and relaxation, and enjoying sunsets from your back porch, and gathering friends and family, that needs to be conveyed.
Number one can be done through pictures. You can see some of those things in the pictures. But now, buyers are going to read those comments. You and I both know this, because I’ve been on showings where the buyer goes, “Now, where is this washer and dryer that’s stackable that they’ve talked about in the listing? I haven’t seen that.” As an agent, we can’t read 100% of the comments, because we’re trying to make sure that this property fits in. Does it have enough bedrooms, and bathrooms, and square footage, and yard size, and location, and schools, and restaurants, and shopping, and all of these things?
We don’t always read all of the comments, but our buyers read the comments. That’s why as a listing agent, it is very critical to make sure your comments are on point and again, draw out that emotion. Again, you can find information for that on our website, relmasters.com, to be able to get that information.
Now, the last thing that I touched on is the little things are the big things. When I talk about the little things, I mean, getting the details right. Do you make it really, really, really easy for the buyer’s agent to be able to assist their buyer in buying this property? Are the HOA contact informations updated? Are the fees correct? Are the transaction fees, sorry, the reinvestment fees correct? All of these little things become big things when you are creating that emotion for this listing and when you are trying to put out there why this listing is the best one for this buyer.
Let’s look at photo comments. This is one that a lot of people miss and don’t take the time to put in. But the comments, are you using that space under the photos to be able to say second bedroom, second floor, en suite bathroom, primary suite, double sink and vanity? You can again, point out some of these details and specifics to be able to draw out the small details and pull out those emotions for buyers, and listing agent or sorry, buyers’ agents as well, to be able to see and connect to. The details are what’s going to matter.
Making it really easy for buyers’ agents to be able to connect to this listing, to do the due diligence, to pass on information to their buyers, is going to make the transaction smooth, seamless, and feel really, really fantastic for everyone involved. That’s what we’re trying to accomplish when we have a solid listing foundation. Okay. Professional photography is a must, but the psychology of how we put those pictures out there is what’s going to make the biggest difference. How we write our remarks and how we draw out those emotions.
Anybody can see that this house is two bedrooms. Sorry, three bedrooms, two bathrooms. We don’t need to reiterate that in the comments, because that’s already in the details. Let’s use our space wisely. And then the information that we put out in the details, the little things, those become the big things when we talk about the ease of the transaction. And the way that selling this property feels, that’s going to convey over into the buyer’s agent and the buyers themselves.
Again, for more information, for more resources, for more details on some of our training programs, relmasters.com is our website, where you can find all of the information out, where we focus on real estate marketing for listings specifically. Helping you turn your average listings into lead generating machines. Have a great day, guys.
