Is your agent selling you short? Once again, I'm standing up to say that the agent you hire MAKES A BIG DIFFERENCE. Sorry for the shouting.
I am a little riled up about this one. A few days ago I came across a couple of listings in the MLS that I find not just irresponsible, but bordering on malpractice. I know that mistakes can be made, but big ones like these cost sellers a lot of time and money. A good Realtor is worth every penny she earns, and most days I don't see anything like this. Let me make it clear that this is the exception not the rule.
Yes, there may be more criteria, but those 3 are just about always there. So this Birmingham home is not coming up on the search results of agents or homebuyers who have ticked off the 'basement box'. It just so happens that the listing agent is from outside of the Birmingham market and does not use our MLS as his primary MLS. Looks like he never checked the listing after it was entered. The seller will never know why her house isn't getting any action. She'll lower the price a couple of times and get frustrated. In this case, an agent who uses the dominate MLS in the market every day would probably have caught it long ago.
I could probably come up with a few more, but you get the point. As a consumer you can protect yourself by asking your agent to send you a copy of your mls listing as soon as it is posted and any time there is a change. Some agents might do this automatically. I am guessing that the ones I've mentioned above certainly don't.
The locations of these listngs have been changed to protect the guilty. Or to protect this blogger.
As for those agents, the Queen has spoken. Off with their heads!
Off with their heads was taken by iam4ranny
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Dmitry & Maureen, specialize in residential real estate in Birmingham, Bloomfield Hills, Beverly Hills, Royal Oak, Troy and surrounding communities. Relocation specialists. Call us at 248.961.0801
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Great post, Maureen! I'm astonished when I write to expireds how many of them have only two interior shots of the home. With how important pictures are...all 10 slots should be FILLED and then your own website should be FILLED (I get 36 spaces for pictures on my web site www.twincityseller.com and try to use as many as possible!).
I have to admit, when I'm working with a buyer, have time to show 5 houses, and there are 15 to choose from...I'm not likely to show the one with no pictures, or no description. I want to know I'm showing my client one of the best homes on the market, and I can't determine that without any information!
Hi Maureen- I agree "Off with their heads" Critical information is essential. I had an agent call me to ask why I did not list the "above ground pool" on my house at ABC Street. I said...because it does NOT have one. He said yes it does, I saw it on the MLS but when we got there no pool... Really? I responded having loaded the listing personally... what Number was the Listing? It was 12345678910- Oh I see the problem...that was NOT my listing! DUH!!!!! He went to the right house, but had the wrong sheet. No comment! LOL
Maureen,
How about this photo? The listing agent has had this photo posted on the MLS as the one and only photo of this property for over 214 days.
Bet you the seller doesn't know that they could have up to 9 photos published let alone this poor quality photo? Can't wait for this to expire. I may point out the fact that their old listing featured this terrible photo!
Lisa, I would make the same choices you do. No showings = no sales.
Dave, that photo is ridiculous. I think we should start a web page with actual bad photos from the MLS. Wouldn't that be a hoot.
Allison, even if we are giving out the right information, we can't help it if other people can't read it.
Gary REPORT 'em! Actually, I do not report stupid stuff like most of the stuff above. I do not help lazy listing agents.
Hmmm. Gary is gone.
I would assume that you may have diaried the listing expiration dates on these properties to be able to promptly follow them upon expiration?
Ron,
In our MLS agents can not see listing expiration dates. Only brokers. It's not really fair, but that is the rule. Excellent suggestion though.
OH you do not want to get me started on bad pictures, bad MLS information or lack of!
I want to write to agents that put up bad pictures and say... TAKE TWO... ONE FOR SAFETY!
Or did you even LOOK at the pictures you uploaded? Not to mention how it BUGS me when there are no pictures at all. If they can't see it they are going to breeze OVER it.
Great post MF
Isn't the competition great!? They make us look so good!
I am of the opinion that 99% of listing agent NEVER read a listing after entering them. I used to report the errors to the MLS folks but they started ignoring me. Oh well.
This is a "FIVER". Maybe some listing agents will read it.
Lenn
Thanks, Lenn!
I am surprised my MLS does not ignore me. My pet peeve is agents who put links to their web sites in the public remarks. I really can't figure out why the MLS doesn't do a daily search for "www." and zap them.
The Twin Cities MLS no longer allows links of any kind in the descriptions either on the first page of the listing or on the supplements. I was bummed when that happened because I used to research good links to local areas of interest, the city website, neighborhood parks and features, recreational features, etc. The MLS does not want to promote anyone else's advertising for free so all links were eliminated except to an unbranded virtual tour! Sigh.
I do see too many listings whose agents don't fill in the blanks. It really is not doing their job in terms of promoting their client's best interest!
Malpractice is exactly what they are guilty of.
There are a couple of Realtors who list their townhouses under single family homes. So townhouse buyers never look at them.
The real shame in this is that it happens all the time. I email the MLS listing to my sellers as soon as I post it and ask them to review it for accuracy. They are able to see the pictures, confirm the information and verify the commission being offered to the selling agent, and they appreciate it.
Shame on those agents!
Some agents in my MLS, only have one picture (not taken by them - taken for free by the MLS photo people) Some agents have NO PHOTO at all. To add your own photos it is costs from $20 to $50. Are these agents just cheap or are they too lazy to take photos? No offense to "Discount Brokers" but it is usually this group of agents that are the culprits. Aren't there "minimum service" requirments? (like at least a free photo) and at least the map coordinates to the property? The epitomy of lazy was an agent that had written in the map coordinate area of the listing "LOOK IT UP" yourself.
I have thought for years that it is just way too easy to get a Real Estate license and Brokers will hire any one that breathes! Don't Brokers realize that this only hurts an already bad perception of our profession?
Nothing frustrates me quicker than mis-information in the MLS listings. I check, recheck, and triple check my listings when I put them in the MLS. And I either print out and hand deliver or email my client the listing so that they can check also. How does one expect a house to sell if the information is not correct? And with how cheap digital cameras have become, there really is no excuse not to have as many pictures as possible.
This sort of thing just makes some of us who are more concientious look better. Just another example of mis-information that makes our job harder, and is frustrating to buyers as well. Not a good way to represent your sellers' best interests. Good post, Maureen!
Jeff
Have homes listed here where they forget to include that the house has a bathroom. What I don't understand is how you can send it as a 'finished' listing through our mls system if that is missing, but I guess it's not an automatic red flag.
Maureen I must agree... we have seen MLS entries with brutal misrepresentations. In one case a property owner contacted us in pre-foreclosure, we were to attempt a refi on the property, since the owner had not yet been late on the mortgage (I run a mortgage brokerage as well) and found numerous errors in the listing.Today
, the house has been on the market for 112 days, the listing info remains incorrect, the owner is now 3 months past due on the original mortgage, and virtually no advertising has been done for the sale other than the abysmal MLS listing.We
have contacted the listing agent to offer a purchase by one of our investors... the owner NEEDS to sell, and we know it, having been contacted by the owner directly for mortgage purposes, and now having been asked to help with a short sale or get one of our investors to buy it... the agent refuses to discuss the property with us, and we are acting as buyers agents for our investors...
We have not pointed out the listing errors to the agent, or to the owner, but did forward the agent the listing data, with questions. So far, no response, two weeks into it...
Bad for the seller, bad for the industry...
I am saddened for the owner, who will be in foreclosure soon enough...
What can be done?
Queen, please shout your proclamation over this way... there are some who need to hear it.
Maureen,
That was great! In our area we often have agents that don't put a picture of the home in the MLS. They will place a generic photo and go about their daily business. You are sooooo right! Off with their Heads!
Maureen,
I agree that these agents are grossly negligent, but I also can't believe that the homeowner isn't doing their due dilligence to check up on their listing.
I have a friend who is listing an investment property right now. She had me stage it for her; she has several properties in the area and has been a loan officer for year. In other words she isn't new or naive in this industry. But when I looked online at her listing, there are very few photos and they are awful and blurry. I couldn't do the photos myself because it was imbetween the time when my camera broke and the new one came in.
When I listed our last invesment property back in June of last year, I scrapped all the the listing agent's photos and gave her my own. I made her send me the proof of the brochure before I let her print it (and I ended up making lots of changes). That was before ActiveRain and before I discovered that there are actually agents out there that can provide quality service.
Great post, Maureen... sorry I missed it when it was first published. I see you, too, have an issue with lazy agents who write "see MapQuest" for directions. I've given it a gold star on the MLS Issues Group.
Like Laurie and a few others, I also print everything out and have the sellers review it. I tell them I'm only human and I make mistakes. Also, I haven't lived in the home and loved it the way they have, so I may have missed something. Sellers appreciate honesty and most like being part of the process. I've never had someone tell me it was my job to figure out the ad. Almost every seller has something to add, and even if they don't, they cannot complain about the description if invited to edit it.