What's the one mistake many sellers keep making today in West Orange, Maplewood and South Orange, NJ?

As productive real estate agents we know this answer but so many sellers and real estate agents let this pass them by. The single biggest mistake made today by sellers: Not realizing that the first showing you have of your house is online.

If you're an avid reader of ActiveRain you have heard this before. The internet is the number one place home buyers go to during the entire home search process, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR) 2008 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers. When it's time to focus on purchasing a home, the internet was again the number one place where buyers found their home. This says when choosing a real estate agent to sell your most precious commodity, sellers should see how the agent makes their clients house look on the internet and how many places it can be found.

Most real estate agents get confused with the Information Data Exchange (IDX) system. They don't remember that all the tons of participating real estate agency and agents can have their listing on the agency's or agent's website, which garners your house more exposure, but your listing agent won't get the call. Many agents also don't realize all the internet sites they can proactively place your house listing on to extend the exposure and potential for a buyer to see your house exponentially. For example, we load our listings to 20-30 websites.

Research also shows that buyers make visual decisions initially. This is why to avoid making the one mistake many sellers keep making today, you should search online to see how a real estate agent and his/her company make themselves look online and make their clients' house look online. If your house can't entice a buyer online with many good pictures, a good description and a virtual tour then there's a great chance the buyer will never even put your house on his/her list to consider going to actually see it. Never forget: your online presence is your first showing. This is why we've taken our virtual tours to the next level, pulling buyers in by letting them play around with how to decorate the rooms and more. Look at the various options at the bottom menu of the virtual tour. The Space Designer lets a buyer place furniture throughout the house just the way she wants to. This helps her to personally begin to make the house more of a home for her and to start to become more attached to it. The Style Designer lets the buyer change the colors of the walls, floor, and trim of a room and even the cabinets and the countertops in a kitchen so she can get a feel of how the house could look when she moves in and does it the way she wants.

So the next time you're looking to choose a real estate agent ask "What do you do to make my first showing a success?" She should tell you her internet strategy and remind you that she has control over the original internet sites where your listing will be, but you have control over how the house will look when pictures are taken and how enticing the price will be to make a buyer stop and look at the pictures and take the tour. If her answer doesn't include a major focus on the internet, run the other way. Even if the agent has a lot of signs in the ground, run, because this means he/she is short-changing the seller and isn't giving all the exposure possible to garner the highest price.

Good luck.