Listing Tips for a Successful Spring Market

Your busy season is in full swing. Listing appointments are filling your calendars and you’re closing on homes faster than you can keep up with. Here are a few things to review for your spring market to propel yourself to a successful selling season.

Write a Listing Description that Stands Out
Your listing description is your opportunity to engage buyers with your words, so get creative while steering away from potential fair housing words. This is your chance to hook your reader and could determine if they continue reading.  Get started by setting the tone with an interesting introduction. Be concise, but remember to evoke the emotions you want your reader to have. Write in such a way that buyers can visualize themselves eating in that newly remodeled kitchen. 

REIN’s Public Remarks field allows up to 1000 characters, which is plenty of space to tell the story. As a reminder, stay clear of any branding information in this area to avoid violations. Lastly, conclude with a call to action. What do you want consumers to do after they finish looking at your listing? Submit an offer! Write a closing that will have the potential buyer submit that offer.  
 
Stage for Open Houses and Listing Photos
Overall the feel of a staged home should be in such a way that any home buyer could see themselves living there. While staging, it's helpful to remove family photos and personal identifying items in the home. Adjust furniture to make sure the space appears to be clutter-free. Pack away personal mementos, limit the number of toys and pet items, and remove any potentially hazardous items to ensure the safety of your seller and potential buyers. When in doubt, hire a professional staging company that can also provide additional home staging ideas.
 
Capture Stunning Listing Photos and Video
Your photos and video of your listing are your first impression to potential buyers. Not only is this information viewed in our MLS, but keep in mind these images are also fed out to several third-party sites for the public to see.  When adding a photo to the MLS system, take advantage of the descriptive character for each photo. Not only are you able to upload up to 50 photos, but you can also add up to 300 characters of wording for each photo added. At times, you may hire a professional photographer, but on those occasions when you're the photographer, keep these tips in mind.

• Lighting: Don’t depend on lights already in the home. Using light from lamps alone can give off a yellowish glow and doesn’t look appealing on camera. Use natural light when possible by simply opening up blinds or curtains. When using a cell phone to take photographs, stay away from using the flash. Using this feature could cast harsh shadows on areas you don’t want to highlight. Bright days are great for interior shots while overcast days are better for exterior shots. 
   
• Exterior Clean Up: You want your viewers to picture themselves driving up to your listing, walking in, and calling it home. Some ways to assist with this are removing cars from the driveway, de-cluttering the surrounding of the property, and sprucing up any foliage or flowerpots.  A little TLC before you snap a photo or capture video footage can make your listing pop. 
   
• Reflect the Season: In conjunction with your staging, you can also add little touches to reflect the season for which the home is on the market. Be careful not to go overboard, but simple touches might add a little pop.  
  • In spring: Place seasonal, local flowers on the kitchen counter or outside the front door, and make sure to take pictures of a garden if the home has one. 
  • In summer: Use natural sunlight to brighten your shots, and consider placing a pitcher of lemonade or bowl of seasonal fruit in the kitchen. 
  • In fall: Take advantage of changing leaves outside, or consider adding small decorations that are colored like fall foliage. 
  • In winter: Turn on the fireplace, or take a photo of the home after a fresh snowfall.
     
• Angles: The position in which you hold the camera can distort your image in a way that isn’t appealing to the eye. Shooting horizontally will help achieve the widest shot possible. Be careful to shoot from about chest height. You don’t want to shoot too high or too low. This causes distortion and possibly misrepresentation of the space. Shoot from the corner of the room or doorway to include as much of the room as possible.  Before snapping the shot, be mindful of any mirrors or reflecting surfaces so you don’t happen to get yourself in your photo. For exterior shots, shoot at an angle instead of directly in front of the home to show more depth. 
   
• Video: All points above apply to videos but there are a few more tips you can consider. Video helps show the property at all angles where photography has its limits. It gives a comprehensive view of how the house flows from room to room. Aside from shooting at wide angles, you can also make a room appear bigger by creating foreground by walking through doorways. If you are taking on video by yourself, we do recommend finding a handheld stabilizer for your device. This will give you smoother shots and reduce shaky footage. 

First impressions count when dealing with photography. Follow these tips and you'll be in a good position to impress potential buyers. For additional listing resources, visit REINMLS.com.