The depth of information today’s homebuyers expect has grown exponentially. According to NAR, 92% of buyers use the Internet in their real estate search. Out-dated MLS data frustrates digitally-savvy consumers who expect robust details at their fingertips upgrade their approach. Inaccurate or sparse listing data in MLS systems creates problems like the inability for buyers to effectively filter and identify suitable properties, contradictory details causing confusion, the necessity to physically visit more properties to compensate for unknowns, delays for buyers from waiting on answers to basic listing questions, increased workload for agents fielding calls/emails to fill in listing gaps, and reduced buyer satisfaction from a disconnected, opaque search process. While MLS platforms have modernized, the actual listing content many agents input remains lackluster.
- Listing Accuracy Best Practices
Tactics like performing thorough listing inspections before loading property into the MLS, confirming all listing details with sellers, proofreading all listing content before submitting, QA’ing a portion of your listings periodically for inaccuracies, and correcting issues immediately upon discovery or receiving feedback. Great data quality relies on agents proactively verifying correctness.
- Enrich listings with relevant details
Savvy buyers also expect more robust informational content like high-resolution property and neighborhood photos, detailed home feature lists with materials and dimensions, school district ratings and assignment specifics, local area walkability scores and nearby amenities, architectural style information, and recent upgrades, utility cost estimates and property tax rates, HOA rules, and fees analytics if applicable, and lender-required disclosures upfront. Entice buyers with abundant community flavor and nuanced listing descriptions beyond the basics nystatemls read full information in real estate in this website.
- Listing photos and videos
Strategies like capturing photos and videos that highlight room sizes, layouts, and features, touring the home at different times of day for lighting variance, utilizing camera angles that optimize space perception, investing in wide-angle lenses to showcase the whole view, including model home photos if staging will occur later, and providing virtual tours for distant buyers. Rich visual content builds excitement and understanding.
- Automating where possible
Minimize manual inputs by leveraging system tools. Examples: Sync tax history and ownership data from public records, feed school statistics from third-party databases, pull neighborhood demographics from census APIs, if available, calculate days on market automatically based on status change logs, flow listing updates from showing services apps back into the MLS. Accurate tech integrations are immensely useful. Partner with your MLS provider to identify opportunities.
- Responding to market change
As buyer preferences evolve, continuously refine your approach by surveying clients on what data they find most helpful when evaluating homes, asking managing brokers what listing content could be improved, learning the latest industry standards for listing data best practices, adding emerging fields buyers request like broadband speeds or solar power details, and deleting unnecessary legacy fields cluttering up listings. Carefully listen and adapt listing practices to satisfy market expectations. This is quality of MLS data and the entire transaction journey’s efficiency. While technology buyers new information access, agents must uphold robust data standards on the creation side. They are maintaining excellence across listings and a smooth, transparent home search for consumers.
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