If you spend any time looking at the MLS, you know that many agents can't spell - much less craft a complete sentence or an accurate description of property they have listed.
Sellers have every right to demand that a prospective agent submit writing samples. After all, the listing agent is applying for the position of "Marketing Manager" for the seller. Any marketing manager understands the importance of writing clear descriptions that call potential buyers to sit up and notice.
Since 87% of today's real estate buyers cruise the internet prior to contacting an agent (according to NAR's statistics), we can assume that the words we use have the power to attract those buyers to purchase. The Mulitiple Listing Service is no longer a place for agents to describe their listings to their colleagues. It is a much more powerful force in the dynamics of selling real estate.
In fact, as I think of the future buyers of property around The Woodlands area and the Greater Houston area - I visualize the pleasure they are getting while looking at property descriptions and actually creating a fantasy about how it would be to live in those homes they are viewing.
Since NAR also says that today's buyer looks on the net for 6 months before they are ready to purchase, I would suspect that they have been living in a fantasy written by creative writers for most of that time. If your description of a sellers listing is "ho-hum", these "would-be buyers" are not spending any time looking at your listing. By the time they are ready to call an agent, they have trained their eyes to only consider houses that are accurately and colorfully described.
It takes some pretty good description to entice today's buyer. If sellers really want to maximize their equity, they will demand writing samples from any agent they consider to represent them.
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