I posted a "Home Q&A" on a "Make Me Move" house on Mercer Island a few months ago, and the listing agents responded over the weekend. Apparently the house is no longer "Make Me Move", it's now officially for sale.

I sent them an email with some advice about the listing, which I'll share here. The big point for a listing agent is this: Make sure that if the house is actually for sale, you list it as FOR SALE not Make Me Move!

And the point on the buyside is this: agents, don't forget that Make Me Move homes are sort of on the market, and most of them will pay buyside commissions. (What's "Make Me Move"? Learn here.) It says on the home details page whether they will "work with buyer's agents".

Here's my email:

Hi Linda and Kevin,

Thanks for your comment on Zillow about the 9350 SE 47th Street listing. One suggestion for this listing – you should switch it from “Make Me Move” to “For Sale”. Tell your owner to switch it from “Make Me Move” to no status, and then you can come and post it for sale (Click on “post home for sale” on the left side). That way you can add all of the photos, the listing information, your contact info and photo, the seller description, and a link to your website or wherever you want it to link to. Posting it “for sale” will also get a lot more views than if it’s “Make me move” (although notice that this home already has 661 views – check the upper right).

Unfortunately, because JLS doesn’t send Zillow a nightly listing feed (unlike Coldwell Banker Bain, Century 21, Keller Williams, and most other brokerages), you have to manage your listings on Zillow manually. But you should ask your owner/broker about sending listings to Zillow. We're now the largest real estate site in Seattle (> 500,000 monthly visitors) so it really is a great idea to maximize your presence on Zillow.

You can learn a lot more about how agents can use Zillow here.

Regarding my house… Here it is: XXXX    If you find a buyer for me, I’ll pay you a buyside 3% commission. But it’s not technically on the market right now. (Just “make me move”.) Thanks!