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10 Tools Listing Agents Must Use

By Chris Griffith

Real Estate Agent with Downing-Frye Realty, Bonita Springs, FL 676419

November 23, 2007 07:55 AM

If you are starting the process of hiring a listing agent to sell your Bonita Springs Home you've found the key to home selling success. Use the guidelines below to help find the most technologically advanced agent to market and sell your Bonita Springs home.

Here are 10 Tools Your Bonita Springs Listing Agent must use to compete in today's aggressive buyers market in Bonita Springs, Florida.

A real estate blog. Updated daily with local content that pulls buyers in.
A static website. You don't need to know what this means but your agent does. If they don't know what you're talking about when you ask ...
Membership in the local Board of Realtors.
Access to BOTH MLS systems. Yes, both, as in we have two services and you will not have 100% coverage unless your property is listed in both. Don't fall for the song and dance about data share - it's that extra step that almost nobody ever takes. Sunshine MLS (Bonita Springs Realtors), Fort Myer Rapattoni MLS.
Wide angle lens camera for property photos. We're selling real estate and a picture is a thousand words why would anyone use substandard photo equipment? Enough said.
Realtor.com upgraded membership so your home ranks higher in that network. (homes with photos and visual tours are displayed before those without)
Supra Key lock boxes - not combo boxes. Supra tracks every time the home is accessed for your safety and restricts access at night. Once that combo box number is given out anyone can enter your home unmonitored and unrecorded any time of the day or night.
Syndicated sites that will be hosting listings of your property; Trulia, Oodle, Craigslist, GoogleBase, Corporate (http://www.kw.com/)
Scanner or .pdf maker software to handle your transactions, offers and closing paperwork via email if you are a part time resident, traveling or outside of the country. Your disclosures, floor plan and community site plan should be uploaded to your MLS listing of your home so buyers agents can use them to help sell your home.
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly Truth Calculators:

An absorption rate calculator
Holding cost calculator
Seller's net breakdown so you have thorough knowledge of how long it COULD take to sell your home, what it will cost to hold the home THAT long and what you will make or owe at closing based on a subjective sale price.

Now go visit that fabulous Bonita Springs Real Estate Blog.

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Sarah Cooper

Real Estate Shows - Hurricane, WV

MAN you are GOOD!!!

I want to hire you. And I AM an agent.

Nov 23, 2007 08:29 AM

Monika McGillicuddy

Prudential Verani Realty - Atkinson, NH

NH Real Estate Broker

I'm working on the same type of post for my market area...Excellent tips for the seller to consider.

Nov 23, 2007 09:27 AM

Sharon Simms

Coastal Properties Group International - Christie's International - Saint Petersburg, FL

St. Petersburg FL - CRS CIPS CLHMS RSPS

I love the way we can stack the deck by which questions we ask, or what attributes we say an agent should have.

By the way - the link to your Bonita Springs Real Estate blog in the post doesn't work.

Nov 23, 2007 09:48 AM

Ginger S

Wilkinson & Associates, Wilmington NC - Wilmington, NC

Wilmington NC Real Estate & Relocation~

Hey Chris, Good one! I would add a Company Call Center or Centralized Showing Service so agents can conveniently set up appts. Nothing worse than only a lisitng agent to contact and they're not available when you need them!

Ginger

Nov 23, 2007 11:27 AM

Mike Jaquish

Realty Arts - Cary, NC

919-880-2769 Cary, NC, Real Estate

Chris,

Virtual tours, Real Estate shows, etc,? Are they not effective in Bonita Springs?

Love the rest of the list...

Nov 23, 2007 01:36 PM

Fran Gaspari

Patriot Land Transfer, Inc. - Limerick, PA

"The Title Man" - Title Insurance - PA & NJ

Chris,

I would add 'Guaranteeing an efficient and pleasant closing'!!! Thanks, Fran

Nov 23, 2007 01:38 PM

Lisa Ryan

Callaway Henderson Sotheby's International Realty - Montgomery, NJ

Selling Princeton,West Windsor and Montgomery Town

Good job on the list Chris. I need to work on putting together a holding calculator, I talk about the holding costs, it makes sense to show the actual costs to the client.

Nov 23, 2007 03:04 PM

Aziz Abdur-Raoof

RE/MAX Rewards - Columbia, MD

Howard Co. Real Estate Scoop

I like it!

Does that calculator have one of those big solar panels on it?

I hear you are running faster these days --cool beans. Keep up the good work.

Nov 23, 2007 04:44 PM

Chris Griffith

Downing-Frye Realty, Bonita Springs, FL - Bonita Springs, FL

Bonita Springs Listing Specialist - Agent

Thanks for stopping by, everyone. I fixed the link.

Mike, I brushed on visual tours with the realtor.com placement

Fran, that's a given.

Aziz, I'm slower! I'm training for a 1/2 marathon and had to slow to do the distance. Everything hurts right now. I am doing a 5K Jingle run tonight and wondering why I'm doing it at this slow pace.

I have the absorption rate and holding cost worksheets if anyone needs them. They're region specific and have a KW logo on it but you're welcome to fashion your own from them.

Nov 23, 2007 09:37 PM

Kris Wales

Keller Williams Realty - Lakeside Market Center - Macomb, MI

Real Estate Blog & Homes for Sale search site, Macomb County MI

I scored 80%. I know it's a passing grade in school, but I'm a perfectionist. I need the wide angle lens and our area does not use the Supra Lockboxes. (I'm going to have to make some calls to find out why...) Hope your run went well!

Nov 23, 2007 10:08 PM

Bob Carney

Taylor-Made Deep Creek Vacations & Sales - Mc Henry, MD

Licensed MD/PA Real Estate Agent

But I don't like my static site!!!

Nov 23, 2007 11:01 PM

Chris Griffith

Downing-Frye Realty, Bonita Springs, FL - Bonita Springs, FL

Bonita Springs Listing Specialist - Agent

Yeah, Bob. Some of us don't. Some of us don't like our spouses either, but we're working with what we got. o^o

Nov 23, 2007 11:08 PM

Gita Bantwal

RE/MAX Centre Realtors - Warwick, PA

REALTOR,ABR,CRS,SRES,GRI - Bucks County & Philadel

Good tips. I also recommend staging and if they do not want to pay a stager, I give some tips myself.

Nov 23, 2007 11:30 PM

David A. Podgursky PA

THE PODGURSKY GROUP @ Re/Max Direct - Boynton Beach, FL

THE PODGURSKY GROUP - Make the Right Move!

I would add a high end printer... there is nothing like someone who thinks that they should just have a basic fax that is only used for faxing when in fact the quality of the scan and print functions are LOW

when shopping for a good printer/scanner/fax/copier you need to be aware of the scan resolution... also many come with scan to pdf functions!

I send a lot of things to my fax service that sends everything to me immediately in PDF format... but I have a high resolution fax!!

I personally like the new Pro HP line.. use the XL cartidges and your cost per page is almost as low as laser. Plus if you print a lot, their high end has 2 paper trays for legal/letter, plain/letterhead, etc... it has auto-duplex which means it can automatically print on both sides of the paper (use double sided paper!... I'm not kidding, most paper is only coated on one side to accept print and most office super store employees won't tell you this because they don't know... I worked for a big printer company)... it also has wireless networking so you can remove some clutter.

Nov 24, 2007 12:58 AM

Diane Aurit

LKN Realty, LLC - Mooresville, NC

Lake Norman Real Estate

Glad you included the upgraded Realtor.com. Despite the controversy, I still think this is critical! I would add an e-fax, online forms.

Nov 24, 2007 02:46 AM

Josette Skilling

Keller Williams Capital Properties - Bethesda, MD

Love this list! This gives me a great idea for how to incorporate into my listing presentation. Do you mind if I retool for my area? Also, I'd love to see your tools for holding costs and absorption rates. I use a net sheet spreadsheet for sellers which helps everything go better!

Nov 24, 2007 02:51 AM

Scott Guay

Berkshire Hathaway Home Services PenFed Realty - Ocean Pines, MD

Associate Broker. Ocean City and Ocean Pines MD

I realy like the Supra lock box. Even though the MLS agent comments state call listing office some agents do not comply. If you have configured the Lock Box number with your MLS info you can see who showed and contact them for feed back etc.

Nov 24, 2007 02:56 AM

Gary Bolen

McCall Realty - South Lake Tahoe, CA

CRS - Lake Tahoe Real Estate Information

Chris - this is a good list, and we've got all of it covered. the blog is tops, like you have it here, and the blog has also given rise to our static site.

hope you've had a great and prosperous holiday

best

Nov 24, 2007 03:10 PM

Cyndee Haydon

Charles Rutenberg Realty - Clearwater, FL

727-710-8035 Clearwater, Beach Short Sales Luxury Condos &Homes

Chris - loved this post and would love the sheets you mentioned - thanks!!

Nov 27, 2007 06:45 AM

Anonymous

DanielL

Try <a href="http://www.use.com" title="Use Free Image Hosting">Use.com</a> They have thousands of templates. It's free, and you can post up to 100 full size images with no size or bandwidth restriction.

Works pretty good if you want to do things on the fly without knowing any HTML. Best thing is that you can save and reuse templates later on and their templates are both eBay and Craigslist compatible.

Worked for me and my images are not limited to what eBay or Craigslist offers plus I don't have to pay extra. Let me know what you think.

Apr 07, 2009 04:10 AM

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