In my real estate career I’ve both bought and sold homes for many people here in South Pasadena, California. Over the past few months I’ve sold or listed for sale several homes as a South Pasadena real estate agent. In all that time I have never used a “Coming Soon” listing on the MLS. Here’s why I am going to use it for the first time with a new listing I have coming up.
What Stopped Me from Using a “Coming Soon” Listing Until Now?
The short answer is: lead time and professional photos. In my previous sales the time frames were strictly set by the sellers, and invariably were compressed over what I would have preferred. So the pressure of completing all the listing paperwork coupled with the visits to the clients and proposing various strategies to get the highest price would eat up all my time before the sale.
To give some insight into this – think about home staging. In the market I work in (South Pasadena, California) practically every property for sale is staged. It makes sense as the average price point is around $1.7 million. Buyers want to be “wowed” by the photos they see online – and then “wowed” again during a visit to the property. To accomplish that I will often get multiple stagers to visit the property (separately of course) and then present their quotes and credentials for the sellers to choose from. Each of these visits and quotes takes time to coordinate. Then there is the back-and-forth of negotiating the final price and terms. Once the deal is set – I coordinate the actual move in of the furniture with the stager and their crew. This takes half a day or more. If the staging crew tracks in any dirt or leaves any dust or debris from the move in – then a cleaning crew may be required to get the house 100% ready. Photos can’t be taken until after the home is staged – and then it’s usually about a day turnaround for the photos to be presented to my designer. After that the designer will place them in our home brochure (for Open House visitors) that is branded and contains all the relevant info on the house. Then it is off to the printers to get the brochure printed. This takes a minimum of 24 to 48 hours. I’m populating this post with photos from some recent sales that were professionally staged and photographed so you can see what I mean.
It’s only once the staging, cleaning, photos and brochure are ready that the listing can go live. Just inputting all the data and photos into the MLS can take several hours.
My thinking regarding the “Coming Soon” listing has been: “What’s the point in posting amateur photos of the property ahead of time – when no one can see the property until it’s actually for sale. And no one is going to buy a property without seeing the inside first.”
Why I am Using the “Coming Soon Feature Now
The fact that I didn’t think I had the time to list the property as “Coming Soon” is not a good reason to forego using it. I figure that I’m simply “time shifting” the process of creating the listing from right at the time of going on the market to a few weeks before the property actually goes on sale. So I will be spending that time creating the MLS listing either way.
As far as the photos go – I would prefer to put at least 15 professional photos of a property in any listing. The property that I have upcoming is currently a leased property with tenants. So taking any pictures inside is not possible until their move out date. I am opting instead to simply use a photo of the front of the property that I took one morning during a visit with my iPhone. That’s it – just one photo of the front. Of course once the property is actually in “Active” status on the MLS (for sale) – then I’ll add all the professional photos from the staged property.
When I considered the fact that no visits are allowed during the “Coming Soon” period, I am still convinced that no one here wants to sign a purchase contract before visiting the property. However, what I believe of I was underestimating is the value of the promotion afforded to the agent during the “Coming Soon” period.
In my market with my MLS rules – I can undertake literally any type of promotion or advertising for the property. The only restriction is that no showings are allowed. Here is the exact language from my MLS:
“A listing in the Coming Soon status may be marketed to any consumer, whether they are existing clients of the brokerage or not, by using flyers, For Sale signs, social media posts, etc., so long as the marketing clearly labels the listing as “Coming Soon.” However, no showings or open houses may take place.”
As an agent who tries to take full marketing advantage of every home sale I have – it only makes sense to do the same with a “Coming Soon” listing. I will be promoting the “Coming Soon” property on social media, in online ads, and placing a sign on the property as well. Will all that publicity and marketing sell the property while in the “Coming Soon” status? Probably not. Will it help generate excitement for the property? I think it will. Will that marketing benefit my real estate brand? Definitely.
The property will be eligible for listing as a “Coming Soon” property in about 1 week. I’m excited to get started on my very first “Coming Soon” listing. If things work out well I’ll be using the “Coming Soon” feature on every property I have for sale in the future.
If any of you have used “Coming Soon” and have any ideas or tips on how to best optimize it – please let me know in the comments.
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