What an agent puts into the Multiple Listing Service is important. The MLS is how most Realtors initially find out about a property that is for sale. The information is fed to web sites like realtor.com, and through IDX feeds to thousands of real estate agents web sites — where Joe Buyer often locates a property before they even contact an agent to help with the purchase.
Given the importance of having good, informative, quality info in the MLS, you’d think every agent would take great care to input information into the MLS.
Uhm, not always…
Here’s a snippet of an actual MLS entry I found this morning. The listing agents name and number have been “censored” to protect their identity from the general public.
This beauty has just a couple of problems:
No pictures. Joe Buyer likes to see pictures. It takes roughly 45 seconds to upload photos into ARMLS.
No city. This is a land listing, and a lot of land is in pretty remote locations. But to list an address, with the city as “in Arizona” is not helpful to Joe Buyer. Most Joe’s want at least a rough idea of where in the entire State of Arizona the land lies. Maybe if we were in Rhode Island it wouldn’t matter, but Arizona is a pretty big chunk of land. You’d think the listing agent could have at least pinned down the location to within a few thousand square miles.
No directions. I guess this shouldn’t be a surprise. Since we don’t know what city it’s in/near, why would we even need directions to find the parcel?
No sign on property. Ditto.
No Realtor remarks. This is an area that doesn’t show up on sites where Joe Buyer sees listings. It’s intended to be used as a message area for other Realtors. Often it’s used to extend the description of the property that is part of what Joe Buyer can see, which brings us to the final flaw in this listing…
No Public Remarks. We’ve already established that Joe Buyer likes to see pictures. Joe also likes to know a little about a property that can’t be conveyed elsewhere in the listing. The verbiage that goes into a listing is a powerful sales tool. Good remarks can compliment photos and really make a listing stand out — compel people to want to see it. The more people that see a property, the better chance it has of selling. It ain’t rocket science folks.
Not much else we can say about this Listing of the Week. Sellers, ASK your agent to see your listing. Demand that the listing contain accurate, complete information.
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Technorati Tags: Listing of the Week, real estate listings
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Doug Quance 02.23.07 at 8:44 am
Another example of an agent that doesn’t want to co-op their listing… a modern day pocket listing, if you will.
The most atrocious cases I see are of vacant properties where the seller can not be contacted. You see these properties expire every day.
Anonymous 02.23.07 at 11:28 pm
Do you have to slam other agents to make yourself look good? Maybe the agent that put that listing in was busy, and just needed to get it entered and they plan to go back later and put all the info in. There;s lots of good agents out there. And they can look good to clients without cutting down other agents. This is the second article in a row where you’ve attacked other agents. Whats your problem?
Jay - The Phoenix Real Estate Guy 02.24.07 at 12:19 am
Dear Anonymous -
First, no I don’t have to “slam” other agents to make myself look good. I’m sure you noticed that I blocked out the listing agent’s info.
Second, your hypothesis that the listing agent was too busy to do their job and enter all of the info at the time they placed the listing doesn’t hold up well (at all) when you consider that the listing was entered 152 days ago….
Third, I’ve said on this blog several times that there are many excellent agents out there. In fact, in the blog entry previous to this, where you also claim I’m attacking other agents, I said, “And there are many many great agents out there”.
What’s my problem? My problem is agents that don’t do their job. There are a lot of people out there that don’t understand/know everything they need to affect a good real estate transaction. Our fundamental job as agents is to ensure our clients get everything they need, and to educate them, to ensure a successful transaction. Listings like shown here, and practices by agents outlined in the previous post certainly don’t come close to meeting the minimum functions of a real estate agent. People deserve better.
If by writing posts like this I can help just one person understand what their agent should be doing for them, then I’ll keep writing them.
Todd Tarson 02.26.07 at 7:50 am
MLS Members put in shoddy data everyday. If these Members can’t put in the correct data they are doing their own client a disservice. If a member of the public hires a Member of the MLS to list their property, they should require the Member to email them the listing of the property and how it is viewed on the MLS and through an IDX portal.
Why clients aren’t asking for this on a regular occasion, I’ll never know.
JB 03.02.07 at 9:46 am
Why protect this lazy agent? You should have left the name in so that buyers can steer clear of them. Agents are largely useless to the entire process in the first place, so to protect a bad one just makes no sense. I agree that a good agent can be helpful (mostly with marketing), but not to the tune of 6%, no way, not any agent in any residential transaction is worth 6%.
A client should not have to ask for the MLS listing (though smart people do), the agent should be required by law to properly enter the MLS and properly market the home, or have their all too easy to obtain license revoked for good.
This industry has gotten away with self regulation (read: no regulation) for far too long. This is an unethical, low standards industry that any moron with an hour to study for a simple test can get licensed to. It attracts the lazy yet opportunistic. That needs to change. Buying a house is such a huge part of a persons life that becoming a realtor should be as involved as becoming a lawyer. Perhaps then we can talk 6%.
Are there good, ethical realtors out there? Of course. But they are the minority. If you think I am wrong thats fine. But understand that my opinion is shared by the overwhelming majority of the public. Maybe instead of putting insincere, stupid ads of TV talking about how “ethical” realtors are, your industry should actually become ethical.
Jay - The Phoenix Real Estate Guy 03.03.07 at 7:50 pm
JB -
I agree with some of what you say. Some I don’t…
I didn’t call out this specific agent for the very thing the first commenter (”Anonymous”) accused me of. I don’t want people to think I need to put down other agents to make myself look better. Also, you can not be a successful real estate agent without cooperating with other agents, no matter what their competence level may be. Calling out specific agents in a public forum is a good way to piss off many in the community, many that I will need to work with at some point to best serve my clients. Be that right or wrong, it is what it is.
The point I tried to make was ALL real estate sellers need to review what their agent is doing for them. Should they HAVE to do that? Absolutely not. But the sad fact is, they need to, due to some of the reasons you state.
I disagree completely that, “Agents are largely useless to the entire process in the first place”. A good agent can save their clients, be they buyers or sellers tens of thousands of dollars more than whatever the commission collected may be. In fact, a good agent can (and we have) keep someone from entering into a real estate transaction that may cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars.
An example: we had a buyer client that desperately wanted a $223,000 condo. They wanted to “save” $300 and skip the home inspection. We pulled out all the stops and educated them on why a pre-purchase home inspection is so important. Finally they relented and got their dream home inspected. Good thing too as the inspector found serious structural damage from a previous fire that rendered the home unsafe and would cost more to repair than leveling and rebuilding the home.
Now could these clients have educated themselves well enough without us to realize the huge liability and risk they were taking by skipping an inspection? Sure. If they’d have even known to look into it. But maybe not. Our experience with past home inspections, and the trust we’d built with these clients allowed us to demonstrate the importance. I’m fully convinced that had these clients not used us (or another good Realtor) they’d now be living in an uninsurable, unsafe home. Even if nothing did happen to the home, they might find themselves unable to ever sell it as the next buyer might just get that inspection. That’s the situation the current seller is in. He bought the unit from a FSBO, “saved” the inspection fee, “saved” commissions, and now is the proud owner of a home that can’t be sold.
By the way, very few Realtors make 6% commission on the sale of a home. I hear this, “No Realtor is worth 6%” comment all the time. What many people seem to fail to understand is that the commission on the sale of a home is split between the buyers agent and the sellers agent. What the individual agents get is then split in some ratio between themselves and their broker. And there are also corporate franchise fees. And of course marketing expenses, board and association expenses, etc. It’s simply untrue to think an agent receives 6% profit on the sale of every home. Yes, you can make a good living selling real estate. You can work your ass off too and make nothing.
I bought and sold many homes before I became a real estate agent. I’ll freely admit that seeing that commission amount on the closing documents was painful. Yes, it’s a lot of money. But it doesn’t all go into the agents pocket. And if you spend $15K in commission but get $20K more for your home, is that such a bad thing?
I’ll probably never convince you that an agent can be worth the commission they earn, and that’s fine. We’re all entitled to our opinion.
Now I couldn’t agree more that it’s too easy to get a license. I’ve said the same thing here more then once:
http://www.phoenixrealestategu.....he-bar/138
And the stupid ads? I’ve had stronger words for them than “stupid”…
Todd Tarson 03.06.07 at 7:34 am
Excellent response Jay. I believe real estate customers should be asking where their money goes, the breakdown of commission. Also listing and buyers agents should be disclosing commission before any paperwork is even written up. A lot of this nonsense that someone is paying me $15K goes away in the very early stages.
San Diego Real Estate 03.30.08 at 12:44 am
Great post and to the guy that knocked you for knocking other real estate agents, dude, come on! This is a great post with very valid points. What are we getting paid for if we enter in a listing missing this much information. I know that if I was looking for property for a client and came across this I would pass on it and move on. It’s pure laziness which a lot of agents seem to have. I am so fed up with agents that don’t want to go out and work! Great post Jay!!!