How to fully describe what it is you are
trying to sell
inexpensively, in full detail, w/added pics,
and getting it in front of buyer's eyes
Real Estate How
to get what you really need to say and show about your
property referenced in an MLS listing which normally only allows a short
500
character description of what is for sale in the "Marketing Remarks"
section.
Vehicles, motorhomes, boats, estate sales, and other personal property
email me if you have questions
The problem
Newspaper ads, Little Nickel ads, the Exchange ads,
and especially real
estate MLS listings; they all have severe limitations when it comes to
adequately
describing and showing pictures of what it is you are trying to sell. Craigs
list gives
you a little more flexibility in content and pics, but limits contact
information and
doesn't allow posting of website URLs or email addresses in your ad on their
site.
Their site has a large readership but too many categories and specific
regionization
for people to find you. You and your ad are just a little marble in a big bucket
of marbles.
MLS real estate listings don't allow adding URLs to more information in the
remarks
section available to the buyer public, but you CAN add such to the
"confidential broker
only" remarks section only real estate agents/brokers get to see, and
they CAN then
pass that URL on to the prospective buyers they get inquiries from.
The more information and pics the broker/agent can get to the buyer the better
the
chances of selling the home/property. Gaining the 6% or 3% split sales
commission
on the sale of that home/property is a great incentive to ensure the agents use
all the
tools available to them to make sales. This includes a more detailed webpage
that
covers your property than the minimally descriptive MLS page will be able to post.
Your inexpensive detailed webpage that the broker/agent can refer buyers
to that
contains all the detailed information and extra pics you think should be shown
to
prospective buyers that couldn't be displayed on your MLS listing page can greatly
help him
make that sale of your property so both of you benefit.
My particular problem.
I was trying to list my 19 acre farm in Silverdale, WA, with a real estate
broker.
I fed him a lot of information on the property and he said he couldn't post any
of that.
I then built a webpage of all that information and asked him to simply post a
URL link to
the webpage on the MLS site for a buyer to see to retrieve the information. He
said
he couldn't do that either; MLS site rules . All he could do was describe my
property
in the marketing remarks section on the MLS site and he could only use 500
characters;
not 500 words, but 500 single letters/spaces. Basically he was handcuffed by the
system
and couldn't post squat about what my property was really like with all it's
amenities. When
we bought our place here in Davenport last year I wondered why the MLS listing
never
covered any of the many important features we finally discovered through prying
and prodding
of an agent who wasn't even the listing agent about the place that caused us to
make
the purchase. Now I know. The MLS listing service is a cookie cutter, stay in
the same
mold design so all listings conform to the same pattern and therefore will
lack information
about the
property as a result of this conformity so all real estate ads look alike.
The solution
The solution to the problem of obtaining adequate verbal/photo exposure to
listings,
which I stumbled upon while trying to list and sell my own property, is simple. I will build
you, the seller, a webpage posted on my webhost's server that can
greatly expand upon
what you are able to state and show beyond your MLS listing page.
Cost is only a one time
fee of $50 and the page(s) will be displayed until the home/property
listed is sold or the
listing is removed from the broker's site. What? You just told me above I
couldn't do that???
Here's the work-around and how you can.
A real estate MLS listing only allows 500
characters to be displayed in the Marketing
Remarks section of the listing agreement; not 500 words, 500 characters - just
letters
and that includes space characters between words. In other words, you can't say
squat
about your property on the MLS listing site with that few words. Showing the 20
pics
allotted to the realtor may not be sufficient either.
Here's an example of what I got to finally say about my
19 acre farm on my MLS page
using all 500 characters. That's not 500 words; that's 500 letters/spaces. My MLS
is 1087069. Go to www.google.com and type
in "MLS 1087069" and you can see what
I am talking about.
"Borders Bangor’s southern fence; private and quiet.
19 acres of everything you could
want in a property; 1 ½ story fire sprinklered house
w/full basement, guest cottage
w/cellar, 4 section multipurpose adjacent
building, large
barn, shop/warehouse & 3
additional covered storage areas, covered parking
for 16vehicles/trailers/boats, etc,
3 large pastures, 23 fruit trees, large
maples, greenhouse/garden, chicken house/pens,
marketable timber. Contact agent for a link to more complete info-more pics- history
of farm
The
Marketing Remarks section is a section Joe Public Buyer gets to see when
he
browses your house on the listing site on the web.
Note
the last sentence which has to be at the end of your Marketing Remarks section.
"Contact agent for
the link to a more complete description of your property."
This agent can be the listing agent who gets the full 6% commission or any real
estate
agent who is subscribed to the MLS listing service
system that if he brings the buyer to
the table will receive a 3% commission with the listing agent getting the other 3%.
In the next section of the seller's listing agreement is the Confidential Broker
Only
remarks section which Joe Public Buyer finding your listing on the net doesn't
get to
see,
but all real estate agents and brokers do that subscribe to the MLS listing
service system.
The Confidential Broker Only remarks section is limited to 250 characters.
Here's what I finally had posted there:
"Home needs new roof
and outside paint job. Inside work dependant upon new owner
preferences. Home has undergone over $100k worth of upgrades in three
separate
major remodels. Complete info/pics can be found at http://www.detailshere.com/farmpics.htm"
Here's where when a buyer
contacts the agent/broker as being interested in the property
the broker can tell the buyer to go see http://www.detailshere.com/farmpics.htm
and get
all the information and additional pictures that couldn't be
displayed on the MLS site. The
last line of the Confidential Broker Only remarks section has to contain the sentence
"Complete
info/pics can be found at http://www.detailshere.com/farmpics.htm"
(or the webpage URL you are given that contains your property's
information/additional pics).
Click on the farm pics webpage link and you'll see the information is very extensive on
my page there and really can
give the buyer a much better picture of what is being offered.
This page being exposed to the
buyer can make all the difference in the world of whether
I get my asking price for the
farm or not. Without it the buyer would never know what the
property really contains to make it
worth the asking price.
Why doesn't the MLS listing
page cover this? Room and space limitations, and the MLS system
has a specific blueprint/model/platform that is followed by all agents/brokers
with every listing;
it's called uniformity, kinda like cloning, so all listings fit the same
mold/model. And that doesn't
leave a lot of room for really specific pertinent information about your property.
How my "build you a specific webpage" thing works
The seller provides me (emails me with) his full name, address, phone number and
email addy
so I can contact him if necessary. He provides me with the written content he
wants to use
(just like you see at http://www.detailshere.com/farmpics.htm
) either in a word document
or in an email I can copy and paste, and up to ten extra jpeg photos (more
if you are willing
to pay more) preferably formatted at 6" wide but I can photoshop them to
that size if not already
submitted that way, that he wants buyers to see over and above the ones
displayed on his MLS
listing site.
Oftentimes the real estate agent/broker does a great job of posting pics of inside the
house
but doesn't allot space for outside and the buyer wants to see the yard, shop, garage, carport,
flower beds, garden space and other amenities outside of the house
also. Those pics are
oftentimes left out and until you physically inspect the property, you are left guessing.
Plus the
realtor showing you the house is not intimately familiar with your particular
house to be able to
explain those features to the potential buyer because he has dozens of houses
under his wing
to show.
I will build the webpage for seller on my www.heavensfountain.com
site, basically I copy and
paste from the info he provides, and I add a photo section which has this simple easy to ready
background theme you see on this page. I will assign seller a 4 digit number
that will be specific
to his
webpage URL.
NOTE: On seller's webpage there can be no seller
contact information, so seller can try and
go around agent/broker; only information about the property itself and extra
pics can be
posted
to give the buyer a better perspective of what is being offered.
The URL to post in the "Confidential Broker Only remarks section on
seller's MLS listing will
be http://www.heavensfountain.com/1234.htm
or whatever 4 digit number seller was
assigned. When a buyer looking over seller's MLS listing page sees the last
sentence in the
Marketing Remarks section telling him to solicit seller's special webpage URL
for more
info/pics from the agent/broker; and he does that; the broker then sends the
potential buyer
the seller's webpage URL link and buyer then has access to the real info regarding seller's
property that the seller would like him to know about over and above the limited 500 characters
allotted in the marketing remarks section of the seller's MLS page.
Seller's webpage URL will take him to the page of verbage and pics seller gives
me to post;
just like my page at www.detailshere.com/farmpics.htm
. Detailshere.com is my main website.
I use my second site at www.heavensfountain.com
to post other people's stuff on.
Payment - 2 ways
Cost of sellers special webpage is $50 one time.
The easiest way to pay me is through PayPal; www.paypal.com
.
You can use your bank debit or credit card to make payment through PayPal, plus
it's a very safe way to pay me to ensure you get what you are paying for as they will
refund
your money and cancel my account if there are any problems so anyone who
uses PayPal to receive funds is forced to keep their nose very very clean.
Go to www.paypal.com
Click "login" if you already have a free PayPal account
or click on "sign up to send money" if you don't yet
Enter your email and enter a password - be sure and write it down if this is
your first time
Next page enter name, address and a phone number
Next page enter a credit card number, date of expiration and the CVC number on
the back
Click "send & request" at top of page
Click "pay for goods or services" (this is a service)
Their fee comes out of what I receive, not what you pay
Enter my receiving account which is webpages@detailshere.com
Put in the amount, $50, and below in the note box put your name, email addy and 4
digit number
I assigned you for your webpage. Then I know who to credit the payment to.
Click send.
If you don't want to use PayPal send me a bank check, bank money order, or
postal
money order (no personal checks) for the $50 to:
Berry Ball
Webpage ads
PO Box 752
Davenport, WA 99122
Be sure and include your name, email addy, phone
number and 4 digit number assigned
you in the envelope so your payment is credited properly.
I will post your webpage as soon as you email me
the info/pics so you have a chance to
see the page on the web before you have to pay for it. I am also willing to make
changes
to your page and repost it when you change your mind on what you want to say.
email me if you have questions
Vehicles, motorhomes, boats, estate sales, and other personal property
The Problem
If you read the above regarding real estate and property, you realize you face
the
same problem in selling a vehicle, motorhome, tractor, expensive boat or any
larger
ticket item. You can put an ad in The Exchange , local Little Nickel or a
newspaper
for $25 to $40 which includes one pic and a few words. You can put an ad on
Craig's
list but Craig's list limits contact
information and doesn't allow posting of website URLs
or email addresses in your ad on their
site. Their site has a large readership but too
many categories and specific
regionization for people to find you. You and your ad
are just a little marble in a big bucket
of marbles.
But you could also trim down your Exchange
ad verbage and put as the last line in that ad :
"More info/pics at www.heavensfountain.com/1234.htm"
(where 1234 is your assigned web page number) and that link then sends them to
a
webpage that can contain a very complete verbal description of what you are trying
to sell
as well as up to ten pics of your item.
Look at my page at www.detailshere.com/32ford.htm
Would a buyer be as willing to
pay $25k-$40k for that car with a single photo on an ad in The Exchange or would
he
be more interested after viewing the barrage of photos displayed on that webpage?
You would also be allowed to say anything you wanted about your item for sale
with
virtually unlimited words; and in this case your ad could contain your contact
information.
The same would apply with a motorhome,
motorcycle, quad, off road 4 x 4, snowmobile,
farm equipment, a boat or even a garage full of smaller items. Take a pic of the
whole works
with separate pics of the more expensive items and list everything and prices
and contact
information in the verbage part of you webpage.
How it works
I will build the webpage for you, the seller, on my www.heavensfountain.com
site, basically
copy and paste from the info you provide me in an email or word document,
I will ad a photo
section of up to ten photos which has this simple easy to ready
background theme you
see
on this page. I will assign you, the seller, a 4 digit number that will be in
your webpage URL.
It is simply your job to get your webpage URL out there using Facebook, Twitter,
the Exchange,
Little Nickel, other newspapers, posters, flyers, etc.
Put the line "More info/pics at www.heavensfountain.com/1234.htm"
at the end of your ad.
(where 1234 is your assigned web page number) so your ad can then direct them to
a webpage
that contains a very complete verbal description of what you are trying to sell
(whatever you
provide me in the email verbage) as well as up to ten pics of your item. Cost is
a one time $50
and your webpage is good for 3 months. Contact
me if you need an extension or you have sold
your item and need the webpage removed from the internet.
How to get started
You, the seller, provides me (emails me
berry@detailshere.com )with
your full name,
address, phone number and email addy so I can contact you if clarification becomes
necessary. You provide me with the written content you want to use either in a word
document or in an email I can copy and paste, and up to ten extra jpeg photos (more
if you are willing to pay more) preferably formatted at 6" wide but I can photoshop them
to
that size if not already submitted that way, that you want buyers to see.
I then assign you a four digit account number
that becomes the number used at the end of
your webpage URL. When I am done building your webpage I will post the page on
the web
and email you back the URL of that webpage.