What kind of exposure should you expect for your listing?

You have a house. You need to move. Although it hurts, you have priced it where the market analysis suggests. You list it. What next?

What’s  next is probably the single most important piece of the puzzle.

If I were selling my house today, I would want to know exactly where it was being advertised. MLSPIN listings are pushed out to more than 35 different online places (including Google and Yahoo) without any extra effort of the agent or the brokerage. What extra effort goes into it?

Is this how your home is going to get sold?

Ask this question of your sales agent.

And keep this in mind- the buyer of your home will statistically be in his (or definitely her) early 30s to late 40s. This group does not scour the classified section for information, nor do they read home sales magazines in pizza parlors. They look for their information online. 90% of all home buyers this year began their exploration on the Internet.

If I were selling now, I would make sure my home was priced correctly, and I would expect offers coming in at 20% lower than asking price. Before my home was listed, I would ask my agent these things:

• Is my home listing on Realtor.com enhanced? This means it is shown to be more likely to be seen by buyers.
• Will my home listing be posted on the Internet in places other than what the MLS does?
• Does my agent have any other ways to find buyers? Is the brokerage involved in social media- Facebook and twitter? If they say yes, check it out.  Do they have a blog? These social outreach places are ways to find buyers as they are starting out.
• Does the brokerage have a presence on YouTube and are they promoting listings there? According to Social Media Revolution, YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine and you want your listing there.

Even if my Uncle Harold was the family Realtor®, I would ask these same questions. In this market where average days on market is over six months, you don’t want to lose any time.