Mr. and Mrs. Seller may I be honest with you? Your home is not being shown because the instructions in the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) stink! Remember, you said I could be honest. Yes, I am pulling real live examples that I have encountered and continue to encounter.

1. Please do not call for status, MLS updated daily. This would be fine, if the agent did in fact update the listing daily. This is one of the homes that I personally sold. It showed as active during the first 60 days that our offer was accepted and even now three days after a closed sale, it shows pending. Updated daily? Uh, I think not.

2.  Agents call for appointment. Send offers subject to interior inspection. Hmm, so let me see if I get this…we need to call for an appointment but in case we can’t get an appointment we should make an offer and make it subject to interior inspection? You are killin’ me here!

3. Call 951-xxx-xxxx for appointments from Tuesday to Fridays 2:00 TO 6:00 PM. This is a wee- bit ambiguous. Should we call the agent only during these days and hours or is the is the time that appointments are arranged? I’m hoping neither. If this agent only accepts phone calls for appointments in this time slot that’s probably an issue. If the home is only available for viewing during the week, four days a week, for four hours smack dab in the middle of most people’s work hours…probably presents an issue with getting people to look at it.

4. Showing time Saturdays and Sundays from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm. Monday to Friday from 5:00 to 6:00. Call before showing 24 hours in advance. Here we go again. The tighter the time frames for showing and more restrictive, the less showings you will have. If you know that you are only allowing people to view the home for two hours a day on the weekends and one hour a day during the week, is it really necessary to also have to call 24 hours in advance? Just make it available! Otherwise, loosen up the time frames.

5. Drive By Only. This kind of showing is particularly hard when the buyer will be occupying the home and the only picture displayed on the MLS is of the exterior. At least take a few pictures of the inside to post on the MLS so buyers can get some sense of the inside before being expected to write an offer that is subject to interior inspection.

So  what is the MLS saying about your home? Does it have instructions that translate into “Do Not Enter”? Or is there a set of welcoming instructions? The best way to get your home sold fast and for the highest dollar is to put yourself in the buyers shoes. Think about what kinds of things make it easier for a buyer to view your home quickly. The homes that get shown are the homes that get sold. Let the buyer experience your home through all of their senses. Make it appealing in the internet with lots of pictures, a great video tour, easy showing instructions along with a great, clean scent when they view it. Do these things and you will be on your way to a sold home. Additionally, make sure you know what your home looks like in the MLS. Your sale could depend on it!