Real Estate Blog for Buyers & Sellers

SEAS5 - 238 - 10 Things to Keep in Mind When Listing Your Home!

September 28, 2023 | Posted by: Michele Cummins

SEAS5 - 238 - 10 Things to Keep in Mind When Listing Your Home!

Watch Segment One Here 



Watch Segment Two Here



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Michele Cummins PREC*
Cell: 778-885-4659
Email: mcummins@remax.net
Website: www.michelecummins.ca

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Curtis Pope 0:20
Here we are Saturday morning. That means it's time for the commons real estate show with Michelle Commons and myself Curtis Pope and a good morning to you, Michelle.

Michele Cummins - PREC 0:28
Good morning, Curtis.

Curtis Pope 0:29
Here we are another Saturday hard to believe. I don't know what episode. You always know that it's

Michele Cummins - PREC 0:33
number 238

Curtis Pope 0:35
Do I was gonna say 400? But I don't know, just you know, it's

Michele Cummins - PREC 0:39
really it seems like 400

Curtis Pope 0:41
Well, I'm sure it does for you a lot more dealing with me. So

Michele Cummins - PREC 0:45
you know, 238 and it's September 23. Two, you know, 238 23rd. And it's 2023.

Curtis Pope 0:53
Oh, wow. That's a whole lot of twos and threes.

Michele Cummins - PREC 0:57
It is something that I'm going to list 23 houses in the next 23 days.

Curtis Pope 1:02
Is that your goal and the plan. That's the plan. Well, we

Michele Cummins - PREC 1:05
all should have goals. We all need something to that lofty goal or inspire.

Curtis Pope 1:10
I like that focus on it's ambitious. It's optimistic. I like it. And we're actually going

Michele Cummins - PREC 1:15
to talk about listings. If you are thinking of selling or you're selling currently right now, I've got 10 things to keep in mind not 23.

Curtis Pope 1:25
No, we can't extend it to 23. Now, we

Michele Cummins - PREC 1:27
don't have 23 minutes. Don't we only have 22 minutes.

Curtis Pope 1:33
Like we ever on time this hour and 22 minutes, more like 2425 on a weekly basis. But that's besides, I should have had

Michele Cummins - PREC 1:39
23 then. Well, I got 10 today. Okay,

Curtis Pope 1:43
well, we'll we'll settle for 10.

Michele Cummins - PREC 1:45
And next week on our show, everyone remember it's gonna be on Sunday. So tune in on Sunday morning at 8am. That's right.

Curtis Pope 1:52
That is a good reminder. And I did have a note to remind people and you just did that for me. So

Michele Cummins - PREC 1:56
yes. Oh and tomorrow talking about Sunday's is the hike for hospice in Michigan at the Heritage Park. So if you can go and be part of it from 10 to 12 o'clock, it'll be a nice leisurely hike with everyone and maybe bring your dogs if you have dogs. If you can please donate and support through Miramax Magnolia, we will match up to $250 per donation for this great cause. So we're going to be the team is going to be out there REMAX Magnolia, and check it out on our Facebook we've got the link to donate there or to register and it's called the REMAX REMAX Magnolia Trailblazers is what we're calling it, and it's gonna be a lot of fun. And you'll get a tax receipt for your donation as well. So and so let's go right into these 10. All right, do you got Okay, so I got a call from someone the other day. And this actually has happened a couple times recently. And they wanted me to do an evaluation for them. And they were upset their last time around on the market. They didn't have a good experience. I had a look at their past listing because they said hey, have a look at it online before you come over. And I easily saw many reasons why they didn't sell even though their asking price was reasonable. So their asking price was reasonable. Why didn't it sell and it was on the market for a year for a year a year. So why is your house not selling couldn't be so simple, simplest things but the most necessary things, the devils in the details, you got to get the details right. Okay, so the checkout these 10 things to keep in mind because I see these over and over again when I do evaluations when listings are expired or they were terminated or they canceled I always look back and then I always look at the details and see and when I'm looking for buyers I see these mistakes all the time. And sometimes and all actually quite a lot of times your buyers miss out because the details aren't in the listing so number one is the mapping correct so with the mapping people relying on Realtor dot see the apps everyone has a smartphone with them nowadays, they're driving around the neighborhoods there they want to know what Where are you they're looking they click that map icon on on their computer to see Oh, where is it? How close is it to that park? And if it's way off or not even in the vicinity such as Sasquatch, okay, if you're looking for a cabin up on a ski mountain, you don't want it to be down at Lake rock or Harrison Mills you want it to be on the mountain so so many times they're not there and you look on the realtor dot say you look on rue.ca You look on line and where is it? It's not there. And so many times the real estate boards mapping system does not put it exactly where the property is. Sometimes it's so far off you wonder where's my listing? So always make sure the mapping is correct to are there 40 photos because we are allowed up to 40 photos. So sorry this this one only had a few photos so please make sure you have professional Photos and max it out because your buyer wants to see everything. Even if it's an apartment, if it's a one bedroom condo, there is the parking spot to take photos of there's the complexes, the amenities, there's parks around the area, there's your parking stall, there's your bike storage, they are things to take, so that the buyers know what they're getting. So definitely have professional photos and max it out, you have to shine the best out there, you have to be the best listing the best attractive track those buyers, right. So you got to connect with the buyers emotionally and they need those photos. Three are the remarks maxed, so our maximum for characters is 800. At these are greater Vancouver and Fraser Valley in Chilliwack. For boards, some areas allow up to 2000. I'm trying I'm going to do a poll, and I'm going to try to get a survey all the realtors to sign off on getting us more characters. But we're allowed 800. And that's not a lot. So it's ridiculous to only have one line, or worse yet nothing I come across listings with no remarks at all a couple times a month. And that's not even me looking out for them. It's just that I just happened to Sam. So max out those characters for is check the fine print. So the data entry, this all is pretty much about data entry. But specifically, we have to as your listing agent, put in the data, there's all these data fields, don't rely on just the remarks because the remarks do not bring it up in search fields. So make sure if there's two kitchens don't only just say an authorized suite or authorized suite, you got to put two in there for kitchens. Because the way that the search results are is when you're looking for a suite or an in law suite or secondary you you put into kitchens. And if there's not a second kitchen in there, but there's an authorized suite, you're it's just you're missing out on so many of your buyers. So definitely do that. If it's been renovated, does it? What year is it been renovated? Put that in the data field? Does the year say nein nein nein nein because it's an old property so many properties pre 1970s 19 They just nein nein nein nein Nein. Well, your house isn't dead. We don't want to. We don't want the buyer to think oh, this is a dead house. This is so old. It's dead. You want to track people who want a character home and character says 1929 1929 House sounds like character to me. You know 1940s How many people love retro so make sure the correct years in there? Because there are those buyers out there that love these character homes and you want that shines charm that's charmed me nein nein nein nein tells me it's dead. But you put a year and you've got some charm, you've got some character number five, is there a virtual tour link? And of course a cinematographer video a drone video, a YouTube link would be excellent people love video, we love video, we watched movies, we want to feel sad, happy, love. You know, you don't want them to be mad. But there's emotions when it comes to watching a video more so than photos. So a picture

Curtis Pope 8:13
tells 1000 words, but a video is going to tell 10,000 Right? I mean, it's going to show you the ins and outs.

Michele Cummins - PREC 8:19
Had that wasn't said and it couldn't be said any better Curtis because Exactly. That's it. So make sure if even if it's a personalized URL for the property with all the information on it, that means the video and all the photos, maybe even more than 40 lots of houses, especially acreage is they deserve at photos, right? They deserve a lot more than that. And sometimes there is a lot more than that. So have that virtual Link Plus it's extra search people there's extra, there's more to it, the more you can offer buyers regarding your property, the more it'll shine. Okay, number six. If you were in a cool neighborhood, like old Claiborne, or hats, a bench for example, or Eagle Mountain, well, that should be put into the area that's called subdivision location. It's a complex slash subdivision location. That's where that data is entered into. And that's where it should be. Okay, number seven, parking parking parking. Now coming from somebody who has a lot of vehicles, and I'm not the only one out there.

Curtis Pope 9:26
No, you are the amount that you have. You're one of them. Yeah, there's not a lot of you supposed to have a bunch of movie cars. That's a bit more specific.

Michele Cummins - PREC 9:33
I gotta tell you, you know, people love their cars. Somebody I was talking to the other day he said he had was it 4050 cars it was so he has a warehouse. He has properties just for his vehicles. You don't have time to drive those vehicles. Now I'm not saying you know, he does even sell them. Like it's amazing. I can't wait to go see these cars move

Curtis Pope 9:56
in that direction because you don't have 30 or 40 quietly before you know it. You that's going on.

Michele Cummins - PREC 10:02
But um, yeah, we gotta get our generally out again. But anyways, so yes, cars parking. Okay, so this is a big one, the property, this specific one that made me finally go you know what I should do a show on this because this is so important is this property had a detached double garage, long driveway separate back lane access all this parking for multiple vehicles. And the old listing said carport and it had zero it had nothing in for the how many parking stalls. Okay, when you have a family of five, and you've got a suite, and let's say they do have a workshop, let's say you've got a boat and you've got an RV you are like I need minimum Seven Spots minimum that the people will not even look the search criteria is Michelle. I need a place that has seven Park parking for seven is street parking, okay? No, okay, you don't want to you want it all on your property. So people are going to search for only properties with specific so have your parking numbers in there. And if it's if you've got covered parking, if you've got enclosed parking, it's important to have that detached, detached garage. Okay, dry parkings really important for people. So make sure that's mentioned,

Curtis Pope 11:21
even if you drive to the neighbor, and you see that almost every neighbor you have has a garage, but nobody parks their car in it because it's just used as extra storage or a couple guys in my neighborhood have like their man cave in their garage.

Michele Cummins - PREC 11:32
Well see, imagine if it's not even mentioned. Yeah, now you don't even think you have storage? Yeah. So it's like wow. Okay, so that was number seven. But I know we have to go on break. So we will come up with the remaining when we get back.

Curtis Pope 11:47
All right. See, I have a couple ideas. I'm wondering if they're gonna make the list or not. So I'm intrigued. Alright, if people want more information, want to see your listings, things like that? Where can they go? Michelle cummins.ca. We're back with more right after this.

looking fantastic, those amazing Well, first off her back was segment two of the comments real estate show. Did you like it on a commercial break? We got a new sign installed.

Michele Cummins - PREC 13:01
It's amazing. Oh my gosh, Jim from Life Force did our new sign or REMAX Magnolia sign because the show is going to be rebranded.

Curtis Pope 13:09
Absolutely. And that was amazing. It was like you go to a hockey game and you see them clear the ice in the commercial break. That's like 90 seconds long. That's what just happened here.

Michele Cummins - PREC 13:18
He just came in and whipped it up. That's how fast they are their quality work. Marty and Jim at Lightforce they just did that sign for us. And they're doing our main sign in our offices in Michigan. And gosh, Jim, thank you so much. Hey, no problem. It looks wonderful. It's my pleasure. Yeah, that

Curtis Pope 13:38
is pretty cool. For everyone

Michele Cummins - PREC 13:39
who's listening this morning. Jump on our YouTube next week and have a look at it. It's an awesome sign behind Curtis

Curtis Pope 13:46
it's it is it's very cool. I mean, it makes me look more professional now. Which I need all the help.

Michele Cummins - PREC 13:54
Now you just have to videotape every road show

Curtis Pope 13:58
everything I do so that you get the little extra you know, ReMax Magnolia in the background. Yeah,

Michele Cummins - PREC 14:01
you know, you should have a YouTube that's all your road shows that you videotape yourself.

Curtis Pope 14:06
It's not the most exciting job in the world between songs sometimes you're gonna see me staring at a piece of paper or a computer.

Michele Cummins - PREC 14:13
What was the not crazy Mary? Dirty Larry. What was the one? Oh, um, Kowalski. Kowalski, the movie back in the 80s where he dropped the DJ, do you remember his name? Oh, I forget his name. It's a great show.

Curtis Pope 14:31
I'm drawing a blank here. I mean, I know Wk RP.

Michele Cummins - PREC 14:35
Yeah, so yeah, but no, not that one. This movie in this this guy and he's so entertaining and DJ. Vietnam. Yeah, no, no, no. Okay, I will. You have to watch it. I'm gonna send you the movie. I'll figure out what it is. His name is

Curtis Pope 14:51
I went to when I was like 1415 said I want to be a DJ and he goes alright, you made me sit down and watch Play Misty with me. Oh, and we're Play Misty for Me. Sorry from Clint Eastwood. Oh, Clint Eastwood is awesome. What a stalker stalking a DJ.

Michele Cummins - PREC 15:03
Oh, that's not a good one. Thanks, Dad. Yeah. Wait, encourage me, dad. First thing. Your dad's Awesome. Okay, so we were talking about the 10 things to really keep an eye on if you're selling now or you're about to sell and we were talking about number seven was parking, parking, parking, parking, make sure it's in there. So let's get on with number eight. Okay, so number eight, getting the style of the home right is so important. Some people won't buy, let's say a split level. I've had that before. No split levels for me, Michelle, but they're good with basement entry homes or two story homes or ranchers with basements or ranchers with lots there's lots of different styles of homes to make sure the data in your listing is properly coded for what type of style home it is. Number nine is your lot square footage. So the depth and frontage measurements are really important. A lot of people they need to know how wide is the frontage? I've had that that ask question. It's not because they're developers, or they're thinking, you know, that kind of future. It's actually for other reasons. So it's not always just developers who care about how wide it is. So have that in there. And with that, the square footage. So I've seen many times a property say point two, eight. Let's say for example, this is one that came up last night, point two, eight of an acre, but the square footage had nothing in it. So when a client when somebody's looking for property, square footage as part of their requirements, they want something that has minimum, let's say 7000 square feet, up to a quarter acre or half acre, so when there's there's house with acreage, and there's also single detached, so house with acreage is one acre and over. So if you have anything under an acre, you're gonna be putting it in the detached house department. But if it says point to eight acres, but it doesn't have that 12,025 square feet in that area, everyone's gonna miss it, nobody's gonna see it who's searching for a certain square footage of a lot. So very important, make sure the square footage is in there, not just the acre part. And number 10. And remember, there's other things, but these are the top 10 things to keep in mind is view. Is there a view, there gonna be a view of a ravine, there could be a review of a creek that can be reviewed a view of the city, there's so many different types of views, put in that there's a view if there's a view. And then the other section is what type of view there is. And that's when you can divulge into what the views are mountains, ravine, whatever it is. So these are so important. These are the top 10 that I have found in my 20 years of selling real estate of what's missing a lot of times and what's really important to buyers. So as a seller, you don't want to miss out on that. So fair warning, even if it's in your remarks. If it's not set correctly in the data entry, your home won't show up in buyer searches. So don't rely on remarks. Oh, the remarks say is there's a view, the remark says how big the square footage of the houses are the lot doesn't matter, you have to have it in the data as well. So

Curtis Pope 18:17
confused, you missed out the most important thing at all to me.

Michele Cummins - PREC 18:21
Okay, you had a couple things in mind that I was gonna say and where's

Curtis Pope 18:24
your plan? You know how I love the floorplan

Michele Cummins - PREC 18:27
virtual tour link. Okay, and in part of the 40 photos, very good. Thank you for bringing that up, Chris, in that

Curtis Pope 18:34
variation when they don't know the floorplan because the pictures mean nothing to me if I don't know where they they're positioned. Exactly. So yes,

Michele Cummins - PREC 18:41
good point. So the floorplan is attached as a document to the to the listing photos. But you also have a photo in there. So it's part of the 42 photos that should be maxed out, like we talked about earlier.

Curtis Pope 18:53
Yeah, that one does drive me nuts. We were looking for our house. And I know there's no floor plans or anything. I'm like I haven't. There was one I could not wrap my head around because there were they were the way the pictures were. And then we went to see it. I'm like that was like nothing I had envisioned.

Michele Cummins - PREC 19:05
I think it should almost be mandatory. It should have a floor plan for every listing.

Curtis Pope 19:10
I'm with you on 100%. So yeah, I think you've covered pretty much everything there that I would, I would say I can't think of anything else. So I think you're good. I was wondering, like where's the floor plan plan? You're waiting for it? Yeah, but you explained it. So it's all good

Michele Cummins - PREC 19:25
points later and yeah, there it is. Perfect. Okay, so Business Spotlight. This week, I really wanted to shine a light on a local business called thrifty kids play and learn. And I just came about this business a bit ago and it's actually it's so interesting when you really start thinking of local businesses and what there is, you find some gems, especially in downtown Abbotsford has a lot of gems and mission has been getting all these great new businesses and this one isn't mission. They do deliver as well but they Harry over 1500 items of new and previously pre loved thrifted children's clothing, books, baby items. Think of like kids grab things so fast and sometimes they don't even wear something once. And so here you go, you got brand new consignment items and they were once or twice and lots of fun stuff. Follow them on Instagram at thrifty kids play and learn. And yeah, contest. We mentioned it last week, but I wanted to mention it again because REMAX has a lot of really neat contests. And unfortunately I can't enter them, but I love it when I find somebody that I know wins. So go to either my Facebook, the REMAX, Magnolia, Facebook, or REMAX is site. It's called REMAX Hello home cooking. So this one's on us. You could win one year meal kit subscription, which would be so fun. I know Curtis, you're your cook,

Curtis Pope 20:56
you're the kind of cook nobody else. Well, my daughter is actually getting to be a good cook. But she tends to only cook for herself. So it doesn't really help. Have you entered this contest yet? I don't know if I'm eligible being that I'm Yes,

Michele Cummins - PREC 21:07
you are. You're a client of mine. You are eligible. You don't even have to be a client of mine. You could be a listener of

Curtis Pope 21:14
the Show. Buying another house or

Michele Cummins - PREC 21:18
anybody who's not a licensed Realtor with Remax can win. Okay, you've got to enter.

Curtis Pope 21:23
Okay, well, I'm not licensed.

Michele Cummins - PREC 21:25
Well, you will change that soon enough, but until we do, you should enter. So, Curtis, I had a question for you last week, and I threw you for a loop and I have another one for you this week.

Curtis Pope 21:37
You didn't give me any time to prepare. That's lovely. That's fun.

Michele Cummins - PREC 21:41
What book are you reading right now?

Curtis Pope 21:43
Oh, that one's easy. I'm reading Dave Groza book. Oh, yeah.

Michele Cummins - PREC 21:47
What is it called?

Curtis Pope 21:49
What is it called again? I just know he put out his own audio his own book like his own autobiography, you know that he wrote. And I bought like a year and a half ago and my kid stole it right away. Finally, Dylan, so I finally got it back and started reading a great book to like, it's totally in his voice. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, you can hear like you can hear me even right down to the language he uses because Dave is one of these. He's like the most likable guy in the music industry. And he comes across that way, but the language is also very daybed. roll all the way through the book to

Michele Cummins - PREC 22:18
what podcasts are you listening to right now?

Curtis Pope 22:20
smartlace Oh, nice.

I don't know if you've heard of that one. It's Jason Bateman. Will Arnett and Sean Hayes I haven't downloaded Yeah, it's hilarious native you some really big names. And they're kind of Jason Bateman's kind of an idiot, but it's funny. I like him and we'll learn it's really sarcastic. Oh, yeah, I can see that. He's got that big voice too. Because he does a lot of voiceover work. So that was a that was a lot of fun. Awesome. Podcasts. Are you listening to some true crime one or actually there

Michele Cummins - PREC 22:49
is a new TV show called The real stories of and we were gonna call our show. Well, I won't say it but it's very close. And it's there's a realtor in it and there's death by killing as all I'm gonna say. Like killing Yeah, he told me

Curtis Pope 23:15
a little redundant.

Michele Cummins - PREC 23:18
You'll have to check it out.

Curtis Pope 23:19
I'm gonna jump like

Michele Cummins - PREC 23:22
I want to start a TV series that is more serious man, but not so much. It's actually like the Twilight Zone and it's the real estate stories.

Curtis Pope 23:35
Okay, I carry on. You've lost me for a while you're gonna do this on your own.

Michele Cummins - PREC 23:40
So a new listing is hitting the market on Monday. 2839 Ash Street in Abbotsford. It's a 1967 bill updated though with such a large mega lot. It's over 12,000 square feet. It's four bedrooms, two bathrooms and the lot is deep. 158 feet deep. It's easily sweeted this house and now that candidate has given up to $40,000 of forgivable loan to build a suite in your home. This is a perfect opportunity to build that sweet in this home. The OCP of this house is urban three infill which is single family with some ground oriented duplexes. So great future it's in central Abbotsford. It is close to everything and that is hitting the market on Monday. I will have an open house next weekend. So have a check out of that. An open house we are having today and tomorrow from two to four is at 36508 Florence drive and until it sold we're gonna have that open house every Saturday and Sunday. It's a brand new gorgeous property. It is priced at 2.5 million just under and we do have an offer that came in on it it is not accepted yet and it is subject to sale anyhow. So if you're interested or if you've seen it before, come out and see it again. And do not be shy Writing an offer even if it's subject to sale, and there's hidden Bluetooth speakers in the drywall, many people don't know that because you can't see them. It's hidden throughout the house. Amazing. This place is absolute amazing. The primary bedroom, which I'm still getting used to using that word, but the primary bedroom is literally a suite in itself. This house has a suite and amazing views by the way of the mountains, the river, that's the Fraser River, the valley the flats you can see all the it's crazy the view and but it's got a private deck in the primary bedroom has its own laundry room, big room. It also has a kitchen. Yes, the primary bedroom has everything you need. You never have to leave your house never have to leave your primary bedroom that is. So I have a quote and this week, as like we do every week. And this quote is from Megan, my mega assistant. And she says everything she her favorite quote I should say is everything happens for a reason. And then a quote that I gave her young self is Megan blink, and you're 50 So live your life fully.

Curtis Pope 26:12
Yeah, that's true. That was my quote. Yeah, factor. Yeah. Yeah, I'm with you on that one. All right. If people want more information about these listings, and what you do is a realtor and all that fun stuff. Where can they go? Michelle cummins.ca. And join us again next week when we will talk real estate in order to unlock your real estate potential on the show where real estate is maximized. Thanks for listening

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