Many private sellers (along with a plethora of over paid real estate agents) do not correctly list their property(s) on third party real estate portals. Below are 7 points which you should make sure you address when uploading your listing to Privatepoint;

1. Listing must include Photos
Look on any real estate portal and you will see the most popular listings are those which have photos, and not only 1 photo but at least 6 photos. Photos are the only piece of information in a listing which physically provides the viewer with an actual insight to the property.

Most people are stimulated by pictures rather than words and the first thing they use to compare listings on a page is the thumbnail photo. If you do not have a thumbnail photo the user is more likely to skip your listing and select the next listing which includes a photo.

2. Sharp and Relevant Heading
Your photo might catch the eye of a viewer but if it doesn’t then your heading can. Your listing needs a sharp yet relevant heading which will attract viewers. A few examples are provided below;

Amazing Uninterrupted Views – property with views
Deep Water Mooring – property which backs onto water
Modern Sophisticated & Great Position – new property in good location
Spacious & Sun Drenched Apartment - good use of space and a lot of windows
Large Modern Family Home – perfect for families

Never use headings such as “Must Sell”, “Be Quick”, “Will Sell Fast” or “Priced for Quick Sale” these are tacky and you are not selling a used car or outdated stock. These headings look even worse when a property has been on the market for more than 2 weeks.

3. Concise Full Description
Real estate agents will often create very short and brief property descriptions while private sellers tend to create flowery and long winded descriptions. If the description is too short you could neglect to include a relevant piece of information which could result in a viewer not wanting to inspect your property. Alternatively, if you have a 5 paragraph description with 5 sentences in each paragraph which reads like an essay, most viewers will avoid reading it.

The ideal description for a property listing should be written discussing accommodation, bathrooms, then other rooms, parking, external aspects and then perhaps some local area information. It should be two to three paragraphs in length and include 2 to 3 sentences in each paragraph. The features of the property can be outlined in the features section and should be concise and brief.

4. Publish the Street Address
Often private sellers and real estate agents will not publish the street address of a property because they are frightened that agents will try and obtain the listing. This can not be avoided and is a frustrating part of the sales process.

In the internet age, potential buyers and renters demand information at their fingertips. Property searchers use the internet because of its convenience, usefulness and efficiency. They don’t want to be phoning or emailing you about basic information which should be included in a property listing.

5. Publish the Price
Everyone has a budget which limits the amount of money they can spend on a property. Property searchers will be interested in property within or just above their budget and will often overlook property without a price range. The old way of thinking, which is to hide the price so property searchers call you, no longer works. What it does do, is frustrate the user and results in an uneasy first conversation.

Unless the property is for Auction, you should always make sure the price is published, at a minimum at least give the pricing range.

6. Fill in all Information
The Privatepoint system has a number of fields requesting different information about your property. The reason we have all of these fields is because 3rd party real estate advertising websites accept information for each of these fields.It is in your interest to provide property seekers with as much information as possible, so make sure you complete all information fields we offer.

7. Errors in Property Listing
On so many occasions I have viewed a property listing and seen a spelling error in the property headline, an extra number in a telephone number or an incorrect email address. Not only do these things look unprofessional but if your contact details are incorrect then potential buyers or renters will not be able to contact you.

You do not need a degree in English Literature to write a property listing rather simply do a draft in Microsoft Word and then a spell check. Before you press submit to upload your listing check over everything to make sure there are no errors. It is helpful to find your property listing on a 3rd party website to see what it looks like. If you need to make any amendments then log back into the Privatepoint system and update your listing.

8. Answer all Enquiries
All emails and phone calls need to be answered. In most cases potential buyers or renters will only attempt to contact you once. So make sure you reply (in a timely manner) to their email or return their unanswered call.

Summing up……..

Make sure your property listing includes as much information as possible but be careful not to make it too long winded and flowery. Always check the information you have entered is correct and free from spelling and numerical errors. Reply to all email enquiries and make sure you follow-up on unanswered telephone calls.

All you need to do is click on the browse button (grey magnifying glass box) and a pop up will appear allowing you to add an image. This allows you to search either your computer or disc drive for the images. Once you have found your images you only need to select and click on open or double click on image and it will input this image in the selected box. You can then repeat this process for all of your images. Once you have all of your images in the slots you just need to go to the bottom of the page and click on the ‘Submit changes’ button and wait for the images to upload. Depending on the size of your images and amount of images (and your connection speed) this can take a few minutes.

You can login and edit and change your images after they are uploaded at any time. Once your images are uploaded you can also drag and drop images into the right order (all except main image which has to be replaced) and then submit the changes. Cool hey!

Important things to remember

• Images can only be a maximum of 800 pixels wide
• Images must be in JPEG format
• Images should be no larger than 200kb each

Rename all images
Most images come out of a camera named something like ‘DC007564′. You can easily rename an image by going to the image on your computer (you cannot rename from a CD/DVD disc) and right click on the image and choose to rename the image. A good way to rename this is in the order you want them to appear, as an example 1,2,3,4,5 etc. Once you have chosen a name just click outside the image and it will be renamed.

Optimising your images.
Optimising your images is simply a way of compressing the images to maximise the speed at which they appear on the Internet. There are a few free tools available to do this and it will make a lot of difference to the speed in which your listing will appear with little quality difference.

Re-sizing your images.
There are many free programs (i have listed some below) that will also do this task easily. Cameras get bigger in both capacity and resolution but screen sizes do not grow at the same rate. There are still a few people with 800×600 monitors, basically this means the maximum image size that can view is 800 pixels in width. So you must optimise your image to only be 800 pixels in width.

Download Google Picasa (FREE) to do all of the above imaging tasks.
Google’s Picasa is free and it can manage your entire image collection. It actually has a great array of features outside of what we need to do.

• Organise your images
• Compress Images
• Resize Images
• Rename Images
• Fix Images
• Rotate Images

and more download today.

Property owners who choose not to use the services of a real estate agent often fail in this important step of selling a property. This is because they underestimate the importance of an effective advertising & marketing campaign. If you do not have a thorough advertising & marketing plan, information about your property will not reach a large amount of property buyers, resulting in a limited audience.

There are two reasons why the majority of real estate agents are so successful at this step. Firstly, because of the large amount of resources they have at their disposal. Secondly, because they convince property owners that they need to spend thousands and thousands of dollars on advertising & marketing.

You might think that with your limited budget and resources you can’t compete with all the other properties on the market which are listed with real estate agents. Luckily, this is not the case as the Privatepoint system is the first system in the world to offer you the resources available to real estate agents at a fraction of the usual cost.

Internet Advertising- The Privatepoint system provides you with the greatest internet exposure ever offered by a real estate agent or a FSBO (For Sale By Owner) website. We are the only company who lists your property with a variety of real estate advertising portals across the world. By doing this your property has the potential to be exposed to hundreds of millions of potential property buyers.

Another method of internet advertising is a Google AdWords campaign. This involves you purchasing from Google key words relating to your property. When potential buyers search Google for properties in your area, if they use your key word then your property will appear next to the search results.

Copy for Ad (writing content for your marketing material) – Most people already know what type of property they are looking for. For this reason it is essential when you are writing your property advertisement that you highlight the specific features of your property. The viewer will become more interested if they know your property has features similar to what they already have mapped in their mind.

Readers will only scan a property profile for a few seconds so it is important that your listing and ad stand out. Writing a long winded, flowery description of your property will not help you to sell it faster. People like short, to the point descriptions that stick to the main facts about the property. Mention facts such as the number of bedrooms or bathrooms but keep your description to the point.

Be descriptive but brief when writing your ad and remember you only have a couple of seconds to convince the reader your property is what they are after. A great resource is The Copy Cat Phrase Finder which is a free online phrase finder for real estate agents but can be used by individuals. Another FREE resource is Thesaurus.com which will help you find synonyms and antonyms for words.  

Photos – It is essential to have photos included in all internet and brochure marketing for your property. You need to take both interior and exterior pictures along with pictures of any special features the property has, including views. Make sure the photos you take are of a good quality and promote the features of your property.

Download Google Picasa(FREE) to help you manage your photos. Google’s Picasa is free and it can manage your entire image collection. It actually has a great array of features outside of what we need to do.

• Organise your images
• Compress Images
• Resize Images
• Rename Images
• Fix Images
• Rotate Images

For Sale Signs- A For Sale sign is another important tool used when marketing a property. A For Sale sign is working 24 hours a day for you, reaching many people in your neighbourhood. Most importantly it has the ability to reach people who are not necessarily looking to purchase a property and who wouldn’t normally be reading property classifieds. After seeing your sign they may consider an investment in your property or alternatively, refer your property to a friend who may looking to buy in the area. For a more in-depth description of the benefits of a For Sale sign please read the article titled For Sale sign.

Letter Box Flyers – Research suggests that vendors who purchase property within their town or region tend to buy property in close proximity to where they currently live. For this reason, distributing letter box flyers to properties situated near your property is an important marketing tool. Letter Box Flyers by way of word of mouth often spread the word amongst the community that a property in the area is for sale.

Property Inspections – Are one of the best ways to market your property as they give potential buyers the opportunity to physically inspect the property. Property inspections allow you to develop a relationship with potential buyers by asking questions and allowing you to gauge their seriousness in making a purchase.

Property inspections can have a negative impact on your marketing campaign if your property isn’t presented in a professional manner. This article on Property Inspections outlines the process of preparing your property and running a successful property inspection.

It is important that you get the contact details of all the people who view your property. This provides you with a database of people who you can follow up and send more marketing material to about your property. By law you can refuse entry to anyone who declines to give you their contact details during an open inspection.

Open Inspection Brochures – These brochures are handed out to potential buyers during viewings and provide details of the property and its features. These brochures should answer most of the questions of potential buyers. The brochure will continue to market your property once the viewing is complete as the potential buyer can look back at the brochure at a future date

E-brochures- More and more people are now using the internet to communicate and perform their day to day transactions. E-brochures provide a free and efficient way for you to market your property to potential purchasers. You can send them to the potential property purchasers you have met through open property inspections or enquires you receive through Privatepoint.

Disclaimer: All information provided in this blog does not come with any guarantee in relation to its accuracy. This is our opinion in relation to issues relating to the real estate industry. Privatepoint or its employees will not be help liable for any liabilities, expenses, losses, damages or costs, that may be incurred by you or a third party as a result of or in connexion with use of this information.