Exclusive Listing

Hi Everyone,

I was reading somewhere that if your uploading a listing to the MLS that you should do a Blog Post or an Advanced/Exlusive Listing before on your personal site.

Just looking for some insight on this topic. Is there such a feature available on the Discover site? I recall something on the REW Facebook page about a year ago as well.

Any help or insight would be appreciated. Our goal was to get our listings on the internet prior to it hitting the MLS.

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You can use the listings manager to add a listing at any time as long as you have the info, but yes if yo want a more content heavy format you can certainly use a blog post as well. Please note, there are rules (check with your board / broker) on “Coming Soon” listings.

If you use the Listings Manager, it will create a unique (different from MLS) URL, however we have a redirect tool that once the actual MLS listing comes on, you can 301 redirect the CMS if you want to so there aren’t 2 copies out there.

Hi Anmol,

This is a great question!

First, here is a walkthrough to help you setup your enhanced listing.

I wanted to touch on the marketing side of things as well.

Enhanced Listings & SEO

You definitely want to take advantage of Discover's built-in Enhanced Listing feature.

Now, more than ever, SEO is your friend. Setting up an enhanced listing will help to map that specific listing to your site, helping your website score for that particular set of keywords (like the street name or address).

It will also help with your local search rankings, which is something that Google is increasingly adding more value to.

Follow Morgan's advice above ☝ on things to keep in mind.

If you are looking for an example to follow, check out the Jacqueline Thompson Group. They do a great job using the Enhanced Listings feature.

Blog Posts & Listings

Many of our most successful clients also do blog posts for their listings as well.

This will do a few different things for you:

  • Add value for your sellers
  • Add value for your readers
  • Give long-term value for SEO
  • ...and of course, bring more eyeballs to your website!

Add value for your readers

Right now, we have a lot of buyers whose only option is looking online for listings. That means that you need to stand out for the regular channels and add more value.

Blogging your listing is first a great way to add value to your listing. Especially during these times, it lets you highlight many of the property features you would typically lean-on during a showing or an open house.

Terri McAuley has consistently done a great job at this. In the Chicago market, she highlights her "Coming Soon" listings. She uses blogs to highlight features that are meaningful to her target lead, walking the reader through, touching on things that she knows her ideal buyers will get excited about.

See the full post here.

Add value for your sellers

If you have a property that you are listing, then you want to instill confidence in your seller that you are using every marketing tool at your disposal, in a meaningful way.

Blog posts are a quick win for this.

Not only can you speak about the listing, but you can also speak about the neighbourhood. That gives you the benefit of getting some SEO credibility for those neighbourhood search terms, which can turn into future leads when their neighbours are looking to sell as well.

Scott Lissa dominates his market, here is one of his:

In his blog post, he highlights not only the property, but the area and amenities as well.

Notice that he links to the full listing right "above the fold", giving your readers an immediate CTA (call-to-action).

Quite often REALTORSÂŽ will do this for just their more exclusive listing. Scott provides this for any of his clients, and gets great results!

See here for the full post.

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You are lucky. REW websites are built for this. It is wonderful to see you using this time to get intimate with your template features. If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to reach out.

We are here for you!

Jacqui
REW Corporate Marketing

Hi Anmol,
I thought I would jump in too and share some ideas on how to help your Enhanced Listings look their best, when it comes to images.
Here are some tips that can help when you are getting images ready for your listings:

Pick the best time of the day to take the picture.
This may sound like a no-brainer but you have to make sure that you take the pictures during the daytime so that you can get natural light and bright colors in your picture.

Have a shot list ready beforehand
Make sure to take 2 or 3 pictures of each room so that you have variety to choose from.
Do not forget to take pictures of the backyard and the facade of the house, making sure you take at least two of each. Make sure to pay attention to the special details that make this listing unique

Turn on all the lights
When you’re taking a picture of the facade or an indoor picture, make sure to turn on the lights to balance the temperature of the photo.

Use a tripod when you are in darker areas.
Especially if you are indoors, use a tripod so that the pictures do not turn out blurry or out of focus. A tripod gives you time to set up the perfect shot if you have one.

Try to use a wide-angle lens.
If you have a professional camera make sure you get a wide-angle lens so that you can cover the maximum space possible. These days many of the new smartphones have a wide angle lens included, and some even have special attachments built just for your phone’s camera

Be creative with the angles that you are shooting.
Pay attention to the details in the room and make sure to not take pictures just from the corner of the room. Be creative with your angles so that the rooms look more interesting and spacious.

Use props.
Make sure to include props like flowers or bowls of fruits. If you are taking a picture of the kitchen make sure to remove the kitchen devices from the countertops so that your picture is cleaner and it doesn’t look cluttered.

Fix the temperature of your pictures.
Once you have the picture taken, you should consider color correcting when needed. Artificial lighting makes the pictures have a yellow tint, so make sure to correct the white balance of the image to get rid of that tint.

I hope you find those tips helpful!

We are here for you!


Carolina
REW Corporate Marketing