Does it Matter Which MLS Your CT Home For Sale is Listed in?

You may think of the MLS as just a database of homes, and you would be essentially correct. However, Realtors utilize the MLS and its power to get your home sold in ways that you may not have thought of.

The MLS ( Multiple Listing Service ) is essentially an agreement between brokers that incorporate the amount of compensation offered to the buyers agent upon completion of a sale. Listing Brokers want to get your home sold, and buyers brokers want to find their client a home, and this is a great tool for both.

In Connecticut, there are two highly dominant MLS service areas, as well as a few local MLS regions which are mostly in the southernmost part of Fairfield County.

The Greater Fairfield County MLS (GFC-CMLS) serves all of Fairfield County and 7,500 local agents (except that Greenwich, New Canaan and Darien's listings are served primarily by another MLS, and not always placed on GFC-CMLS)

The CTmls.ctreal covers the entire state, however, the Fairfield County listings are quite sparse on this site. If you are listing your home, or looking to purchase a home in New Haven County, New London County, Tolland or Litchfield Counties, this MLS is absolutely the place to be.

The other night, a seller client asked me if I would place her home on the statewide MLS. (Her home is in Fairfield County) Now while that seems to be like a good idea, the vast majority of the thousands of agents of the Fairfield County MLS (the GFC-CMLS) DO NOT BELONG to the statewide MLS,  for the simple reason that it does not effectively cover their service area.

Case in point: A search for all Fairfield homes for sale in the statewide MLS  (ctmls.ctreal) turned up just 15 results, where the GFC-CMLS turned up 330.

So, in order to effectively and properly represent this particular client, it is imperative to list it within the GFC-CMLS service area. That's where it would get the most exposure.

I am not saying that listing it in the statewide MLS would do any harm, it would just be in addition to. It would be most important to utilize the statewide MLS in addition to the local MLS when a home is very unique in some way.

Incidentally, if you have noticed duplicate listings on Realtor.com, Zillow, and Trulia, it is primarily because the home has been listed in two separate MLS areas.

PLEASE NOTE: My www.CTfeaturedHomes.com  incorporates ALL of the state's MLS systems, so you won't miss any property anywhere ;)

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The Featured Home of the Week is at 125 Norton Road in Easton  for $1.4M. See the virtual tour HERE

Buying or Selling a Home in Fairfield County?  Contact us!

If you have a question about buying or selling Real Estate in  Fairfield County, and are in need of representation, I invite you to contact me. I know the market like the back of my hand, know marketing inside and out, am a skilled negotiator- and I'd love to be on your side :) - Judy

Search for properties on any of our sites, or get the very best visibility available for your home. Visit us online wherever you like:

www.CThomesAndRealEstate.com      www.TheCTrealtyBlog.com     www.TheCTRB.com    and   www.CTfeaturedHomes.com 

 Email us or  call Toll Free (855) GET-JUDY

Do You Agree With How Your Realtor is Marketing Your Home?

Okay, you did what you felt was your due diligence and conducted interviews with various agents before placing your home on the market. You opted to go with one agent that seemed to stand out to you for their marketing prowess.

And now, just a few weeks into the agreement, you wished you had asked other questions before deciding on who was going to represent your best interests in selling your home, and are not so sure anymore whether you chose the best agent for the job.

What are those would have, should have questions?

1. Do I get a copy of the listing agreement?
2. Will you run the proposed MLS remarks by me before the listing goes live?
3. Do I have the final say on what information goes into the MLS fact sheet?
4. Do I get to approve the marketing materials for my home before it goes "public"?
5. How many photos will you take of my home, and do I get final approval on them?
6. Will I get to approve the digital marketing for my home?
7. How often will you update me? Can that be made as part of the contract?
8. What online listing enhancements will you implement on my behalf, and on what sites?
9. Will my home have a virtual tour?
10. How will you utilize Facebook, Twitter, and other social media outlets to sell my home?
11. If I am unhappy with your services, will you cancel the contract?

I am convinced by looking at the overwhelming majority of listings that most homeowners have never even seen their property's information as it appears on the MLS- if they had, they would be furious.

It is your right as a home seller to see and approve the information that is disseminated to the masses to sell your home. At the end of the day, it is YOU that is responsible for any errors in your listing, and YOU become liable for any  misrepresentations about your home. YOU are the one that suffers, and that goes for mis-handled marketing as well.  So take control if you need to, but ask these very important questions BEFORE you sign a listing agreement with any agent.

If you want and need a listing agent who will do what SHOULD be expected of them, put it into writing as part of the contract, AND get your home sold, call me.

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The Featured Home of the Week is at 125 Norton Road in Easton  for $1.4M. See the virtual tour HERE

Buying or Selling a Home in Fairfield County?  Contact us!

If you have a question about buying or selling Real Estate in  Fairfield County, and are in need of representation, I invite you to contact me. I know the market like the back of my hand, know marketing inside and out, am a skilled negotiator- and I'd love to be on your side :) - Judy

Search for properties on any of our sites, or get the very best visibility available for your home. Visit us online wherever you like:

www.CThomesAndRealEstate.com      www.TheCTrealtyBlog.com     www.TheCTRB.com    and   www.CTfeaturedHomes.com 

 Email us or  call Toll Free (855) GET-JUDY

Buying or Selling A Home in Fairfield County with Facebook is Easy!

Our town-based Facebook Pages are THE place to go in your social media travels for all things real estate! We've improved our Facebook presence and upgraded every one of our  twenty Town-based  pages. We service home buyers and sellers in most of Southwestern Connecticut, including most of Fairfield County and parts of New Haven County. 

 Enhanced Facebook Town Pages !

Each town page already features free MLS access, local news specific to the town, a town bio, relevant real estate articles, and our blog posts, besides the latest listings. We JUST added new tabs for school and education information, the town  website,  and Judy's professional bio, if you haven't seen it already.

We invite you to stop by any one of our town pages. Just click on the little "F" next to the town (or towns) below to stay current  on the real estate market in that town, or for your favorite town related websites all in one place.....and please tell your friends - we would truly appreciate a "Like' .

When you need to buy or sell a home in any one of our towns, please give us a call, and get  "The Facebook Advantage" to work for you. 

.. in Fairfield County

   Darien
   Easton
   Fairfield
   Greenwich
  Monroe

  New Canaan
  Newtown
  Norwalk 

  Redding
  Shelton

  Southport
  Stratford
  Trumbull
  Weston
  Westport

  Wilton

and New Haven County

  Ansonia
  Derby
  Milford
  Oxford
  Seymour

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Buying or Selling a Home in Fairfield County Connecticut? We'd love to represent you.

Feel free to email us here or visit our main  site at

www.CThomesAndRealEstate.com

If you have a question about buying or selling Real Estate  in Fairfield County, and are in need of representation, I invite you to contact me. I know the market like the back of my hand, know marketing inside and out, am a skilled negotiator- and I'd love to be on your side :) - Judy

Having Trouble Selling your CT Home? It's Time to Try a Different Approach

If your home seems to be languishing on the market while others are selling,  it's time to change the marketing approach.  The longer your home sits on the market, the more likely it is to sell at a lower price than originally anticipated. And worse yet, it costs you money every day that your home sits idly by in the market.

Quite simply, if the marketing strategy for your home is not working, have your agent change it, or change agents. Give it enough time to kick in, but if nothing is happening, it's time to change directions.

Have you ever heard  the  definition of insanity? It's doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results

The best thing that can be done is to change the advertising slant, or focus. If what you or your agent is doing right now isn't working, well. ... then it doesn't work. Period. Don't become "married" to any one idea if it is not producing results.

Experienced marketers identify their most probable consumer(s) and target that audience in a strong way. If the product doesn't sell, they change the ad.  But the problem is two-fold for real estate..  

First, and for quite some time, agents didn't really have to have a marketing strategy other than putting your home on the MLS. Homes flew off the market as a by-product of a good economy.  That doesn't exist right now.

Secondly, and maybe even more importantly- the agents that recognize that they will actually have to market your home don't have a real clue as to how to do it. They try, they might write a halfway decent ad, but it stops there. And here lies the problem. Most agents have an expressive personality. They write an ad that sounds good to THEM. It may  sound good to you, too. That's all well and good, but the pure expressive personality type represents only 25% of the buying population. The other 75% of the buying population dismisses that ad, either consciously or subconsciously.

Let me put it to you another way that might be easier to identify with, about appealing to different personality types. Have you ever heard someone acknowledge  in conversation that they can " see what you mean", or "I hear ya"?.  Those two people would  respond very differently to the same ad. One is visually stimulated, while the other responds to audio.

The psychology of sales is a very interesting subject. I have researched it thoroughly and am completely fascinated  by all of its intricacies. To explain it as succinctly as possible, it is of the UTMOST importance to reach as many qualified buyers in their own "language" that appeals to their dominant personality  type.

In order to be most effective, the advertising of your home must appeal to the four different personality types, and have something of interest and value  for each one in order to produce a sale.  This is the essence of marketing. It's complex but incredibly effective. You , as a homeowner, really don't need to have this knowledge. Your agent does, or should.

I have that knowledge and the expertise to implement it, and I will explain to you exactly how my strategic marketing works. When you want to sell your home, just contact me.

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Doesn't That Bedroom in the Basement "Count" in my Connecticut Home?

Most basement bedrooms are considered non-conforming, and can be very dangerous. If you are selling your home, and intend to include a bedroom in the lower level as part of your property's features, make sure you know the implications.

Non-Conforming Bedrooms

A room must conform to specific requirements in order for it to be considered a bedroom or sleeping room. The reason for this law is that the inhabitant must be able to quickly escape in case of fire or another emergency.
 
Why would a homeowner use a non-conforming room as a bedroom?  Some of the reasons include:

    to earn money from it as a rental. While they run the risk of being discovered by the city, landlords will profit by renting out rooms that are not legally bedrooms;
    to increase the value of the home. All other considerations being equal, a four-bedroom house will usually sell for more than a three-bedroom house; and
    lack of knowledge of code requirements. To the untrained eye, there is little obvious difference between a conforming bedroom and non-conforming bedroom. When an emergency happens, however, the difference will be more apparent. If you have any questions about safety requirements, ask your InterNACHI inspector during your next scheduled inspection.

Homeowners run serious risks when they use a non-conforming room as a bedroom. An embittered tenant, for instance, may bring their landlord to court, especially if the tenant was forced out when the faux bedroom was exposed. The landlord, upon being exposed, might choose to adjust the bedroom to make it code-compliant, but this can cost thousands of dollars. Landlords can also be sued if they sell the home after having advertised it as having more bedrooms than it actually has. And the owner might pay more than they should be paying in property tax if they incorrectly list a non-conforming bedroom as a bedroom. Perhaps the greatest risk posed by rooms that unlawfully serve as bedrooms stems from the reason these laws exist in the first place:  rooms lacking egress can be deadly in case of an emergency. For instance, on January 5, 2002, four family members sleeping in the basement of a Gaithersburg, Maryland, townhome were killed by a blaze when they had no easy escape.

The following requirements are taken from the 2006 International Residential Code (IRC), and they can be used as a general guide, but bear in mind that the local municipality determines the legal definition of a bedroom. Such local regulations can vary widely among municipalities, and what qualifies as a bedroom in one city might be more properly called a den in a nearby city. In some municipalities, the room must be above grade, be equipped with an AFCI or smoke alarm to be considered a conforming bedroom, for instance. Ceiling height and natural lighting might also be factors. The issue can be extremely complex, so it’s best to learn the code requirements for your area. Nevertheless, the IRC can be useful, and it reads as follows:

    EMERGENCY ESCAPE AND RESCUE REQUIRED SECTION: R 310.1 Basements and every sleeping room shall have at least one operable emergency and rescue opening. Such opening shall open directly into a public street, public alley, yard or court. Where basements contain one or more sleeping rooms, emergency egress and rescue openings shall be required in each sleeping room, but shall not be required in adjoining areas of the basement. Where emergency escape and rescue openings are provided, they shall have a sill height of not more than 44 inches (1,118mm) above the floor. Where a door opening having a threshold below the adjacent ground elevation serves as an emergency escape and rescue opening and is provided with a bulkhead enclosure, the bulkhead enclosure shall comply with SECTION R310.3. The net clear opening dimensions required by this section shall be obtained by the normal operation of the emergency escape and rescue opening from the inside. Emergency escape and rescue openings with a finished sill height below the adjacent ground elevation shall be provided with a window well, in accordance with SECTION R310.2.  
        MINIMUM OPENING AREA: SECTION: R 310.1.1 All emergency escape and rescue openings shall have a minimum net clear opening of 5.7 square feet (0.530 m2). Exception: Grade floor openings shall have a minimum net clear opening of 5 square feet (0.465 m2).
        MINIMUM OPENING HEIGHT: R 310.1.2 The minimum net clear opening height shall be 24 inches (610mm).
        MINIMUM OPENING WIDTH: R 310.1.3 The minimum net clear opening width shall be 20 inches (508mm).
        OPERATIONAL CONSTRAINTS: R 310.1.4 Emergency escape and rescue openings shall be operational from the inside of the room without the use of keys or tools or special knowledge.

    WINDOW WELLS: SECTION: R310.2 The minimum horizontal area of the window well shall be 9 square feet (0.9 m2), with a minimum horizontal projection and width of 36 inches (914mm). The area of the window well shall allow the emergency escape and rescue opening to be fully opened. Exception: The ladder or steps required by SECTION R 310.2.1 shall be permitted to encroach a maximum of 6 inches (152mm) into the required dimensions of the window well.

    LADDER AND STEPS: SECTION: R 310.2.1 Window wells with a vertical depth greater than 44 inches (1,118mm) shall be equipped with a permanently affixed ladder or steps usable with the window in the fully open position. Ladders or steps required by this section shall not be required to comply with SECTIONS R311.5 and R311.6. Ladders or rungs shall have an inside width of at least 12 inches (305 mm), shall project at least 3 inches (76mm) from the wall, and shall be spaced not more than 18 inches (457mm) on-center vertically for the full height of the window well.

    BULKHEAD ENCLOSURES: SECTION: R 310.3 Bulkhead enclosures shall provide direct access to the basement. The bulkhead enclosure with the door panels in the fully open position shall provide the minimum net clear opening required by SECTION R 310.1.1. Bulkhead enclosures shall also comply with SECTION R 311.5.8.2.

    BARS, GRILLS, COVERS, AND SCREENS: SECTION: R 310.3 Bars, grilles, covers, screens or similar devices are permitted to be placed over emergency escape and rescue openings, bulkhead enclosures, or window wells that serve such openings, provided the minimum net clear opening size complies with SECTIONS R 310.1.1 to R 310.1.3, and such devices shall be releasable or removable from the inside without the use of a key, tool, special knowledge, or force greater than that which is required for normal operation of the escape and rescue opening.

    EMERGENCY ESCAPE WINDOWS UNDER DECKS AND PORCHES: SECTION: R 310.5 Emergency escape windows are allowed to be installed under decks and porches, provided the location of the deck allows the emergency escape window to be fully opened and provides a path not less than 36 inches (914 mm) in height to a yard or court.

In summary, non-conforming bedrooms are rooms that unlawfully serve as bedrooms, as the occupant would lack an easy escape in case of emergency.

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by Nick Gromicko and Rob London

Nick Gromicko, FOUNDER. http://www.nachi.org
International Association of Certified Home Inspectors (InterNACHI) is the world's most elite, non-profit inspection association.
President, ComInspect, www.cominspect.com
Director, Master Inspector Certification Board, www.certifiedmasterinspector.org
Author, 15 books and Co-Host of  http://www.NACHI.TV