Enhancing search criteria to simultaneously create more homes for the buyer and to create more prospects for home sellers!

One of the challenges that realtors, sellers and buyers have is that the Maryland and Washington, DC Multiple listing Service (MLS) does not currently have the option of adding den or office as home criteria. For example, some buyers want homes with 2 bedrooms, where an extra room could be used as another room for a resident, guest or just as an office. However, in some cases, these homes are listed out of their price range and so the buyers have to either make a very low offer or wait for a price reduction, hoping no other buyers can afford/will pay for the home at its current list price. So, they and their agents talk about other possibilities, how to adjust the search and if there are criteria which the buyers can compromise on. Meanwhile, there are owners/sellers who were perhaps, once, in the same situation and bought homes with 1 bedroom + a den or office. They want to reach the buyers who would either cannot or do not want to pay for a 2 bedroom unit. The problem is that the owners'/sellers' homes may not stand out to buyers and their agents as more than being priced significantly higher than other 1 bedroom homes, where the difference in price could not be justified alone by the difference in square footage, because MLS doesn't have a place to automatically add den or office in addition to adding number of bedrooms and bathrooms, for instance. Some agents like myself are aware that such listings will only grab buyers' and agent's attention by making sure to both include a photograph of the den/office in the listing and including in the "general remarks" and "internet remarks" that the home is "X bedrooms plus a den/office." An extra step I take as your buyer agent in finding homes with extra rooms that are not bedrooms is scrolling down the search criteria I created for you and in both the "general remarks" and "listing remarks" add the words den and office, to capture these addition listings to review and for you to consider. Finally, for right now, when I am not finding homes that match your criteria in number of rooms, is adjust the search criteria to number of levels in the home. By doing this, I may come up with homes that are 1 bedroom lofts. This is often a great solution for 2 groups of buyers: (1) The buyer who wants a one bedroom home, but we only come with efficiencies in his/her price range, so at least the loft is a 2nd level, Separate living space; (2) The buyer who wants a two bedroom home/1 bedroom plus den or office and either no such homes are currently coming up in the search or they are coming up in a price range that doesn't work. They say that the 3 most important words in real estate are location, location and location. I would argue that the 3 most important words in real estate, for both home sellers and home buyers are location, language and realtor. The better the location the more buyers for the home, which often drives the demand and price up for that home. Sellers need agents who knows effective language to make all criteria for his/her home to stand out, while buyers need agents who do out of the box home searches to find their homes, including what I call a key word search. Finally sellers need realtors to effectively market their homes through language, syndication, marketing and representation, while buyers need realtors who know how to best represent their interests and find homes that meet their wants and needs. Sellers and buyers need agents who work hard, smart and out of the box to bring sold results. If you know any sellers or buyers who would benefit from my services or from at least this blog, please share! I appreciate you considering me for your real estate needs and referring me to people who need realtors to work for them. Life is good! Adam adambashein@mris.com Call: (301)943-4370 0. (301)718-4100-ask for Adam Adam Bashein Licensed in MD & DC Weichert Realtors I always have time and very much appreciate your kind referrals