FSBO questions we get most often about our best-in-class Massachusetts entry only MLS listing service.

We strive to publish new listings and make updates to existing listings in the official Massachusetts multiple listing service (MLS), called MLS Property Information Network (MLS PIN), by the next business day, oftentimes sooner, after you sign up and make your one-time flat fee payment.  Syndication of your listing to third-party websites like Zillow, Trulia, Redfin, Realtor.com, etc. will take place in the coming hours after your listing is published in the MLS.

Yes, absolutely. Once your property is listed in the MLS, which is the ultimate system of record that we have control over, it will be syndicated to popular real estate websites such as Zillow, Realtor.com, Trulia, Redfin, and hundreds of others to increase the exposure of your property. You will not have to do any work, signup for a separate account, pay any additional fees, or otherwise take action to get your listing syndicated to third-party websites.

While syndication to third-party websites is oftentimes largely complete 24 hours following your listing being published on the MLS, syndication from the MLS to third-party websites takes place on different schedules, not in real-time (yet for many real estate websites it has become closer to real-time over the years), and Entry Only New England does not have direct control over these schedules.

While we do not advise FSBOs to “claim” their listing on websites like Zillow and/or Trulia, because it can sometimes cause delays in the syndication process, an entry only MLS listing eventually overwrites an existing claimed listing on Zillow and/or Trulia.

• Who’s Contact Information Is Listed on the MLS Listing?
• Test Communication Integrity after You List FSBO on the MLS
• Huge Advancement in FSBO and Buyer Communication for Flat Fee MLS Listings

Within 24 hours of accepting an offer, you must change the status of your property.  This is a rule and regulation of the MLS.  To change the status of your property, simply submit a Listing Update Request form.

What property status should you choose after accepting an offer?

The overwhelming majority of FSBOs change their property status to Under Agreement following the mutual acceptance of an offer.  Under Agreement is the most common status to utilize after an offer is signed, that’s true for both flat fee entry only MLS listings as well as listings from Realtors that charge a full commission.

There are some FSBOs who want to utilize a Contingent status (see all MLS property status types), signifying the property will continue to be shown, open houses conducted, and backup offers accepted. If a property is placed in Contingent status, one of the following contingencies must exist: Inspection, Attorney Review, Appraisal, Financing, Third-Party Approval, or Pending P&S.  Once that contingency is met, the property will be moved into an Under Agreement status.

Because Contingent status is not terribly common, and the MLS does not want the status type misused, if a FSBO wants to use Contingent status, in addition to submitting a Listing Update Request form to change a property’s status, to utilize the Contingent property status type, FSBOs must also fill out and sign an official MLS form called a Contingent Status Request Form and include it in their update request.

For convenience, during the actual signup process itself, you’ll be given the ability to immediately add up to two (2) new open houses to your listing as it’s published to the MLS.  You will also, of course, be able to add more open houses to your listing after it has been published on the MLS via our Listing Update Request Form.

If you would like to add supporting documents to your listing directly in the MLS system, such as a Seller’s Statement of Property Condition or a Property Transfer Lead Paint Notification, you can do so by submitting a Listing Update Request of type “Other” where “Document Upload” is available to you should you wish to attach documents to your listing in MLS PIN.

Neither a Seller’s Statement of Property Condition or a Property Transfer Lead Paint Notification is required to be attached to your listing in the MLS system and it is not terribly common they are.

Choosing to list your property in the MLS means you must follow the MLS rules and regulations. Article IV – Prohibitions, Section 4.0 “FOR SALE” SIGNS states if you want to use a real estate yard sign, it must be from the listing broker and not a for sale by owner sign.

There are two (2) practical requirements for yard signs:

1. The sign cannot have the phrase “For Sale by Owner”.  The sign can indeed say “For Sale”, but the use of “by Owner” is not allowed.
2. The sign must have the name of the listing brokerage (in the case of Entry Only New England, that’s “Stuart St James”) on it and there are no requirements for how large or small the text is nor is a logo required.

For a professionally designed sign that satisfies all the rules and regulations of the MLS, Entry Only New England exclusively partners with Oakley Signs and has arranged for a 10% discount on your custom sign order.

While creating your custom sign and adding your contact information to it, simply add a text box to the sign and enter “Stuart St James” to satisfy practical requirement #2 above, or, utilize the professionally designed Stuart St James logo image files here.

Along with deciding the list price of your own home, property photos for an MLS listing are clearly important.

Here are the facts when it comes to MLS listing photos in Massachusetts:

• This is a simple step that helps so many of our FSBOs – to avoid confusion and to clearly articulate to us the order in which you want your photos to appear on your listing, we recommend naming your photo files in the order you’d like them to appear (1.jpg, 2.jpg, 3.jpg, etc.). Avoid adding any additional letters or numbers to the file names.  Please use “1.jpg” for your first photo and increment up from there and we’ll be sure to get them in the right order for you
• Signage and contact information in photos is not allowed – the rules and regulations of MLS PIN state that you cannot include signage or contact information of any kind in a property photo – while a short room label or description on a photo is fine (yet rarely used), don’t waste your time submitting property photos that have signs or any contact information visible whatsoever, even if the objects are at a distance
• Ideal dimensions of MLS listing property photos – according to MLS PIN staff, the optimum base dimensions (in pixels) for property photos in the MLS is 512 (width) x 400 (height).  You do not need massively sized photos multiple MBs in size for your photos to look good on the MLS
• Easiest and most efficient way to manipulate property photos – when you begin a new listing on our website and are given the opportunity to upload your photos, you’ll be able to upload up to 42 photos at one time, and we limit the size of each photo to 1 MB – we like using the free online tool called BeFunky to edit, resize, rename, and save photos to a computer so they’re ready for uploading to your listing.  When working with your photo files, do not attempt to change a photo’s resolution, simply reduce its dimensions, which will significantly reduce file size while at the same time not compromise image quality (or resolution) whatsoever.  You do not need massively sized photos, be that dimensions or physical file size – the largest standard photo dimensions of a third party website is probably at Realtor.com where they use approximately 960 x 400
• Maximum number of photos allowed – MLS PIN, the MLS system we use and the largest in New England, allows up to forty two (42) property photos per listing – regardless of whether the listing is an entry only MLS listing or not

Yes!

A real estate virtual tour is a simulation of an existing property, typically composed of a sequence of videos and/or still images.

Approximately 18% of single family home listings in MLS Property Information Network (the largest MLS system in New England and the exclusive MLS system partner of Entry Only New England) have some sort of virtual tour associated with them.

For sale by owners (FSBOs) are welcome to submit a virtual tour with their flat fee MLS entry only listing, to be posted to the MLS, yet the virtual tour must be in compliance with MLS Property Information Network Rules & Regulations 1.0(e).

Essentially, 1.0(e) establishes that, similar to property photos, virtual tours cannot contain identifying contact information.

Every virtual tour submitted with a listing is reviewed by MLS Property Information Network front office personnel (not Entry Only New England) before being posted to the MLS. If a tour is not acceptable an email will be sent explaining why the tour was rejected so it can be remedied and resubmitted.

During the flat fee MLS entry only listing process, if a FSBO has a virtual tour, the URL at which the tour is hosted can be provided and will be submitted to MLS Property Information Network front office personnel for approval once the listing is published in the MLS (there’s no ability to submit a virtual tour for a “pre-approval” to MLS front office personnel).

The MLS does not accept virtual tours hosted on YouTube because it makes it possible for consumers to contact the listing agent directly and because YouTube sometimes contains questionable content under related media.

That being said if the virtual tour is hosted where there are no additional unrelated videos, there’s no ability to leave comments or contact information, the MLS could accept it. Dropbox, Box, or similar video hosting sites are appropriate so long as comments are disabled for the shared file.

There is no limit to the title of the video providing it does not include agent or office information. The property address can be displayed on virtual tours. Providing information about the property itself including open house data is allowed on the tours.

To add a virtual tour to your entry only MLS listing, simply submit a listing update request and select “Add Virtual Tour” as the “Update Request Type”.

Similarly, we introduced the ability for a FSBO to provide a property related website (URL) when listing or updating an entry only MLS listing for sale or rent. Providing a URL is optional, yet it can be any URL associated with a property, a website, a YouTube video, a sales landing page, etc. – this is different than a virtual tour as described above but can be a virtual tour.  The MLS system does not publish or syndicate property related URLs, so this URL will be published here alongside the other contact information we make available in the process / system we’ve put in place to facilitate direct communication between FSBOs and interested parties. FSBOs can add a website (URL) to their listing during signup, or add/update the URL throughout the duration of a listing via our Listing Update Request Form – not every FSBO has a website or content online for their property, yet we encourage all FSBOs to take advantage of this feature as the URL is not subject to the same stringent requirements as, for instance, adding a virtual tour to your MLS listing, where no contact information, no YouTube videos, etc. are allowed. This website (URL) feature provides FSBOs a lot of flexibility to share their direct contact information and use the platforms of their choice to host their content however much or little there is.

To instantly add a website (URL) to your MLS listing today, submit a Listing Update Request Form of type “Website (URL)”.

With any real estate transaction, there’s paperwork, offers to negotiate, contracts, escrow accounts for earnest money deposits, showings, open houses, etc., and with an entry only MLS listing, the property owner, or a licensed real estate attorney you decide to hire, is responsible for such activities.  You are advised to retain a licensed real estate attorney for the preparation of all legal documents and to serve as escrow agent.

Professionally designed real estate flyers for both open houses and private showings help FSBOs command top dollar for their property. In several of our listing packages, we provide clients with free real estate flyer templates for Word and Mac that are both highly professional in design and easy to edit.

Lock boxes may be common in your local market, it’s entirely your choice whether you decide to leverage one or not, however, there’s no requirement to do so.

Should you use a lock box to safeguard access to your property, you will directly provide the necessary code to Buyer’s Agents or buyers upon qualifying the inquiry and setting up a showing.

We do not rent or otherwise provision lock boxes in any capacity.