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.

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)”.

Yes. When you list FSBO on the MLS with Entry Only New England, you’re welcome to move your listing into a Temporarily Withdrawn status, which removes the property from the market.

To reactivate the listing at a later time, you’d simply submit a Listing Update Request form to move the property to a Back on Market status.

There’s no additional charge or fee to use the Temporarily Withdrawn property status, it’s part of our unlimited property updates feature for all our listings, so long as you’re within your listing agreement coverage period.

While moving a listing into a Temporarily Withdrawn status temporarily stops the accrual of days on market (DOM) for a listing, it does not change your listing agreement coverage period end date in any way. For more information on this topic, please see the article Maximize Flat Fee MLS Listings with Temporarily Withdrawn Status.