By Eric Berman, REALTOR® | The Eric Berman Team at Compass
 

TL;DR:

Most marketing advice is about production — photography, video, print, social. The thing that actually determines whether buyers encounter a home is the listing record itself: square footage, bed and bath counts, lot size, taxes, property type. Buyers filter on those fields, and an error in any of them removes the home from searches it belongs in. A three-bath house entered as two-bath is invisible to everyone filtering for three, and no amount of photography fixes that. Get the record right, then make the photographs good, then make the home easy to see.

The Listing Record Is the Marketing

Nearly every buyer starts on a portal, and nearly every portal listing is fed by the MLS record an agent enters. That record does more work than everything else in a marketing plan combined, and it's the part nobody checks.

Here's the mechanism. Buyers don't browse — they filter. They set a price range, a minimum number of bedrooms and bathrooms, sometimes a minimum square footage or lot size, and they look at what comes back. Every field in the listing record is a filter, and an error in any of them excludes the home from searches it belongs in.

A three-bathroom house entered as two-bath doesn't appear for anyone who requires three. A property with a finished basement whose square footage is understated falls below thresholds it should clear. A misclassified property type shows up in the wrong search entirely.

That's the same filtering mechanism that governs price — covered in the pricing framework — applied to attributes instead. And unlike price, these errors are invisible. A seller with a mispriced home eventually sees the lack of traffic and adjusts. A seller whose bathroom count is wrong just gets fewer showings and never learns why.

What a seller should do: read the listing record after it goes live, field by field, against what's actually true. Square footage, bedroom and bathroom counts, lot size, year built, taxes, property type, and whether the basement or any addition is reflected correctly.

Two notes on square footage specifically. Sources disagree — tax records, prior listings, and actual measurement frequently differ — and how finished basement space is treated varies. Worth being accurate rather than optimistic, since an overstatement that a buyer discovers becomes a credibility problem and a potential disclosure issue.

Photography Is the Second Gate

Once the record puts the home in front of buyers, the photographs decide whether anyone schedules.

Buyers make that call from a phone screen, usually from the first three or four images. Professional photography is not optional and it's not where a marketing budget should be cut — a well-presented home shot badly performs worse than a modestly presented home shot well.

What each element has to accomplish:

Interior photography has to convey light, scale, and condition honestly. That's a technical problem — exposure, lens choice, angles — and it's why professional work separates from competent work.

Aerial imagery shows a property's relationship to its setting, which ground-level shots can't. It matters most for waterfront, larger lots, and unusual configurations.

Floor plans matter more than sellers expect, particularly on larger homes, because a buyer looking at photographs can't construct the layout mentally.

Video and 3D walkthroughs help most where a buyer is remote or the home has an unusual flow. On a straightforward property they add less than a strong photo set.

What the rooms need in order to photograph well is a separate question, covered in the full treatment of staging — and the short answer for most occupied homes is brighter bulbs and fewer objects rather than rented furniture.

What the Description Should Do

The remarks field gets less attention than it deserves and it has a job.

It should answer what the photographs can't. Recent systems work, the year of a roof or boiler, a renovation and when, permits closed, parking arrangements, what conveys. Buyers scanning a listing want facts they can't see.

It should be specific rather than promotional. "Beautifully maintained" tells a buyer nothing. "Roof replaced 2021, boiler 2019, all permits closed" tells them a great deal, and it's the kind of detail that makes a listing feel trustworthy.

And it has to comply. Advertising for residential property is subject to Fair Housing law. Descriptions should address the property — its rooms, systems, condition, lot, and features — and not the people who might live there or the character of the surrounding population. Terms describing who a home would suit, or characterizing a neighborhood by its residents, don't belong in listing copy regardless of intent.

The same constraint governs advertising placement. Housing advertisements can't be targeted by protected characteristics, which is why the major platforms restructured their housing ad categories following federal enforcement. Digital advertising for a listing should reach a broad audience, defined geographically and by property interest, rather than by audience attributes. Any agent describing demographic targeting as a service is describing something that shouldn't be done.

Access Determines Volume

The most underweighted piece of a marketing plan isn't production at all. It's how easy the home is to see.

Buyers tour in circuits — an agent assembles five or six homes for a Saturday or three on a weekday evening and builds a route. A home requiring twenty-four hours' notice doesn't make Saturday's route on Friday afternoon. A home available only on weekends misses every buyer whose agent works weekday evenings.

Those showings don't appear in any report, because a showing that was never requested isn't recorded anywhere. It's an invisible cost, and it frequently exceeds whatever a seller gained from a print campaign.

The full treatment of showing preparation and access covers the decisions — lockbox versus appointment, notice period, days and hours — along with how to stay ready without it consuming the household.

The Compensation Decision Is Now Part of This

Since August 17, 2024, buyer-agent compensation is negotiated within each offer rather than posted on the MLS, and buyers sign written agreements with their agents before touring.

That makes it a marketing variable, not just a cost. A buyer who has committed to paying their own agent and has limited cash flexibility left after down payment and closing costs may not be able to reach a home offering nothing on the buyer side. Practically, that shows up as fewer showings without the seller ever learning why — the same invisible cost as restricted access.

At higher price points with more cash buyers the calculation differs. What matters is that it's a deliberate decision rather than a default, made with the price band and buyer pool in view. The framework for comparing what each offer actually nets covers how it stacks against price.

What Matters Less Than It Used To

Worth being honest about the rest of a typical marketing plan.

Print, postcards, and mailers have a narrow role. They can produce a neighbor who knows someone, which occasionally matters. They rarely reach the buyer who ultimately purchases, since that buyer found the home on a portal.

Social media builds an agent's presence more than it sells a specific house. It isn't useless — it's just not where the buyer comes from.

Signage still works for drive-by interest, which is real in walkable areas and near arterial roads.

Open houses are genuinely useful in some situations and not others, and the honest treatment of when they're worth holding covers the distinction.

None of these are reasons to hire or not hire an agent. The listing record, the photography, the access, and the pricing judgment are.

A Worked Example

Consider a composite case — a Nassau County seller three weeks into a listing with strong photography and almost no showings.

The price looked right against the comp set. The photographs were professionally done. Nothing obvious explained it.

Her agent read the listing record field by field. The home had two and a half baths and had been entered as two. It also had a finished lower level that wasn't reflected in the square footage.

Corrected, the listing began appearing in searches with a two-and-a-half-bath minimum and in higher square-footage brackets. Showings picked up the following week.

Nothing about the home, the price, or the marketing had changed. The record had been wrong, and the error was invisible — no report shows the searches a home didn't appear in.

Where to Start

Read the listing record after it goes live, field by field, against what's true — square footage, bed and bath counts, lot size, taxes, property type, and whether additions are reflected. Look at the photographs on a phone rather than a monitor, since that's where buyers see them. Read the description and ask whether it says anything a buyer couldn't see in the images. Decide access deliberately. And treat the compensation question as a marketing decision rather than only a cost.

Sellers wanting a read on where the home sits can start with a quiet look at current value.

The Honest Bottom Line

Most of what gets called marketing is production, and production is the easy part — every serious listing has professional photography now.

What separates outcomes is less visible. Whether the listing record is accurate enough for the home to appear in the searches it belongs in. Whether the description says anything useful. Whether buyers can actually get in to see it.

A seller who gets those three right has done more than one who spent twice as much on brochures. For anyone working through what a specific property needs, with no pressure attached, that conversation is available whenever the timing suits.

This is general information, not legal or advertising compliance advice. Fair Housing law governs both listing content and advertising placement. Consult your agent and brokerage about compliance requirements, and a licensed New York real estate attorney about contract matters.

FAQs

What is the most important part of marketing a home?

The listing record, and it's the part nobody checks. Buyers filter rather than browse — price range, minimum bedrooms and bathrooms, sometimes square footage or lot size — and every field in the record is a filter. An error in any of them removes the home from searches it belongs in. A three-bath house entered as two-bath is invisible to everyone requiring three, and no amount of photography fixes that. Read the record field by field after it goes live, against what's actually true.

How much does professional photography matter?

It's the second gate after the listing record, and it's not where a budget should be cut. Buyers decide whether to schedule from a phone screen, usually from the first three or four images, so a well-presented home shot badly performs worse than a modestly presented home shot well. Interior photography has to convey light, scale, and condition honestly — a technical problem. Aerial imagery matters most for waterfront, larger lots, and unusual configurations. Floor plans matter more than sellers expect on larger homes.

Can I target my listing ads to certain buyers?

No, and this is important. Housing advertisements cannot be targeted by protected characteristics — that's what Fair Housing law prohibits, and it's why the major platforms restructured their housing ad categories following federal enforcement. Digital advertising for a listing should reach a broad audience, defined geographically and by property interest, rather than by audience attributes. An agent describing demographic targeting as a service is describing something that shouldn't be done.

What should the listing description say?

What the photographs can't show. Recent systems work with dates, a renovation and when it happened, permits closed, parking, what conveys. Specific beats promotional — "beautifully maintained" tells a buyer nothing, while "roof replaced 2021, boiler 2019, all permits closed" tells them a great deal and makes the listing feel trustworthy. It also has to comply: describe the property, its rooms, systems, condition, and features, and not the people who might live there or the character of the surrounding population.

Do print marketing and social media actually sell homes?

Rarely the specific home. Print, postcards, and mailers have a narrow role — they can produce a neighbor who knows someone, which occasionally matters — but they seldom reach the buyer who ultimately purchases, because that buyer found the home on a portal. Social media builds an agent's presence more than it sells a particular house. Signage still works for drive-by interest in walkable areas. The things that matter are the listing record, the photography, the access, and the pricing judgment.

By Eric Berman, REALTOR® | The Eric Berman Team at Compass

Eric Berman | Long Island & Queens Associate Broker | Compass
1468 Northern Blvd, Manhasset, NY 11030
(917) 225-8596 | eric@ericbermanre.com | theericbermanteam.com