How to List Your Salt Lake City Home So It Shows Up First in Every Search
Updated: 3 days ago
So, your home is prepped, staged, and ready. Here’s how to become the next hot listing in your area.
Almost every buyer's first showing happens on their phone. Before anyone walks through your front door, they've already scrolled past your home in a feed of dozens of others. If they keep scrolling, it doesn't matter how much work you put in.
The good news is that most of what decides whether buyers stop is in your control. Let's walk through it.
The first week matters … a lot.
Your home gets more attention in its first few days than it ever will again. Buyers with saved searches get an alert. Your home sits at the top of the newest listings. The buyers who've been waiting for a home like yours are paying close attention.
After that, attention drops off. Homes in Salt Lake City are going under contract in about 45 days on average right now, and the longer a home sits, the more buyers start to wonder what's wrong with it.
So everything in this post is about getting the first week right.
Let’s make sure your buyer sees your home in the first place.
Buyers don't scroll through every home in the city. They set filters. If your listing doesn't match them, those buyers never see it.
Price is the big one. Buyers search in round numbers. A home listed at $605,000 won't show up for anyone who capped their search at $600,000, and those are often exactly the buyers who would have loved it. So before we set a price, I look at where your home lands in the search brackets your buyers are using.
The details are filters too. Bedrooms, bathrooms, square footage, garage, and lot size all need to be accurate and complete. And buyers often search by keyword, so features like RV parking, a basement apartment, mountain views, or a short walk to Sugar House Park belong in your listing in plain words.
Hot Tip: You might have more bedrooms than you think? If you’re not sure that the basement room counts, give me a call, I can tell you exactly what does and does not count as a room.
Now that your buyer can see your home first, here's how to get them to click
Your photos are your first showing.
The first photo decides whether someone clicks. It's usually the front of the home, shot in good light, with the yard trimmed and the entry clear. After that, the photos should walk a buyer through the home in the order they'd see it in person, so they can picture moving through it.
Here's what makes listing photos work:
A professional photographer, (not your phone)
The right time of day for your home's light
Every room bright, clean, and uncluttered
A floor plan, so buyers can picture their furniture in it
Photos of the area such as views the yard and neighborhood
This is where your staging pays off. A room that's been set up well photographs well, and buyers can feel the difference even on a small screen.
Now that your buyer has clicked, here’s what they’ll want to see.
Specific details do more than adjectives. "Morning light in the kitchen and a five-minute walk to Liberty Park" tells a buyer more than "stunning" and "must see."
Name the features buyers search for. Mention the neighborhood and what's nearby. And cut the phrases every listing uses, like "won't last" and "pride of ownership," because people’s eyes glaze over when you speak to them in marketing. What they want is the feeling.
One I used not too long ago: “Welcome home to a slice of paradise in the city. Mature trees create an escape from city life and bring beautiful scenery to right outside your window. The townhome was built in 2008 and still feels new and includes all appliances.”
Now that your buyer has been through all that, are they even seeing this at the right time?
If you’re reading this in the Fall, you might be wondering, should I even list now or wait until spring?
To be honest, either one can work.
If you list before the holidays, you'll have less competition from other sellers, and the buyers who are out looking this time of year are usually serious. If this is you, plan to go live by early November, so your strongest weeks happen before things slow down in December.
If you'd rather wait and launch in early spring, you'll have more buyers and more homes competing with yours. Use the winter to finish your prep so you're ready the moment the market picks up. And if your yard looks great right now, have exterior photos taken before the snow comes.
The day you go live matters too. I try to time home launches on a Tuesday or Wednesday so buyers have a couple days to find it and schedule showings into the weekend, when most buyers are ready to tour homes.
Now that you have your listing ready (and a strategy), here’s how to launch it.
Once your home is ready, I have a plan for the first week. When photos go up, who hears about it first, how showings get scheduled around your work and your life, and how I market straight to the buyers I know are looking for a home like yours.
And it doesn't stop at launch. I send weekly marketing reports so you can see how buyers are responding, and every two weeks I review the strategy with you. If something isn't working, you'll hear it from me early, while there's still time to change it.
Each home requires a different strategy. One home I sold recently was a townhome in a large complex. For this home we started with a strategy of placing door hangers on all the doors in the community to advertise and invite folks to the open house. I knew this community was full of renters who had been considering renting and this would be a great fit for them. The open house turned out great and I had a steady flow of folks coming to check it out. Some folks wanted to share it with their friends to have them come live near them, and others only came because of the door hanger invitation. The home ended up being under contract within 5 days and the seller got above their asking price!
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I’ve written you the roadmap you need to prep and list your home at the right time in the right way so you can close in 30 days or less.
Kevin A Petersen is an LGBTQ+ affirming real estate agent serving buyers and sellers throughout the Salt Lake City area. Schedule a no-pressure conversation about your home buying goals.
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