The entire point of having your home listed online is to showcase your home to a larger audience. The “larger audience” aspect is pretty straight-forward; once your listing is online the entire internet can access the basic information about your property and look at all the pictures. It is estimated that currently almost 80% of home buyers look at properties on the internet before they decide which homes to tour in person which means that the impression your home can give online is vitally important.

The showcasing aspect of listing online seems to be a little trickier for some people. Take a gander at online home listings and you can see many examples of poorly taken photos that do nothing to highlight the positive aspects of the listing at all, are horribly dated because the house has been on the market for a long time, or they show off some very personal things about the homeowners.

When staging pictures are taken it is vitally important that the home is spotlessly clean, staged decently well, and that the positive aspects of the home are highlighted. Too many pictures are uploaded to online listings that showcase bland home features or dirty, cluttered rooms.

If you list your home and it doesn’t sell over a number of months, check to ensure that your photos don’t tell the prospective buyers that you listed your home months ago. Nothing says “failing to sell” in July more than listing photos with Christmas decorations in them.

Even if you do list your home around a holiday season, it’s best to not have seasonal decorations in your pictures at all as that conveys personal information about your family that’s best left out of listing photos. Other ways that you could keep personal details out of your photos, and out of your home while you’re trying to sell it, include removing religious and political icons whenever possible to reduce the chances of alienating potential buyers; while you’re trying to sell your home is not the appropriate time to make a statement about your personal beliefs.

Keep these ideas in mind when you’re putting together your online listing with your agent; make sure that your agent is on the right page with you. Home staging is more important than ever in our current economic climate; homeowners should be using every possible tool available to them to get their homes sold for as good of a price as they can squeeze out of the market.

While it’s certainly well within your legal rights to say almost anything at all, it is not always a wise decision to express your strong opinions on religious or political issues on any media where your professional name is attached to it. Just like you probably wouldn’t discuss your personal views on religious or political matters with potential clients, it’s generally a bad idea to do the same thing in an online forum as well. It is a matter of good business to keep your opinions about non-real estate issues to yourself when you are engaged in professional matters and keep your opinion about things like that relegated to your private life.

The social networking sites that you use for professional purposes?whether they are Facebook, Twitter, or just blogging?remember that this is your professional face and it makes good business sense to maintain an image that shows that you are unbiased, non-discriminatory, and fair with your clients. Just as a staged home showcases a property in a good light that can appeal to the largest number of buyers possible, your professional image should appeal to the broadest base of prospective clients by allowing just about anyone to be able to relate to you.

Many professional people in a variety of different vocations use online networking sites that are open to the public as their business presence online and a private account that is closed to everyone but their family and close friends as their personal account where they can express themselves freely. This strategy allows them the freedom of expression while still maintaining their professional image that is so productive for gaining new clients.

Remember, just because you CAN say or do something doesn’t mean it’s a good idea when you are a professional who relies on your business image to make a living. If you express extreme opinions about hot current topics then you risk alienating many people who may be looking to hire a realtor. Show your professional face instead and be approachable to a wider variety of potential clients; you’ll be glad you did!