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I had listed my house a few years back. I was not happy with the realtor back then and became disenchanted with the entire process. My husband lost his job, we took the house off the market and resumed our lives.
Now I have listed again. I interviewed real estate agents and found one under the recommendation of my friend. (Plus, they did very well in their interview). The first time I met with them (the intitial interview) I asked them to give me ideas of their strategies and things I should do. I told them I was a bit off from listing, but I took their advice and did some things. Then when we were almost ready to list, I invited them back over. I again asked for areas of focus. I did the work, cleared the clutter. When we did sign, I had them bring in cleaners and they did some final steps. They took pictures and put the listing up.
A few days later they asked my husband for some more pictures. He had shown them ones he had done, and I guess they liked those better. Great...except for one small problem. The listing only shows 4 pictures. Now, to clarify, they stated they did not like to put lots of pictures up, they wanted people to be impressed with what they saw and not have a preconcieved notion about the house. I actually thought that was a great idea. However, all 4 pictures are the back of my house. ALL! My husband has spoken with them a few times about this, but nothing has changed.
The house has been up for sale for 3 weeks. We had a realtor showing, and heard nothing back. We had our first real showing yesterday. I honestly don't expect to hear anything from that. I was given very short notice and we had a major snow storm (freakishly enough in April). Maybe I am being premature here, but already I feel I just have a lousy touch when selecting a realtor.
When I look at listings, as well as buyers in the market, when there are only exterior pictures, you wonder how bad the inside looks, and it's skipped. If there are only a handful of pictures and they don't intrigue, the house is skipped. Your agent is doing you a disservice by not having as many pictures in the MLS as allowed. My MLS allows 25 pictures. The only time it's hard to not use all 25 spots is with a house under 1500 sqft. There are too many buyers relocating to different areas, that many are buying houses just from what they see on the listings. Also, sometimes it's just one spouse who is coming into town to look at houses while the other doesn't come. That spouse needs to see many many pictures.
Your agent sounds like a buffoon and you need to talk with the broker if you've made attempts to get things corrected and nothing is happened.
I will attempt to get them to add pictures one more time. After that I guess I have to look at getting out of the contract. I honestly cannot pick a realtor to save my life. It doesn't matter if I am buying or selling. The sad thing for me is that our interior is great. I have upgrades throughout and great finishings. I am so disappointed that no one can see this. How do you get out of a contract? I honestly feel that I would have better luck listing it myself. I don't have the desire to do that, but honestly giving a huge chunk of what I make from a sale for people who refuse to listen seems ludacris.
To explain, my last realtor was completely terrible, but we ended up having to take the house off the market. We found property we wanted to buy several months ago, it took forever and the switch of three realtors, including contacting the owner of the real estate agency giving severe complaints. I had written my own offer, I just needed someone to submit it. I couldn't even get that done!! After fighting and complaining, the offer was submitted, countered, and property bought. I assume it is just my area that offers no real selection in agents. I interviewed several and thought I made a good choice. I followed their listing price (which was lower than an offer I had once accepted that fell through). One showing, three weeks. Of course who would know if my house was worth it....they can only see the back
When I look at listings, as well as buyers in the market, when there are only exterior pictures, you wonder how bad the inside looks, and it's skipped. If there are only a handful of pictures and they don't intrigue, the house is skipped. Your agent is doing you a disservice by not having as many pictures in the MLS as allowed.
I agree with this. When my husband and I were looking at apartments, if someone didn't at least post a few pictures to give me an idea of how the inside looked, I usually had little-to-no interest in the property unless there was something that caught my attention---low price, low maintenance, specific building, etc. I can understand not showing the entire house in photos but a few decent photos always piqued my interest.
OP: Good luck---hope you can get what you want/need. If I were you, I would probably tell them very sternly that I want the pictures to be updated/added or ::insert your bottom line here.::
I will attempt to get them to add pictures one more time. After that I guess I have to look at getting out of the contract. I honestly cannot pick a realtor to save my life. It doesn't matter if I am buying or selling. The sad thing for me is that our interior is great. I have upgrades throughout and great finishings. I am so disappointed that no one can see this. How do you get out of a contract?
The Realtor's Code of Ethics prohibits a Realtor from telling a consumer how to get out of a contract, since it is a legally binding contract, and it interferes with your Agency relationship. However, talk with the Broker in Charge, not an office manager and not just another agent. Tell the Broker what is going on and I'm sure things can get resolved.
I freelance and one of my jobs is writing real estate ads. It's very hard to write good ads without PLENTY of pictures. Pictures are compelling with a little dialog to supplement them.
They have tons of pictures, they just don't post them. We had two showings this week, one was yesterday. The request went in again to post pictures, but they are still not up. I have had no luck with anyone I have spoken with. It may mean I just take it off the market and wait until next year. I will NEVER sign another contract with a realtor after this. I had a home that I tried to sell years ago in another state, and the realtor was terrible. I finally managed to dump him after I moved, my mother picked a realtor and the house sold in less than a month. I put this house up before, realtor horrible (my pick again), I tried to buy property, realtor was horrible had two be switched 3 times before I could find one that would submit my offer, now here I am....
I presume all the interior photos show snow in the rooms.
It is Alaska, after all.
Seriously. find a new real-estate agent.
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You said: Alaska
