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Kiddie "art" held up by refrigerator magnets is a huge turn-off to me, as is ivy wallpaper in the kitchen, wallpaper borders, and fake plants or flowers of any kind. Little figurines on the shelves...can't stand them! Give me zen streamlined looks every time.
Valid point.
But she doesn't see the need to fix her listing pictures and has relied on other agents to sell them.
I want an agent to be actively (aggressively?) marketing my house.
So is she a "successful" agent or not? To me that means she gets houses sold. And that is the ultimate end game. If all she does is rely on other people how are you defining her as successful?
As far as her not seeing the need that is where you say something. You are a partner in this transaction. You don't just sit back and say/do nothing.
I also think that there are lots of realtors out there who simply do not know how to take good pictures. They should recognize this about themselves and realize that they are doing their clients a disservice by posting stupid or unflattering photos on the MLS. In another thread, we've been discussing (and posting) incredibly stupid photos that realtors uploaded as representative of the home they have listed. GOOD GRIEF! Use some common sense, people, and if you don't have a knack for photography, PLEASE get someone else to take the photos!
Also - misspelled words in a listing description are a turnoff - though that's no fault of the seller, of course. Realtors - use spellcheck, please!
When I was selling real estate, I picked up a good listing as a side benefit of showing the house - the listing was about to expire when I finally managed to find the place and bring a potential buyer. The seller came home from work unexpectedly and we struck up a conversation. At the time, I had no idea the listing was about to expire. He asked me what I thought the reason was for a lack of showings. Honestly, the property was a really good property, on five acres, in the right area - but the photos online were TERRIBLE. The description was basically non existent. To add insult to injury, the directions online were WRONG. (This was before everyone had GPS.) So - if a potential buyer wanted to drive by the property (if they could manage to get past the stupid, horrible photos), they would get LOST! They had literally only had four showings in six months! And all those were (surprise!) buyers that their listing agent brought out.
I asked him if he had seen the photos and he said no. (???) I asked him if he'd read the description online. He said no. (???) I told him that the directions were unclear and that could be part of the problem, but that I thought he had a terrific place.
A few days later, he called me and told me the listing had expired and asked if I'd come list it. I did so and it was sold within thirty days - at a HIGHER price than he had it listed at before!
So - sellers - always, always carefully look over what your realtor has listed online. And not just what you can see from realtor.com - have them show you what all the local realtors can see (much more information). You might be very surprised at how your home is being marketed.
That being said, good photos can't be taken if the house is messy or unkempt. And it IS the buyer's responsibility, in my opinion, to look over the MLS entry (due diligence is how I see it).
One more note about photos - REALTORS, please update photos as seasons change! Nothing says, "aged listing" quite like pictures of Christmas trees , or gray bare landscapes. If the weather is bad when you're taking photos, come back and take some more when it's better. And don't try to take photos at night - they never look good.
This is why I spent $6,000 on my camera and $2,500 on software and hours of time learning. Photos are the single job a realtor must do well, and also the job that 90% of all realtors do not do well, or at all.
So is she a "successful" agent or not? To me that means she gets houses sold. And that is the ultimate end game. If all she does is rely on other people how are you defining her as successful?
As far as her not seeing the need that is where you say something. You are a partner in this transaction. You don't just sit back and say/do nothing.
If the client is a good photographer, they can always take the photos themselves and see if the realtor can use them also.
The pictures I hate are the ones with all the realtor stuff (purse, listing paperwork, lockbox, etc) strewn across the counter in the kitchen. Or the ones of a home office where all you can see is a messy desk and stacks of books and papers. This is not a good picture of the room, folks! Also, don't try to get all creative and show me a picture of a bird bath or the plastic deer in the front yard. Those do not need to be the focal point of a photo. And neither do toilets with the seat up or jumbled up photos of closets!
This is why I always use a professional photographer, who also does a virtual tour and interactive floorplan. It is not a big expense and it helps my listings sell quickly; I often get calls to show while I am putting the sign in the ground.
Photos on the local website are hit or miss. Mostly the low res pictures some realtors use while others are nice. They should hire me, I'd do a better job with home photography than they do. That could be said about a lot of stuff though where I seem to have attention to detail.
So is she a "successful" agent or not? To me that means she gets houses sold. And that is the ultimate end game. If all she does is rely on other people how are you defining her as successful?
As far as her not seeing the need that is where you say something. You are a partner in this transaction. You don't just sit back and say/do nothing.
Yeah, "successful" was a poor choice of words. But, she seems to get a lot of listings in our older neighbourhood and for the life of me I can not figure out why.
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