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With approximately 90% of all buyers starting their home searches online, you'd think agents would understand the importance of getting the best photos possible of their listings. I am amazed when I see listings in the MLS with just one exterior photo, interior photos with junk on the kitchen and bathroom counters, bedrooms with unmade beds & clothes on the floor, rooms so dark you almost have to guess which room it is.
Listing agents should aspire to represent not only the listing properties, but themselves in the best possible light. Listings are a reflection of the pride that an agent takes in their profession. Failure to take good listing photos is a heads up to the home seller that perhaps this is not the right agent to be marketing their home.
95% of crappily-presented homes are not represented by a full-time, highly-compensated agent.
I'm floored though by the 5% that are folks I know who've been in the business > 10 years with name firms that don't do it for cheap commissions.
And in my area, garages are indeed seldom photoed. Not many people are that neat, or want you to openly see their "stuff" or cars.
now, as to the "plea to realtors" ... there's not many actually on the forums. And you should know that quality photography, whether paying for a professional or learning how to do it yourself, is certainly a point of emphasis among associations. But if not forced to expend either time or money, too many don't.
IOW - they're getting the message sent to them. They just don't care.
It does make me wonder about Sellers. Surely even if the agent doesn't send them the MLS of their own home, they go look it up! Apparently not though.
REPRESENT YOUR CLIENT'S INTEREST, NOT YOUR OWN. wE AREN'T STUPID. iF WE ARE TRYING TO DOWN SIZE, DON'T TRY TO SELL US A HOUSE THE SIZE OF OUR OLD ONE OR BIGGER.
tHE BAD APPLES GIVE ALL THE GOOD AGENTS A BAD NAME. TURN THE BAD ONES IN.
REPRESENT YOUR CLIENT'S INTEREST, NOT YOUR OWN. wE AREN'T STUPID. iF WE ARE TRYING TO DOWN SIZE, DON'T TRY TO SELL US A HOUSE THE SIZE OF OUR OLD ONE OR BIGGER.
tHE BAD APPLES GIVE ALL THE GOOD AGENTS A BAD NAME. TURN THE BAD ONES IN.
Yes, the bad apples give all the good agents a bad name, but who do you turn them into? Their broker? If they sell a lot of real estate, the broker wants to keep them as they get an override on comissions.
And while we are complaining, why doesn't the listing agent state the total amount of annual real estate taxes on the listing? This would be particularly helpful to someone who is downsizing or retiring.
Did it occur to you that many realtors are order takers and simply don't care?
The industry doesn't exactly attract overachievers or people that want to work their tails off.
I also see a lot of housewives who work as RE agents as this allows them to work their own hours. Unfortunately, it's hard to sell property to potential buyers if the only showings are Tuesday/Thursday evenings between 6:00 - 6:30.
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As long as we are making pleas....please please please include floor plans! Avoids so much confusion and adds a framework to hang the actual photos on. There are companies who draw floor plans for maybe 100-200 dollars and they add so much to the listing.
We moved almost 2 years ago to another state and if I couldn't see good photos of a home online then we didn't go see it! As far as including a floor plan, yes that would have been nice, but the only time you ever see that is when it's a new build!
Lots of good points. We have had such a great realtor working with us long distance and it has made a huge difference. When I checked my own house on the MLS I was impressed by how genuinely nice it look and was staged. And professional photos were worth every penny.
Long distance buying is suicide. Repeat after me: "Move, rent, look, buy".
^^^This is the proper way to do home purchase when distant and before you make the commitment on what is most likely the largest non liquid asset most people will have.
A few months living in rent to have time to get a good feel for neighborhoods of interest before buying is well worth it in the long run. Everything from traffic, daily cycles of employment / shopping nodes nearby and what the psychographic / demographic makeup is of the communities is more important to find a good fit especially if you have family with children.
You forgot - the blurry ones that say "prior listing" on them, but are really blurry dupes of ones that are already up.
I saw a house recently that had maybe 8 pix, and 4-5 of them were of structures not on the property (houses next door, church down the street).
I look at older homes and they are usually a bit more run down, which is fine. They rarely show kitchen and bathrooms and I figure those are the ones I'll actually like as they haven't been completely updated with granite, stainless and huge islands!
Someone mentioned wide-angle photos - I hate those! It skews things way too much - the microwave is 5' in one photo and 2' in the other one.
There is also a trend of HDR in some high end listings. WHY?!
Quote:
Originally Posted by luv4horses
As long as we are making pleas....please please please include floor plans! Avoids so much confusion and adds a framework to hang the actual photos on. There are companies who draw floor plans for maybe 100-200 dollars and they add so much to the listing.
I thought I was the first person to think of this and told a friend who does real estate photography. I thought it would be awesome to be able to see a floor plan, click on a room and see the pix of it. It drives me nuts when pix are presented so out of order in a listing. Anyway, he had done that years ago. It usually added $150 to the price and he said hardly anyone did it.
I've also seen some where there are - no lie - well over 100 unique pix and you have to dig deep to find the first exterior shot. Like mentioned above, I don't need to see a closeup of the toilet seat.
As long-distance buyers, my husband and I check out the MLS (via our realtor) as well as realtor.com every single day; sometimes multiple times a day, preparatory to our move in the spring. It is a joy when we view a listing that is supported by many well-taken photos.
However, I am often stunned when I view a listing with:
Only 6 photos
40 photos, but 2/3 of them are duplicates
Multiple photos of the amenities, but only a handful of the house itself
Blurry, dark photos
Photos that are upside-down or sideways
A closeup of a table setting but no photo of the master bath
A photo of a broken window, toilet, or appliance.
Photos taken with a dirty lens, so there are blotches on every picture
No photos of the garage(s)
As a buyer who lives far away, I can only judge a home by its photos until my realtor can go in person to check out the property, and I am reluctant to ask her to look at any house that's not well represented by visuals.
Wouldn't it be a shame to miss a potential sale just because the photos weren't decent?
Thanks,
Barbara
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jkgourmet
That's caused by two things:
A lousy realtor
A homeowner who doesn't have the sense to know that the photos are important.
Actually, bank owned properties probably could fall into this scenario, toho
Yup that's why alousy realtor with such published ad would be immediately fired. Well they wouldn't get hired in the first place. One of the questions I ask is exactly HOW are you going to market my property for sale.
A homeowner hires a agent because if he had sense he would sell it himself. A professional photographer doesn't cost that much. Granted a professional agent wouldn't put those pics up in the first place. It's more of sign of a bad agent than a bumbling homeowner
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