Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > General Forums > Real Estate
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
Reply Start New Thread
 
Old 07-29-2008, 04:31 AM
 
Location: Michissippi
3,120 posts, read 8,039,663 times
Reputation: 2083

Advertisements

As a prospective buyer, I'm not very impressed with most of the online listings that I've seen for houses and condos at Realtor.com and other websites. I'd like to see more photos, more information, and detailed descriptions. One of the nice things about online listings and advertisements is that, in theory, you can include an almost limitless amount of detail at no cost (as opposed to advertising in printed media.) Heck, you could write a fifty page description of your property if you wanted to and it wouldn't cost the listing host a dime.

So, I'm wondering, are any of you sellers dissatisfied with your house's online listing?

I know that if my property were listed the way I've seen most properties listed, I'd be pulling my hair out. Heck, I'd probably rent out some webspace of my own, register a URL, and put up a beautiful website to show off my property and then try to get a link to it included with every online listing.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 07-29-2008, 05:56 AM
 
Location: On the East Coast
2,361 posts, read 4,849,687 times
Reputation: 4103
No, I'm not at all satisfied. Too much to go into, but suffice it to say I don't think that the majority of RE agents around are comfortable or even familiar with all the technology at their fingertips nowadays. And some, including mine, just don't realize the power of the internet for house searches these day. I do know there are some out there that really go all out, but not most of them.

Also.........I really, really wish that agents would either take some courses in photography or else have a professional take the pix. My agent had a fancy Canon digital SLR, but she didn't know beans about how to use it other than point and shoot. And obviously she couldn't use a photo manipulation software very well either, because the pix were poor quality. I downloaded them onto my computer and tried to fix them a bit but without the originals I couldn't do much.

That being said, be aware that there are a lot of restrictions on realtor.com. Unless they purchase the listing upgrade (and some don't want to spend the money) they are limited on the number of pix as well as the length of the descriptions. I posted to Zillow and although could put up a bunch of pix, I was also limited as to the length of my descriptions. I would imagine other free sites would pretty much do the same. And unless you are fairly proficient in HTML, even craigslist is bland.....4 pix and they run all the paragraphs together.

Having your own website is a great idea........if you are proficient at it. Unfortunately, I'm not. Plus several people on here have said that you have to be really careful with what you say so that you don't violate HUD laws as well as say something that might end up costing them money. One example was don't say new ROOF, when you mean shingles. And don't even use the word "new", use "recently installed" or "installed in 2008", something like that.

I guess it all depends on how much the house is selling for if the agent wants to put a bunch of time and money into good online promotion. Needless to say the commission from a $750k would generate a lot more to work with than a $150k house.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 07-29-2008, 07:25 AM
 
Location: FLORIDA!!!!
657 posts, read 1,783,555 times
Reputation: 242
i get so frustrated when i see listings and the pics are practically black. and there will be a number of shots listed. why even list the pics? then there are homes with no pics at all and then some with one or 2 of the outside. whats the point? i am happy with my listing. tons of quality pics but the only thing ive had issues with is when i did price reductions they didnt get posted until i would notice myself and call. it was almost a month after i reduced both times. only on homes and land ,but my realator said they pay alot to advertise there and the prices didnt get posted. i think it might have been my realtor not the site, because i just did another price reduction yesterday and its on there today. its frustrating to think of the huge chunk of $$ they get, you expect them to do what ever they need to do to earn it, not just wait for the buyers to fall in their laps. mine is good. she does alot to advertise us. that was the only glitch i saw and it was only one site not all of them.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 07-29-2008, 11:17 AM
 
Location: Snohomish Washington
336 posts, read 862,505 times
Reputation: 147
I have to say what frustrates me more is when realtors go in with there cameras on there cellphones and snap pictures of the house and then they are all blurry and you can see much in the pictures. When the pic is small it is clear, but with vision like mine I need to click on it to enlarge so I can see it up close and its so frustrating when its blurry and you can't see anything and then they write two sentences about the home. I was happy at first with my listing, but since my home was relisted in April I think it can be redone to entice buyers. IMHO, I really think that realtors should let home sellers write up the ad to sell there homes. You as the seller know more about your home than a realtor who comes in once and looks at your home and makes an add for it. Just my opinion.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 07-29-2008, 11:23 AM
 
Location: Salem, OR
15,509 posts, read 40,231,078 times
Reputation: 17383
This is why sellers should look online at listings BEFORE they hire an agent to SEE what quality they do. People assume the larger brokerages have something better over smaller ones, and some of the larger ones have the worst photos out here.

Look at how agents market properties. When you see a good marketing piece write down the name of the agent. They will be one of the ones you want to interview when you sell your home.

Then write down the address of the property, enter it in google and see what comes up. This will show you how prolific that agent markets online and whether or not they do property web/blogsites.

I am always amazed at how many sellers get seduced by slick listing presentations by not so great agents. Forget Million Dollar Producer, Top Producer, etc. LOOK online at what they do. The good agents will stand out right away.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 07-29-2008, 11:27 AM
 
Location: No Sleep Til Brooklyn
1,409 posts, read 5,238,415 times
Reputation: 613
Why doesn't everyone post a floorplan? It makes me batty.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 07-29-2008, 12:16 PM
 
Location: Barrington
63,919 posts, read 46,491,381 times
Reputation: 20674
Quote:
Originally Posted by UpsonDowns View Post
Why doesn't everyone post a floorplan? It makes me batty.
I do.

Having said this, the goal of all advertizing is to make the phone ring.

Sometimes the more information that is provided, the more likely a potential buyer will reject the property, without having seen it.

And in most cases, the worst feature of the home is almost never going to be apparent in any advertizing.

There is a lot of inadequate advertizing out there. And there is also a lot of overkill and some of it is redundant and boring. It's an art to nail it, just right.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 07-29-2008, 02:22 PM
 
92 posts, read 297,939 times
Reputation: 61
Quote:
Originally Posted by UpsonDowns View Post
Why doesn't everyone post a floorplan? It makes me batty.
You took the words out of my mouth. Yes it might cost a little but boy would it make life easier for agents and buyers. Because of wasted showings, the savings in gas money alone would make up most of the cost for the floor plans.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 07-29-2008, 03:02 PM
 
Location: Salem, OR
15,509 posts, read 40,231,078 times
Reputation: 17383
Quote:
Originally Posted by UpsonDowns View Post
Why doesn't everyone post a floorplan? It makes me batty.
Some of my seller's are uncomfortable with their floor plans online. I have them made and can email them out to people. This is especially true for people with kiddos.

I don't put floor plans online unless my seller says it is okay.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 07-29-2008, 04:12 PM
 
Location: No Sleep Til Brooklyn
1,409 posts, read 5,238,415 times
Reputation: 613
Quote:
Originally Posted by Silverfall View Post
Some of my seller's are uncomfortable with their floor plans online. I have them made and can email them out to people. This is especially true for people with kiddos.

I don't put floor plans online unless my seller says it is okay.
They think it's a safety issue? Hmm. How is a floorplan less safe than pictures of all of one's worldly possessions? If I were casing the joint, I think it would take about five minutes to tell where the bedrooms and living spaces were.

I don't see how less info is better. I have very specific goals in mind and it would be a waste of everyone's time if I went to a showing and it turned out that the house had northern and eastern exposures and two bedrooms right next to each other.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > General Forums > Real Estate
Similar Threads

All times are GMT -6.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top