what is with this guy?

[campmom123]

He takes 1-2 photos of the outside of the house. Crooked.

These are included with his MLS listings. No interior photos. Not much description of the house.

On his website there are no listings. No photos AND no words. just his phone number.

On his magazine page there are words about properties, no photos.

Does that clarify things?

I think you may be onto something with the "bait and switch", didn't know that's what it was called. I was guessing he thinks with his name plastered everywhere but no actual information about the interiors of the houses, you'll want to call him and then he can convince you to use him. I can see that from a buyer's point of view, but he must get good numbers because I can't see why sellers would want to use him if he isn't going to market their property hardly at all (he does put ads in the local paper about properties he's listing. No photo ads, of course )

[Rakin]

He could be one of the discount brokers who sells only access to putting the information in the MLS. These guys usually post the pics and info provided by the seller and many times it is next too being very bad.

Many times these brokers do show quite a lot of sold properties but if an agent runs listings that have been cancelled, expired and withdrawn by the broker there will be a very, very large amount of those that did not sell. His expired ratio to sells is high and many times his clients never hear about that but how many homes he does not sell. Many times his Day on Market average is extremely high if you figure in homes that went off the market.

They get the up front money whether the house sells or not. There is no incentive to have good information in the MLS.

[MMichelle]

"owner wants cash out" - indicates to me they are distress properties. They may not be a photo-opt properties. What I'm saying is they may be so trashy that photos don't help. The bottom line is if they get sold = job well done!

[campmom123]

Rakin, I hadn't thought of him being a discount/paid upfront agent. There is another one of those here, but it's very obvious that's what she is because it's the "assist 2 sell" chain and the low price is plastered all over her website. However, she takes lots of pictures and has a very informative website.

MMichelle-- I dont' think they are distress properties, at least not all of them because I've seen some of them or seen them as listed FSBO or otherwise before this guy picks them up. We almost bought one of them, the inside was a pleasant surprise, it was kept up well and there was no reason to not take photos of it. It's not a high-distress area either really, not that I would know, but doesn't seem like it. There are dumps, but plenty of people don't seem to have a problem posting photos of them

Our agent told us "owner wants cashed out" doesn't mean much, just that the owner wants a lump sum of $$ instead of offering owner financing, which is kind of obvious already. He also often writes "as is where is" even on nice stuff, just to avoid drawn out haggling or something. Or maybe he just has to write something on the MLS and that's all he can think of beyond the number of beds and baths. Everyone else writes about the updated flooring or the proximity to parks or something like that. Maybe this guy should hire me to help him come up with some better lines, and I can take photos better too