Warning, rant ahead”¦
We get emails like this on a very regular basis:
Hello, I am interested in the house at “123 Main St”. Do you have any additional photos of the kitchen and master bedrooms that you can send? (Ed note: Street address changed to protect the guilty).
The vast majority of the time these come from someone already working with an agent, and they have Googled a home’s address. Finding our site at or near the top of the Google results, they assume we are the listing agents. We will typically respond along the lines of, “Sorry, this isn’t our listing. But if you aren’t already working with an agent, we’d be happy to try to help”¦ blah blah blah”.
So off I went to the MLS, where I found the home in question.
It’s a lovely home, listed for almost $650,000. If you aren’t from around here or are not familiar with the Phoenix real estate market, a $650K home is definitely a top-end home.
Here are a couple of photos that were in the listing:
This would be an example of the crown molding, and an air conditioning vent.
This would be a picture of the baseboards, and some berber carpet.
Now in and of itself, photos like this are not necessarily a bad thing. And at least the photos were large, at the right resolution and have good focus and exposure. Sadly, from a technical perspective this puts these photos ahead of a significant portion of the photos in the Multiple Listing Service (MLS).
Why the contractor didn’t trim the vent cover, use a router on the back of the molding, or lower the cover a smidge to render the crown molding flush to the wall isn’t the point.
Recall our emailer wanted additional photos of the master bedrooms and kitchen.
What she really meant to say was, “Can you send ANY photos of the kitchen or master bedrooms”.
You see, despite the fact that our MLS lets an agent upload an unlimited number of photos, the grand total of pictures of the kitchen and master bedrooms was. . .
. . . wait for it . . .
ZERO.
Yup, there were no pictures of either of the two master bedrooms or the kitchen.
None. Zero. Zilch. Nada.
I find this remarkable. You see, when it comes to the interior of a home, there are two places the majority of people looking to buy a home want to see ”“ the kitchen, and the master bedroom. Sure there are some that care only about the garage, and some that want the right yard. But I have yet to show a home to anyone who said, “Nah, we don’t need to see the kitchen or the master bedroom”.
And I have yet to hear anyone say, “These baseboards are amazing. It matters not what the rest of the home looks like!”
If you are going to market a home online, you have GOT to include some photos of the kitchen and the master. Failing to include such fundamental pictures leads a home searcher to say, “Hmmmm, I wonder what is wrong with the kitchen?” Or, “The bedroom must be tiny”, or even worse, “I’m not wasting my time seeing this house, I’ll get my agent to show me one of the other 45,000 homes listed for sale”.
Agents, make the effort to watch people search for homes online. They don’t care about your fluffy sales verbiage. They don’t care about your spinning 360 degree virtual tour. They look at three things ”“ the location, the price and the pictures.
Trust me, they want to see pictures of the kitchen and the bedrooms. They need to see pictures of the kitchen and master. No, you don’t need 200 photos of the home. But you need some good shots of the front elevation, the bedrooms and the main living areas. AND THE KITCHEN for Pete’s sake! No (or poor) photos of these areas and they will move right along.
Sellers ”“ check out what your home looks like on line. Google the address. Look at the photos. Think like a buyer. After all, that’s what you want to attract ”“ a buyer.
Incidentally, I tried to help our emailer by calling, texting and emailing the listing agent to see if they had photos of the kitchen or master bedrooms, or to get permission to take some myself.
Guess what?
I’m still waiting on a response”¦
The Phoenix Real Estate Guy was started by Jay Thompson, and I have a little blogging problem... he liked to say...
Honey check out this crown molding! And the baseboards!: Warning, rant ahead…
We get emails like this on a very re… http://bit.ly/ao7vK1
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Honey check out this crown molding! And the baseboards! New on TPREG: http://tpreg.com/abT4hF
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
good post! RT @PhxREguy: Honey check out this crown molding! And the baseboards! New on TPREG: http://tpreg.com/abT4hF
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
Thx! RT @BrookVerMeer: good post! RT @PhxREguy Honey check out this crown molding! And the baseboards! New on TPREG: http://tpreg.com/abT4hF
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
Honey check out this crown molding! And the baseboards! http://bit.ly/9GLoQN
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
You can't make this stuff up, and it's all too common. I refer and guess how hard it is to reach/find/contact/connect with listing agents. Oh, and that's just the beginning…
Sadly Suzie, it is indeed all too common…
Jay – I get at least five of these requests a week for more pictures. Our Board recently updated, so we can add 24 pictures, so there is no excuse to not have pictures of the most prominent rooms of the home. I always wonder what's wrong with the kitchen when I see a home with no kitchen pictures. No telling what the buyers think.
There is no excuse Paula. It's just ridiculous. To be honest, there are only two possible thoughts if there are no photos of the kitchen:
1) the agent is incompetent; or 2) there is something wrong with the kitchen.
Honey check out this crown molding! And the baseboards! http://tpreg.com/abT4hF Good post via @phxREguy
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
That's a reality as almost every new buyer who wishes to take a new home is always interested in looking at the kitchen of the house. It is an important part of the house.
too funny!!! Thanks for the laugh today Jay
Great post, I love rants like these and wish they happened a little more often so sellers would realize what half ass service some agents are providing. I wrote a bad MLS blog post a while back and the worst thing I think I have ever seen was one agent who took a photograph of a polaroid and uploaded that to the MLS. A digital photograph of a polaroid??? Really? The agent couldn't take the time to go out and take new photos??? http://www.teamaguilar.com/blogs/bad-mls-photos/
Oh. Dear. God.
Great post. We get similar emails all the time. I want to help out everyone as much as possible, but we simply don't have the time/resources to do other agents jobs for them. When an agent takes a listing they have a responsibility to their clients and to other agents to properly photograph a house. I have a listing appointment next week for a listing that just expired. It is a $2 Million home and the agent had FOUR lame photos on the mls for the past 2 years. That agent should be embarrassed of herself!
Yeah that's a serious mistake especially considering how much time a potential homeowner might spend in their master bedroom and kitchen (a serious foodie would not be happy).
why do you need permisson to take a picture? Just use your lockbox key and do it. sounds like an excuse, and a lame one, not to do your job
Dear "Lazy Agent" – It would be completely inappropriate for me to enter someone's home and take photographs of it. They aren't my client, the emailer isn't my client. Laziness has nothing to do with it.
If I had a listing and found out some agent was taking interior photographs without my seller's permission, for a complete stranger that wasn't even their client, I'd be royally pissed off. And I'd do something about it.
I think "Lazy Agent" is trying to put you on by assuming a lazy agent's 'tude.
Yes, photos are probably one of the single most important factors to getting your home sold fast online. I would recommend that everyone take the time to take at least 12 interior and exterior shots of home. Photos sell! Also, it would be really beneficial to do a video walk through of the home as well, post it on youtube and embed or link it to all your online property postings.
Soo true! It amazes me how few sellers check to see how their home is being presented to the marketplace. And how many agents see that as a "trust factor" — "I'm taking care of it, for you," kind of thing. Clearly not! Of course, this is why the boys selling single address websites will always have a business!
Kitchen in my opinion is the main thing most people want to see along with exterior and back yard.
The Most Amazing Building in Arizona is For Sale: Now
Jay's note: "The most amazing blatant advertisement for a piece of real estate" has been deleted: Now
Seriously, why in the world would you think it is even remotely appropriate for you to advertise your listing on my web site?
This comment seems to have missed the boat! 🙂
To 'Lazy Agent', do YOU normally go into other listings at will without talking to the listing agent? If you do, perhaps professionalism has passed by.
Anyway, good points, Jay. I just had a lead ask for more pictures or a video of a $3M home. It really is a remarkable home, too bad most people will never know as the listing agent only posted THREE pictures total.
Picture Pictures Pictures! It's amazing how poor of a job we often see in this business. What is worse to me however, is that sellers allow their homes to be shown this way. We work for them, and they SHOULD be giving their opinions, especially if their home's baseboards are apparently the "only" feature.
Good post Jay!
I'm not surprised at all. I've pretty much come to the conclusion that if you want anything done right when selling or renting your home you need to do it yourself.
Without a strong recommendation from someone you trust relaying on those within the RE industry for help or information is taking a big risk.
Once they pick them up at the local Fotomat, I'm sure they will fax a few extra snaps over to the MLS folks!
Maybe this is a new marketing strategy?
Great post Jay. A few days ago I researched the most expensive homes in St. John’s, NL and the surrounding communities. The listing for the most expensive ($4M) home was excellent, great interior presentation, terrific photos and description. It was downhill after that. Some listings were adequate, some woefully inadequate. It constantly surprises me that sellers put up with the service.
Hi Jay,
Some is professional real estate agents and some is amateur’s agents and one of the things you can se the different between them is the pictures: quality, sizes (KB), quantity and photos on the most important rooms.
haha, great post.. my guess is that the kitchen was so ugly that they would rather not include any photos than include bad one…
With the hundreds of listings that buyers may look through, sometimes they start by just looking at the photos and then eliminating ones without photos or that don't have good photos. I know I do that for clients when there are a lot of possibilities for them. A listing agent really is doing a disservice to their client if they don't create the best presentation possible (even if that means getting the client to paint, neaten up, etc. to make sure it looks good).
And don't get me started on the whole 'waiting for a listing agent to return my call' thing…
Great article. It really shows the true meaning of "a picture is worth a thousand words". In this example, a picture could be worth thousands of dollars.
I have had listings that looked like an episode of Hoarders. It seemed more likely to get someone to show it if I didn't show what a disgusting pig sty the kitchen and bath really was. (I don't take listings like that any more.)
Don't we all learn in "Real Estate 101" that you have to include pics of the kitchen, bedroom & living room? I bought a 38 year old house with an original kitchen, and the agent still included the pics in the listing. The way to go now, is to film your house with video. But, I guess if you aren't going to even put the right pics in, you probably won't be willing to make that next step technologically!
I can't tell you how many times i have had clients totally write off homes because the pictures were so bad.
People say pictures are worth a thousand words… well in real estate pictures can be worth thousands of dollars.
Haha! This post had me laughing. It is so true though. So many out there are missing the common sense that it takes to sell a home. Even if you are slightly clueless, just take a step back and think about what you would be looking for! And if the answer to that question is simply baseboards and molding, you are probably in the wrong business!
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Absolutely hilarious. I see this all the time in my market. I don't get it. I'm an investor, and I just recently got my license in order to save us on selling costs.
Don't you think that these are basic, beginner items? I see no pics, pics that are all fuzzy, pics that are crazily out of disproportion, and the list goes on…
Just remember: Curb appeal begins way before they ever make it to your curb.
I got a call from a guy on a boat in Florida asking about a home he found on Google Base. I had no idea what he was talking about, but I guess I was one of the agents in the sidebar, so he assumed I was the listing agent.
The point is that if a guy on a boat in Florida can access the data on a home in New York, the listing agent needs to be on his game. You don't know whose eyeballs will cast their gaze upon your inventory.
The blame for poor photos – and poor marketing in general – is to some degree the responsibility of home sellers, not real estate agents. The reason is that the general public has allowed low quality agents to survive, and in some cases thrive. Photography is one are that real differentiation can be proven, but alas, most sellers don't really consider this, or teat it very low in their selection criteria.
Great Post. I agree with you completely and wish more Realtors would comply with a base level service that avoided such problems.
That's funny. In the foreclosure market, listings hardly come with photos, let alone quality ones. It's a big process for buyers looking to buy them, because it involves some scouting. BUT, the flip side is that a lot of good listings get passed over as a result of not having photos, which means diligent buyers sometimes get some great finds. But it's not always the case. Takes work, like anything else.
It always surprises me how few good pictures, or just pictures in general agent's post. I saw one listing yesterday that went on and on about the beautiful master bathroom spa but not one single picture was of the bathroom. We are limited to 25, which to me is a lot since the market I came from we were limited to 8, and 25 isn't unlimited however its definitely more than enough to show a 2 bedroom condo. Couldn't agree with you more.
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Great post, it seems like showing a bit of the corner of the room is about as productive as taking a picture of the toilet in a remodeled bathroom. That had to be really frustrating, hope the rant helped! There should a handbook on what to take pictures of when listing a house, because obviously some people just don't know.
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I get these all of the time too. It’s frustrating when another real estate agent won’t take a few minutes to take some quality pictures. I mean really… have you even been to the property? I’ve been licensed in this business for 13 years and I can’t believe what some agents will do to skate by. The number 1 rule of selling ANYTHING is to know your product. But if you can’t present your product correctly then it does you no good.