Today I had a conversation with an agent that made me flash back to when I started in real estate 5 years ago. This guy has a listing with only 1 photo showing – and here it is… This initial photo is terrible and does the house no justice. What motivating factor does this photo give to a viewer that would make them want to jump in their car to drive out to look at it further? In my humble opinion – NONE.
Update to this post, folks, and the reason for the strike outs above, since I put up this commentary the agent has now finally hired a professional photographer who has taken some very nice photos of the home. What can I say? It’s about time! I wonder if he saw my post?
What’s interesting to me is that his description of the home is as follows, “This beautiful brick tudor has been meticulously maintained for years. The original 1930s charm remains in the mahogany woodwork, coved ceilings and leaded-glass windows. Huge rec room in basement. New roof & gutter system.” Now, without photos, how do you REALLY know that this is true and to what degree is the maintenance?
I’ve been looking at this house online off and on for a few weeks as a possible place of interest for a client but without the photos it’s hard to tell if it might be worth going over there. Plus, when a seller is still living in the home people tend to be naturally reluctant to bother an owner for a showing if it’s possible that the house is way outside of what the client wants or needs.
A specific example of my concern about this house is this; I have clients that want a particular type of kitchen – a big one – because they cook and entertain a lot. Well, I can’t tell what the kitchen in this place will look like and neither can they. My clients have busy schedules, like most people I know today, and with a dual-income household it’s not like one person can be available to go look at houses during the weekday to go show their sweetie on the weekend or evening when he/she is free. The listing info says that the house has been meticulously maintained but does that mean a 40 year old kitchen has been maintained or did they do any recent remodel work that would bring it up to today’s standards or possibly make it larger than it may have been built originally?
So, I called the agent to ask about details and he tells me, “I’m old fashioned and I don’t stand around at listing appointments taking 15 pictures to upload in the MLS!” Wow, maybe your old fashioned way of doing business explains the recent $50,000 price drop on the house.
Yes, I did just write down $50,000 and it’s not a typo.
This is one of the many reasons that TEAM REBA hires a professional photographer for our listings as part of our Concierge Services (Scott, have I mentioned how much I love you lately?). It has been shown over and over in internet surveys that people looking for a home start their search on the internet and they want as many photos as possible to view BEFORE going out to look at a home.
So, how does this scenario remind me of 5 years ago? Well, back then I had just come from the software industry into real estate and I used email prolifically for agent contact. I had several older, male agents yell at me and tell me, “stop sending me email, I only check it once or twice a week!”
Yes, you read that right too.
Today, savvy internet users expect agents to respond within 2 hours of an email request. I had predicted 5 years ago that old fashioned agents that didn’t pick up at least a minimal amount of today’s technology would have their business suffer. It has happened to some degree and a lot of agents started retiring – some perhaps just because they were older and ready for it. Heck, the average age of an agent is somewhere in the early-to-mid-50’s so it’s not too surprising. But, there are still plenty of people who like things done the old way – but I know very few who do.
Do you have a funny story or comment about a similar situation? Feel free to share it here…
