Truly Awful Listing Photos…

Ok..the title of this photo was Bright Cherry Dining Area… If your photos were the evidence to testify in the court of public opinion that your home is “bright and cheery”, this is attorney malpractice. Lighting is not difficult. Use some. (grin)

There are times when ALL of us are frustrated with our sellers…

But that is NO reason to give them the finger! Please people! This is a classic mistake and EPIC laziness on the part of the listing agent. Seriously.

We are going to keep this simple…One should not get motion sickness and / or think they have been drinking when previewing a high end home. #JustSayin

There are any number of ways to improve this photo… including remove the ummm…SEVERELY outdated equipment. No this MLS photo is NOT circa 1969, just the room / gym…good grief.

This photo, from the same friend as yesterday reminds us all to keep the main thing…the main thing. In this case, that is ummm… ummmm… (wait for it!!) the smoke detector???

Ok…I get it, the idea was to showcase the upstairs room and the louvered windows by putting them in the context of the top third of the door frame and the top half of the picture frame in the room below.. oh yeah and this is enhanced by the generous LACK of lighting that showcases the face that there is actually a window (somewhere) on the right hand side of the lower room…huh?

The sad part is that this could have been (and likely is a GREAT feature to this house if showcased properly.

I am not

Direct from a broker friend selling Phoenix real estate. Here is a truly awful patio photo. I am not sure where to start here…except maybe not to take this picture at all…

We do know from the photo that the sliding glass door is at least “somewhat” clean…from the way that it reflects the picket fence so nicely! Wow…

It does not take long to find someone with a great home and a REALTOR with a crappy camera. One of the most difficult things to do (for a cheap camera is to take a proper wide angle photo. If you are shooting a vacant house, it is even more critical!

It is one of the easiest things ever using the proper equipment.

Here are some photo examples from a nice Albuquerque home.

No caption. Just a nondescript corner…and so that this one would not feel alone, they fired up another one.

and then this one..

I could go on…but they took 9 photos of this home and 4 of them were corner shots with a less than wide angle lens (being kind here…) that told visitors NOTHING about even what room they were in.  What about these corner shots makes someone want to visit them?

The SHAME is that this is a $400,000 home in a NICE Albuquerque neighborhood…

My friend Jim Olenbush posted this next BAD Listing photo on a thread at Real Estate Webmasters.com I had forgotten about it, but he saw my Facebook status and reminded me that his is STILL the undisputed winner in terms of funny (and un-edited!) bad listing photos.

One great thing about the Real Estate Webmasters gang is that anybody who hangs out there would NEVER post a photo like this!

It is appropriately titled…Dogs.

Happy Thursday Jim! I hope things are well in the Austin real estate market with you and thanks for the funny photo!

TV is too important!

Whatever is on the news must REALLY be a breaking story. The REALTOR did not even bother to turn off the TV and straighten the room up before taking this photo.

Nothing says  “Professionally marketed by..” More than “We interrupt this living room to bring you a breaking story!”. Meh… If you zoom in, there is a prize if someone can leave a comment with the channel and news program it is on…I could not quite make it out.

The presumption is this:

There are a LOT of Truly Awful Listing Photos out there.

Listing photos that are awful stem from one of several things. One, the REALTOR simply be too lazy to take a good photo. Two, the REALTOR may not know HOW to take a good photo given the lighting and other conditions. Three, the REALTOR may not have taken the photo as it might be done by a third party. Fourth, the SELLER might not have prepared the home properly to be photographed…it goes on and on.

You get the idea.

Here we celebrate (and make fun of the WORST in real estate listing photos, in the hopes that we will raise the bar and help people in our profession succeed.

By success we mean that there are no more photos like this one!

Why have we dubbed this America’s Most Wanted Home? Quite simple: If you can print your listing photo and improve your odds at offering a tip that sends someone to jail…your REALTOR did NOT do a good job with photos of your home! (grin)

(photo contributed by Kevin Mercer)

Do you REALLY have to use the listing photo that includes the people in it? REALLY? Are those folks there to STEAL STUFF? Who knows, but one thing we do know. This is not a very appealing photo! Does it make you jump of the couch and say “Honey, get the keys! Let’s go see this place!”. (grin)

I think not!

Also, if you are a seller, the LEAST you can do is to stop the kegger (or the breaking and entering, heh…) long enough to let your REALTOR take good pictures. (grin)