My biggest question lately is – Why do consumers settle for so little when it comes to marketing their home?
Every morning my first line of business is to open up the MLS and see what is on the market fresh and ready to show to my buyers. If I see a listing with no photos, or a toilet photo…I can’t help but think that someone just doesn’t care. But is it the listing broker? Is the seller? Not sure, but when your home hits the market for sale, it has now become a product. A product that should be ready to sell, spit polished and offered in it’s best light. 3 photos with a toilet shot just doesn’t cut it. Or, 10 photos if the MLS offers 25, just doesn’t cut it.
I see it every day – a home goes on the market and hits the MLS as a live/I’m for sale/buy me now listing. There are no pictures. Why? Not sure – but no pictures, so what do I do as a buyer’s broker? I move on…I’m thinking so do my buyers. Since 90% of home buyers shop for their next home via websites, why would you launch a new listing with no photos? Camera in the shop? Not good at photography? I’ll get Round Tuit?
Or, there’s a photo, or three. Just three. One of the front, shot with the smart phone through the windshield.
My favorite – one of the toilet with the lid up.
Maybe one of the empty living room.
If the MLS offers a maximum of 25 photos, then you should be demanding that your listing broker post multiple, good quality, representative marketing photos of your property and have them ready when that listing hits the MLS. Not just a few photos that show a few rooms, as many as it will allow to show lots of features of the home. I pay extra to have my listings photographed by a professional photographer, who knows the angles and the lighting and the best way to shoot a room. The listing isn’t presented to the market until those photos are ready to be entered into the listing data before it hits the market. I don’t like down time.
Stop your broker from selling your toilet and get them to sell your home.
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