I once had a friend who was taking a photography class at a community college. I related the woes of poor photos in the MLS to her. She then mentioned it to her instructor. For the next three months, I had an entire class full of wanna be photographers swarming over my listings, taking photos. Many of them were *outstanding*, and the sellers actually loved it. And it cost me nothing.

Unfortunately the instructor transferred and I couldn’t convince his replacement to use my listings as a “lab” for his students. But this reminds me that I need to spool up that effort again…

I just can’t see why any agent, who is getting paid thousands to ‘market’ a property feels like walking around snapping off a few bad pictures of the home completes their end of the deal to the seller in ‘marketing’ their home. I mean, if the agent isn’t an accomplished photographer, they should admit it to themselves and spend the 100 bucks or so to have the job done right.

I’m trying to think of another profession where one hires another for their professional services, only to have that person provide very amateur services, at best. And, because this is so persuasive in the RE industry, the sellers are now convinced that this the standard expected level of service. Sad!

I’m not bashing RE Agents – I know they have a tough job, but seriously, if they paid a photographer to, for instance, photograph their wedding, and the pictures came out like the standard agent photo, would they smile, thank them, and hand over the check?

“Your home is here,” she said, pointing at the map. “The listing says it’s here,” she continued, pointing to another area on the other side of the Valley!

Stupid is as stupid does. While not universally applicable, a lot of sellers in their excitement to corral the agent who promises them an above-market sales price or below-market commission aren’t taking the time to check into the particulars of the agents’ service offering. And if your agent on a $1 million listing can’t afford his own digital camera … well, it must have been a very long, dry year.

Ditto.

John wrote: “When you see stuff like this it’s no wonder that consumers are beginning to sniff around the new low-no service real estate alternatives.”

Double Ditto!

And these pictures stay in the listing for the life of the listing, and
given the level of ‘marketing’ by the agent, that’s usually a very long
time. Or as you say NO pictures at all.
Cryptic indecipherable and misleading marketing remarks. huh
There oughta be a law.
Well, maybe not, but maybe the brokerage needs to step in and establish
some minimum level of competence in this area to try and protect the
reputation of the company, if not the agent.
When you see stuff like this it’s no wonder that consumers are beginning
to sniff around the new low-no service real estate alternatives.

So like a good agent trying to impress the potential client I pull up the listing and… the potential client still knows more about the property than I do. No real usable data listed.

To make matters worse, the listing agent doesn’t answer the phone.

To make matters even worse… I look like the incomepent one because there is nothing I can do for the client AT THAT MOMENT. An important moment for any potential business opportunity.

Garbage in, garbage out.

The whole MLS thing right now… I’m at my wits end anyway. Don’t mean to be so negative but it’s always that one listing that seems to raise it’s ugly head at the wrong time.