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Jim, these are toooooooo funny!  Great post!  Sad, but how TRUE!!

It is sad, I have seen some awful pictures that should never have been put up on MLS...or anywhere else, for that matter.  Great point (and pictures!)

Jim, you nailed that one!  A great reminder to all of us to make sure our systems are set up to best take care of our clients.

Jim,

How very sad that client's get that low of a level of customer service from a licensed real estate agent.

Fran

Irina "toooooooo funny! ... Sad, but how TRUE!! "

Carole too bad we can ee them everyday for years!  LOL!

Jared  Thanks!

Fran  Sometimes I thing the seller gets what they deserve!  No commission, no experience, no service, and no results! 

I don't understand why agents don't use photos to enhance their listings.  I see photos like you examples all the time.  I am not a professional photographer but I try my best to make sure my photos show off the best aspects of the property.  In my area a lot of the land for sale has no photo, as do far too many homes.  

My first listing was an expired with 1 photo that had the car side view mirror in the corner.  Took some nice photos and got that home sold!

A picture is worth a thousand words I know it is cliche but it is so true.    

OMG......this looks like what I'm seeing on my MLS!  Sad.......

Ok - great photos.  I am not that great of a photographer, but I would go back many times before posting any of these if thats how they came out. 

Rita  I love the multi million dollar homes with 1 photo.

If one picture is worth athousand words , how many words are "0" pictures worth?

Ana it iis sad!  :(

Great post and good tips. You really have to wonder how some agents make it in this business.

Steve I think anyone with a conscience would!

Brad  too long!

These are great! My company does IDX intigration on websites so I have seen tons of photos like this. It's amazing!

Good reminder as well as pointers for all!  I love those sideway ones as well. Especially after sitting at my pc for hours and my neck is already sore!

It never ceases to amaze me how people butcher a listing by not carefully taking and uploading photos that make the home look good.  How about the Christmas wreath still hanging in June?  I've seen that before.

So, my one-hand night-time drive-by cameraphone artwork isn't good enough?

How about I just post the 1996 County Tax Roll photo, the one with numbers at the bottom that looks like a mug shot, with snow on the house, back when the house was yellow, before the porch was built?

I mean, how much work do you expect an agent to do?

Good post, Jim.

Jim,

Its amazing how often we see this stuff. How about the snow in June! LOL! Good post :)

Jim, amazing isn't it ? We have to re-do our pictures up here to fit the seasons. Snow in June is a dead give-away.

Hey Jim,

You and I think alike when it comes to marketing...I try to add as much data to a listing but of course I still get agents asking me things that are in plain site instead of them reading it right there. I did have one agent once tell me I should not post something in the remarks section and told him politely that he should report me to the MLS if he didn't like my criteria. He obviously had nothing better to do. I laughed.

Isn't this the truth! I can't stand to see some of the photos shown on our MLS!

 

On This one I bet the agent drives a white car!

Jim- That is so funny, that last picture what is it. I don`t have a clue

I love all the comments!  Real estate really is about providing it at its highest level.  The word "Performance" comes to mind.  Bad photos, comments that sellers may be unaware of are very visible to all us other agents, and yet we are not allowed to tell the seller "By the way...did you know that...?"

I also feel that is correct, but in the meantime...at least some of them are good for a joke.  How about all the photos with snow in them and the caption says  "NEW LISTING!!"

The worst one that I saw had a date that was 4 YEARS OLD!  It was "agent-owned" and had "tenant's rghts". Oh, sure, I'm looking forward to showing a rental home with 4 year old photos as an example of what it looks like NOW!

Oh Jim....you have really hit home.....We can never figure out why agents take the pictures they do or don't take pictures at all....Now more than ever....the public wants to preview a home via pictures and or virtual tours! No pictures at all is the worst! We have never understood why someone would take a picture of an average bathroom??? A big beautiful luxurious bathroom is one thing but when you see a picture and all you see is a commode, a sink, vanity and mirror we always get a little chuckle! We actually cancelled a listing about 40 days ago (by clients request) after an exstensive marketing time. The home really need a price reduction but at the time our clients did not want to budge! They relisted for $10,000 less and the new listing agent cloned our listing...pictures and all! Now we are VERY particular about our pictures!!! They need to be taken at the correct angle, capturing the best part of each room! However....because of the extensive marketing time...the fact it is at a new price and new agent...CHANGE IT UP! Do some work to earn your commission instead of lowering the price and working off the work that someone else has done. (By the way, the clients are family members and were VERY firm on NOT LOWERING the price). On a side note....their home is still for sale. Oh well....Once again..good post and some great points!

Elaine If they cannot sell their own home, why trust them with yours?  LOL!

Rick and Lynn  I love it!   "...earn your commission instead of lowering the price and working off the work that someone else has done. "

Jim, great post. Sometimes a little common sense goes a long way. I love the sideway photos, how true! Thanks for the super contribution to our group...

Love it!  I need to post some of the jewels that are on my MLS.  What about the photo's so dark you can't see any of the details or tell what room it is? 

what's wrong with the sellers? if their agent isn't doing a good job does the seller know the listing really belongs to the broker. doesn't the broker have a phone

Hi, Jim!

Again, great post...as always!

Isn't it sad how often we see posts like this. The multi-million dollar homes you mention with 1 photo...or NO PHOTOS! We put a lot of time (and money) into our marketing for all of our clients, from the $100,000 condos to the $3 million estates. It's so frustrating and annoying trying to show some of these other listings with little or no information!

~Maura Gebhardt

Marti the sideways photos are always great at the end of a long day!  I feel like my eyes have failed me!

Emilie you are more than welcome.

Nancy I forgot about the too dark photos!

Jay The sellers?  The ones that hire the agent?  Thye ave delegated too much and are not in the loop.  Sellers need to be more in the mix approving MLS entries and photos.

Maura  Thanks a bunch!  You are right...  at any price they need photos.

Even if the home isn't high end, everyone deserves good representation  I don't list homes that I haven't seen, and it's easy enough to take pictures when I'm out there.  I'm actually a picture nut and might change pics four and five times to get just the right mix. 

This really shows that if you invest in good photography (or learn to do it well yourself) it can make a big difference in the way a house is perceived on first look. Especially in the standard thumbnail view - tis what catched consumers eye and will make or break whether they click on your listing or one of the 1000 others. With the standard MLS 1 main front of house and 7 others photos it is also very important to pick those carefully even if they are all god photos. People just care about some things more than other and photos of staircases to demonstrate that it is 2 story is very typical - hopefully they are the right way up.

Jim, I am always amazed at what some agents will get by with. I had a client from out of town that wanted to see a particular home but there were no pictures to look at. I emailed the listing agent and asked if there were any pictures and she emailed them to me. Never bothered to put them on the MLS. I guess you had to ask to see them. What! The house is a secret!

Chris I agree it is service that clients deserve.  No one has ever complained about full service real estate if they get their monies worth.  These pictures however tell a different story!

Scott  well said!  Thanks!

Linda  Unbelievable!  You wonder what was the excuse?  "I never got around to it?"

I've worked for several hours this evening getting a new listing up and running with great photos. 

Here's a sneak preview.  Not finished, tune in later!  I wonder why agents date their photos?  I can always use help when I' working photos.

Kay very beautiful!  Did you do all that yourself?  I toyed around with ordering that at the convention and forgot about it!

 

Horrific property photos always bother me. I do not understand why anyone would put such awful pictures on-line and I am assuming that these same pictures are used for brochures. I have called agents to let them know that their photos are unrecognizable. Some agents did not seem to realize how bad the photos looked on-line.

Amen. An agent in our area listed a property. It recently was withdrawn from the market after 110 days on market. Here were the listing remarks that were in the MLS and realtor.com

"because this is new listing i have not made measurments"

This is real estate malpractice. And just so you know the spelling error was in it as well.

I just do not understand how such agents get listings in the first place.No pictures, or bad pictures and room sizes 0x0.

No description. I recently got an expired listing. The seller asked me what I would do different.I did not want to point out those things .I just said I would market it and have good flyers. I hope he sees the difference. I am still waiting for a buyer.

I do all our photos and virtual tours.  I'm very picky!  Visual tour is very easy to work with - reasonable too.

Frank  I think we really have to ask ourselves do those agents even care what the photo looks like?  Ther really don't care! They should be foreced to  wear this  button....SEE BUTTON BELOW~

Robert It goes beyond negligent!

Gita It is easy.  Since I have listed and sold many expired and withdrawn listings, they were most probably listed with a friend, relative, or tennis buddy with little or no experience.  Or they were listed because someone in real estate was willing to list it with little or no commission.

Kay it really does look good!

Jim,

All the examples you sited are sad but true. Shocking how people don't hold their agent accountable. I always pass on listings that have no pictures no matter how "perfect" the comments say the home is for my client.

Jim, I couldn't agree with you more!  All of these examples and more are among the ones I'm using in my "Lazy Agent" series of posts.  The main thing is, I'm surprised more sellers don't see how badly their home is being marketed.

Anthea  -  You hit the nail on the head!  It is about accountability.

Leanne - Sometimes they are not lazy...but clever.  I also think there is a compromise from teh seller on commission, relationship etc....  Who could put up with such bad service? And for so long a time?

I got a call from a very sweet lady the other day that found me on the internet and she said her house had been on the market for two weeks and the agent still had not returned with the lockbox or to take pictures to put in the MLS.  I really wanted to tell her that the agent works for her and she should hold her accountable but I couldn't because she had already told me her home was listed with the other agent.  She offered to pay me to come take pictures so at least photos would be in the MLS but I explained that I could not do that.  It just broke my heart especially after she told me why she needed to get the house sold.  This was her fourth agent and the house has been on the market for offer a year and expired three times before.  She was told that this fourth agent was the best around.  I felt so sorry for her.  We really must remember that it is the client that suffers if we do a poor job. 

 

Hey Jim,

Off subject since i think I already commented here.. I heard you had a nice lunch with Colleen...we both spoke very highly of you. Good going my friend!

Kimberly is that not sad?

Neal Thanks!  I had a great time with Colleen Kulikowski, Tim Maitski, and Nattalie Cornwall from Active Rain!  If you thought these people were great online, they are phenomenal in person!  A great way to network, learn, and brainstorm...  A very productive session!  I am already thinking of loads of great new marketing ideas since our little luncheon!  Eventually I would love to form a small Internet based mastermind group to focus and define new strategies for Internet marketing real estate, leads generation, and of course SEO for real estate.

Are agents getting lazier and lazier or am I just getting so annoyed by it I notice it more?

Carol  I think we have more new agents than ever before n the business...with little or no market knowledge, and they are without broker or mentor supervision.

Listing agents bite off more than they can chew therefore loosing track, concentration, stubborn too, I have one now who is stubborn and won't let me out of the contract even though she said that if I was not happy that without question to let her know and she would cancel, what a bunch of huckabaloo!! So here I suffer on a second realtor I have to deal with for another 6 months of no good results. I am shooting for a 3rd one, but think I might be better off on my own selling the house myself. I can pay the money too to be in the MLS, but I am hoping that a professional will do as they claim. Yet to see it. My house is marketable, priced well below priced right price. The realtor I have now promised staging, tv showing, multiple ads, what a bunch of, well lets say its a line with bait and I bit, againnnnnnnnnn!!!

Any listing can be cancelled, talk to the broker if you are not satisifed.  It sounds as iff you are not asking the right questions when hiring an agent to represent you.  Alos, you have to listen to your agent regards to price and appearnce,  If you are not, you are just listing your home.  Most sellers prefer to sell it.

Good luck to you!

Hi Jim,

The agents who post bad photos or no photos only help me. When those listings expire without selling, the sellers have usually done some research second time around to see who really is doing a good job of marketing. I have often received calls from the competition amazed that they sent a prospective buyer a list of properties to consider and most of the ones they want to see are mine. I just chuckle to myself. I do all of my own photography, all photos are enhanced in photo editing software and I do all of my own virtual tours so I can control the quality. I take hundreds shots for each property to get the best photos I can. Good photography is part of good marketing. I am having an off-the-charts year in a very slow market because I put time, thought and common sense into my marketing.

This Active Rain Group is "The Art of Marketing You." All of the marketing you do for a client reflects on YOU.

Sharon
SharonNyman.com

Sharon!  Way to go!  Quality of service speaks volumes for itself!

  
Somebody already said it - accountibility.  The seller will find their way out of the hang up!

Thanks Jim, About half of the listings I have were listed with one, two or even three agents before me. I do not work expireds. The Sellers usually find me through advertising for my listings or "Just Sold" mailings - all done with good photos of course. Here in the Florida Keys 75% of the buyers are from out of the area so so it takes a powerful marketing presentation for them to get in their car or on a plane to come see a listing. Poor photos simply will not do that, yet I just checked and 17 out of 38 homes listed at $3 million and over in our zip code have only one photo!  I have stared adding "lifestyle" photos to my virtual tours. Here is an example with the lifestyle photos at the end:

Virtual Tour

Sharon

 

I have invested in a good digital camera and take it with me to all listing appointments.  As soon as the client signs the listing, I photograph the house and place the photos on my website immediately.

Thank you for drawing attention to agents about this.  It drives me crazy when agents put in bad photos or none at all.  Why bother?

Rosemarie!  That is correct!  LOL!  Someone has to claim responsibility for hiring the agent.

Sharon same here!  I was think the other day how many new homes in Atlanta over 1 million dollars have no extra photos, no virtual tours, and no unique descriptions.

Nelson that is the way it should be!

Noelle it affects us all.  It makes us all look bad.

 

In the North, I often see photos with snow on the ground for listings that were taken over the winter and it's already summer.  Do you think that the homebuyers seeing this listing online have any idea that the home has been on the market for a while?

Adam, ya think! LOL!  That is one of the funniest photos!  I also love all the winter scene shots, no grass, no leaves on trees, bare branches agains a grey sky!

When the living room still shows a christmas tree in august I find that ridiculous.

Hugh!  For sure!  It is also funny when in the comments it has a $1000 bonus for selling agent if closed before May 30, 2007

Jim, I have read this post several times and I must say, I find it hard relate with you on this one. These photos are brilliant, one word CHARACTER! :)

I still can't believe I could have closed all of those past properties by using my phone camera, so much money & time could have been saved! These agents should hold educational seminars!

Good Post

JC Wood - RE/MAX Aerospace Realty

Brevard County Real Estate

JC thanks!  It is really amazing when you think about it!  Even perfect pictures are tough in this market, but snow? Year old dates  etc???  What are tehy thinking?

You REALLY hit the nail on the head with your comments and photos! It is amazing, some of the GARBAGE that is posted into the MLS because agents are too lazy to get good photos! They give us all a bad name. Wish those agents would all go back to whatever stocking job they came from!

 

How sad but so true.  You see so much of this.  Thanks for bringing this up.

Bill and Barbara From your lips to God's ears!

Expires listings are so often not priced right and that is the reason they expire --- not a poorly taken photo. Here in Southern California if a home is price right it sells, photo no photo.

Lorraine or Loretta Kratz-Certified Negotiation Consultants (Crescent Moon Realty, Inc. & Land N Sea Auctions.)  Thanks for sharing.  The price is right!