Archive for April, 2007
Bad MLS Photo of the Day #18
April 30th, 2007 Bad MLS Photo of the Day, Humor 6 Comments »
Tip: Don’t try and get water out of your ear and shoot at the same time.
Rule Three of Good Real Estate Photos
April 30th, 2007 Geekage and Blogging, Rules of Good Photos, Staging and Clutter 7 Comments »
Shout out to Maureen Francis for Giving Buyers What They Want.
“I like to take LOTS of them so that I can chose my favorites to display on our various web sites and the MLS. Sotheby’s General Manager recently observed that I have as many as 200 photos for a listing. In the end, consumers may see as few as 9 of these, depending on how they come across the listing, but I want to make sure I have good images because I need them for lots of aspects of our marketing.”
There it is. Rule Three: Just take lots of photos.
And I do mean lots and lots and lots of photos. It’s one of the reasons you have to have your own camera and not some daft shared office camera plan. You need to go and full a memory card to bursting taking shot after shot.
Fully 50% of the photos you take will be completely worthless. You jiggle the camera just a little or whatever. Just delete them on the spot and keep taking them.
Not only that, you should shoot anything that remotely qualifies as a “feature”. Fancy doorknob? Yes shoot it. Wine rack? Shoot it. Gold fixtures in the bathroom? Sweet fluffy bunnies you should shoot them. These can become the accent shots that break up a virtual tour from endless room wide shots.
With a digital camera it costs you nothing to take a shot. It’s not like you’re spending 30 cents per shot in film or anything. Shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot and then shoot. It’s all a numbers game. If 1 in 10 of your shots is decent, then take a 100 shots and bingo, you’ll have 10 decent shots to work with.
The Recap…
Most Slimy Realtor Ever
April 30th, 2007 Humor 3 Comments »
Go take a look at The Ted.
It’s very well done.
Bad MLS Photo of the Day #17
April 29th, 2007 Bad MLS Photo of the Day, Humor 3 Comments »
Stand up straight Mr. House, you’re having your photo taken.
When Bad Real Estate Photos Become Ethical Violations
April 29th, 2007 Deeper Thoughts, Family Life, Geekage and Blogging 4 Comments »
I know I’m constantly showing bad real estate photos on the blog. I’m enjoying mocking and spinning them into something humorous. But at the same time I’m also more than a little disgruntled about them.
I’ve been tossing and turning about this for a couple weeks now. I’m getting to the point where I think that because bad photos act to drive potential buyers away from asking for showings and writing offers, that bad photos are in fact a serious ethical violation by listing agents. One that should or could result in lawsuits, fines, revoking of licensure.
Jim Duncan mentions similar thoughts in passing.
“The fact that there is only one picture in the MLS should be a violation in and of itself as well.”
Assume that a seller has a good home, reasonably priced and generally market ready. Then the listing agent shoots terrible photos and then uploads those photos to the Multiple Listing System (MLS). Then those photos get spread far and wide across the Internet as all the various feeds take over.
Isn’t that a betrayal of fiduciary responsibility to represent your clients interests? Even if the house sells, it likely will sell for less than it might of. Fluffy Bunnies even no photos might be better than terrible ones. What kills me is that no one seems to care that this happens. If you’re an agent and you shove these garbage photos out there… they stay out there forever.
But what happens if you’re a seller and you’ve just been shot in a drive by shooting? (The agent just drives past the house slowly and shoots 2–3 external house pictures)
Firstly you need to raise holy hell with your agent immediately. Those photos need to be down before they get feed across the entire Internet. then they need to be replaced with something decent, promptly.
Secondly… how did you get into this situation anyway? Shouldn’t you be checking the agents photos before you sign a contract to pay them a five figure sum to sell your house?
It’s worth a thought.
I’m aware of the problematic nature of defining exactly what a good and bad photo is. How bad does bad need to be before it should result in a formal spanking is another issue.
10 Steps to Creating Space In Just One Week (of hell)
April 28th, 2007 Family Life, Staging and Clutter 2 Comments »
Don’t know where to begin to declutter your house ready for photos and showings? Lets assume it’s pretty darn bad and you’re really in dire straits on the mess front. No more excuses because this time serious money is riding on you cleaning up and making the house shine.
Step One – Don’t think of it as decluttering, think of it as creating space. Decluttering can have no end and can turn into a negative energy effect. Creating space is a more positive goal. Shout to Jessica Duquette for this point.
Step Two – Don’t assign blame to anyone, including yourself, for the mess. Just accept that this is the situation you find yourself in. The choice to either to fix it, or complain about it. Complaining about it hasn’t been working very well, so lets try fixing it. No one is the slob, no one is the victim. Slobs make a mess, victims attract more victimization. See how it can be a vicious cycle?
Step Three – Call the local newspaper and order an ad for a garage sale. Call a dumpster company and order a dumpster to arrive the day after the garage sale. Order cardboard boxes for packing.
Step Four – Step Three isn’t skippable. I’m NOT kidding about ordering an ad and a dumpster. The ad is going to force you into action and once you order it you can’t change your mind about it. You better have stuff to sell for the garage sale.
Step Five – Each day pick a new room and go through everything in it and decide whether you will either;
Trash It – It’s completely worthless.
Cash It – Someone might find it useful and pay for it.
Stash It – You like it and just need somewhere to store it.
Stage everything for the garage sale somewhere, or if their is no room to do that, go through the entire house with a pad of yellow Post-It notes and slap a Post-It note on everything thats going to be attempted to be sold. Then the morning of the garage sale have your friends come over and just grab everything with a Post-It note on it and haul it outside.
Step Six – Have your garage sale. Just leave everything on the lawn that didn’t sell. Magically the next morning half that stuff on the lawn will be gone.
Step Seven – The dumpster comes. Fill the dumpster with everything left on the lawn. Then haul everything else that is “Trash It” into the dumpster. You can use the Post-It note trick and call for friends to help haul the trash away.
Step Eight – Call for dumpster pick up. Call for a second dumpster if you need it. Repeat as required. Ask for a discount or something.
Step Nine – Pack your “Stash It” items in the cardboard boxes. You can do this packing through the entire event, but simply focusing on one theme at a time can be helpful. Call for a 1 800 Pack Rat or similar (go through Home Efficient if you’re a Prudential Connecticut Realty client) and store all your precious excess stuff out of the house for the showings and moving.
Tip – You won’t ever fit into those clothes again. Donate them.
Step Ten – Clean the house. Buy some fruit for a display on the dining room table. Have the photos taken of the house. Act like it was no big deal. Glow in the moment of victory over your stuff.
You’ll feel so much better I assure you.
Bristol Connecticut Real Estate Listing Contract Length
April 28th, 2007 Connecticut, Deeper Thoughts, Family Life 12 Comments »
How long should your listing contract last? It’s a good question and the answer will depend a little on where you live. Elizabeth Winetraub makes a good point that the slower the market is, the longer the listing length should be.
The golden mean for Bristol seems to be about a 90 day length.
Less than 90 days and the agents can feel nervous about putting their full commitment into selling the house. Unless its a raging hot market, which we don’t have right now (it’s good, but not “HOT!”) shorter than 90 doesn’t make much sense.
Likewise going longer than 90 days starts becoming bad for the seller. If they become unhappy with the agent, then it can take a long time to reach the end of the listing to hire a new agent.
I spoke with a seller today interested in hiring me after having no showings for the first three months of their listing. It’s not going to expire until late July. Thats right, three months no showings (it’s badly overpriced) but the seller is locked into a 180 day listing contract. Ouch. Not over much I can do with that right now sorry Mr Seller.
Don’t sign for 180 days though. Sign for 90 days and resign for another 90 days if you want to stick with your agent for 180 days. At least if you did that you have an easy out after 90 days. If you have a less than stellar agent and six months rolls by before you can hire a good one, the Days On Market damage has been done.
Sure any agent will likely tell you “just let me know and I’ll let you out of the contract at any time”. What nonsense is that. You’re meant to be getting representation to protect you against lousy stunts like that. Have them write that down and attach that to the contract as a rider then.
“Um, my broker doesn’t allow that sorry.”
“Reeeeaaaaally? So what you’re saying is you won’t let me out of the contract if I ask.”
“Oooooh you are a clever one aren’t you. This is going to be fun.”
“You didn’t answer the question.”
“Didn’t I? Maybe I did and you just weren’t listening.”
[Thinks] I should have gone with the guy that offered the cardboard boxes to start packing with.
PS Bedazzled is down to $1 used on Amazon. It’s one of my favorite movies. The orginial version with Peter Cook and Dudley Moore is great too.
Bad MLS Photo of the Day #16
April 28th, 2007 Bad MLS Photo of the Day, Humor No Comments »
This room is great for foster kids.
Bad MLS Photo of the Day #15
April 27th, 2007 Bad MLS Photo of the Day, Humor No Comments »
Tonka Toy comes free with Bob the Builder playset.
Rule Number Two Of Real Estate Photos
April 26th, 2007 Geekage and Blogging, Rules of Good Photos, Staging and Clutter 11 Comments »
Check out this terrible real estate photo. Kris Berg had me crying with laughter over this photo. That agent is the owner of the house is the only thing that stopped me from suggesting they should lose their license to practice.
“Apparently, this agent-owner is using the popular Playschool Lil Agent Point N Shoot camera”
Austin Realtor Wife gets me the Aha! moment in the comments by pointing out the head slapping obvious…
…the picture is from a cell phone camera.
And here is Rule Two of Real Estate Photos.
DON’T TAKE THEM WITH A CELL PHONE CAMERA.
