Home : Blogs : Ken Montville -- the MD Suburbs of DC : The MD Suburbs of DC

Too Cheap to Get a REAL Virtual Tour

OK. I'm not selling anything here. No virtual tour companies. No DIY virtual tour companies.

I've been noticing this trend, fed by the SEO industry, of Realtors becoming videographer wannabes. Now, this isn't so bad, if you're standing in front of a camera talking about the neighborhood or subdivision and there's a nice park or a subdivision sign behind you. It's not so bad when you're at your desk and talking about this or that. I'm good with that. What I'm starting to see and getting disturbed about are th DIY listing shows.

That's right. Shaky, blurry, terrrible videos with terrible audio of people's homes Realtors want to sell. Worse are the still photos that Realtors take. I mean, I understand the Internet Empowered Consumer wants to see photos but ---

toilets with the lid up (and hard water stains)
half made beds with a white sheet tossed over them to "neaten them up"
kitchens with sinks full of dishes
decks with tons of clutter
closets with all the stuff you tried to hide
more, more, more

Hey, I understand. We're all trying to cut costs in this awful housing market. But, really. Are you really doing your Seller client a favor by showing all the (literally) dirty laundry?

In my view, it's time for Realtors to:

Tell there Seller clients to clean up the mess or you can't take any photos which means fewer people will visit the house
Get a professional who can take a good photo with a good camera and then take it back to the office to make it look pretty with nice captioning and maybe some pleasant music.

I don't care what the SEO gurus say. Do you really care about SEO if your client's home looks like a war zone on steroids?

I've always thought it was the Realtor's job to market the house to create the most excitement possible so that a potential buyer will actually walk through the front door to fall in love with the real, live, three dimensional house. A lot of what I'm seeing now shouts, "I don't care if you like this house or not!".

If I was a Seller and saw some of these videos and still photos I'd ask for a release. Hey, but that's just me.

Just sayin'

Posted by Ken Montville -- the MD Suburbs of DC on 06/11/2009 08:43 PM

Comments (6)

Virtual Tours and Photography in the Home Selling Channel

This post has been included in Maryland Information Prince Georges County, MD Information College Park, MD Information
Post is included in group: Virtual Office - Work from Home Office
Post is included in group: Realtors®
Post is included in group: Posts to Localism
Post is included in group: Maryland Real Estate and Mortgage Group
Post is included in group: Advice for Sellers

6 Comments on Too Cheap to Get a REAL Virtual Tour

JUN

Amen .. if you cant die it 100% don't do any of it ... I ahve seen photos with cars blocking 60% of the front of durty dishes in the sink .. and this was a home sell at 700K+

You are absolutely right! C'mon, clean it up a little. What's even worse is when there is no picture or just the front. Buyers just go on to the next one.

JUN

I recently saw an MLS photo of an expensive house in our area where they were selling through a MLS flat fee company. The company did such a great job uploading a photo of an old camper for the one and only photo of the home.

I don't know how many MLS photos I have seen that have been taken out of a drivers or passenger side of a vehicle.

Most of the time it is just pure laziness.

I recently called an agent to ask if she had inside photos of a listing because I had a potential out of town buyer. The agent did not have any inside photos to send. I drove 1.5 hour roundtrip to preview the home just to take inside photos.

I know I am providing a better service for my home sellers with professional photos and professional virtual tours.

I always say that it it better to have fewer pictures than horrible pictures. I hate the pictures with the toilet seat up. Its really important to know your limitations. I know I take terrible pictures so that makes a virtual tour worth every penny for me.