One of my pet peeves and frustrations when working with buyers or searching for comps is the surprising number of listing agents who do not post photos of their listings. And I do mean NO photos. Sometimes I will see a property on the market for say, 42 days and still not even a single exterior photo. Do you think there may be a reason no one is coming to look at your listing? With all the properties on the market we need to make decisions every day, together with our clients, about what is worth hopping into the car to see and what's not.

The listing above, a 2 bedroom condo in Washington DC, has been on the market for over a week. It is one my clients and I decided NOT to see this weekend.

I saw one listing just the other day where the comments began "one of a kind" ... gee, a single picture might have been nice. Was it unique because its sooo ugly? or unique because it was designed by a fabulous new architect -- I will never know....

Sometimes, the home has been on the market for many months, its surrounded by dozens of other similar listings, and there is only one fuzzy exterior photo, nothing showing any of the interior features. This may may be understandable when its a "value is in the land" or "inside has been gutted"  type of listing, but 99% of the time its not. REO and short sale properties seem to be listed this way most of the time, at least in my area which is MRIS (greater Washington DC area).

As a listing agent, your fiduciary duty is to your clients' interests. You are hired to do a job, which includes marketing a property to the best of your ability. You have signed a contract, and you are going to get paid when the listing sells. If I were Mr or Mrs Home Seller and saw my property on line "presented" in such a fashion, I would call the agent and their broker, and yank that listing so fast it would make their head spin. I would not offer a second chance to correct the problem. This is too much of a fundamental requirement of marketing to give an agent an opportunity to correct, that's how I would see it as a seller. Anyone who has read Freakonomics and other such books knows the lousy reputation that Realtors have with some -- and this would certainly contribute to the sense that Realtors don't do much to earn their commissions.

I went on a listing presentation recently, and when asked what are some of the things that make me different from other agents they might be consulting, I explained, among other things, how much effort I place into obtaining professional quality photos and putting up a premium virtual tour. The sellers raised their eye-brows and said "don't all agents do that?"  Would it be unethical for me to take copies of other listings posted on our MLS with me on a listing presentation, to prove my point? Let me know what you think.

Of course, I understand the luxury home owner not wanting photos posted on line showing the Picasso hanging on the wall, or the collection of antique silver. But honestly, how many of our listings fall into that category.

My personal approach is to have the entire photo shoot done and virtual tour ready to go on Day 1 that the listing goes live. Otherwise I feel that if the property is already on the market a week before all the photos go live, its contributing to a "stale listing".

So while this may sound a little like a rant (that's because after a Saturday spent visiting properties in the cold rain, it IS a bit of a rant), I hope it will prompt just a few more agents to post just a few more pictures...

Dana Scanlon GRI, Keller Williams Metro Realty (Bethesda MD)