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Dear Lazy Agent....

Dear Lazy Listing Agent,

I have a client in town for 2 days. We do not have time to waste looking at crappy homes. Since you only had time to take 4 pictures of this 4 bedroom, 3 level home; we have decided to not waste our time looking at your listing. I know you said it looks "amazing" - but we need to see some pictures before driving all over town.

Please tell your seller we wish them the best of luck and if they decide to hire an agent who can take more than 4 pictures of the house - I am sure it will sell. Unless of course it really is a crappy house inside. But I guess we will never know.

If your client does decide to hire a agent who will actually spend a buck and hire a photographer and do some nice flyers. Have them call me.

Thank you.

Contact James Downing of the Downing Real Estate Group, if you are selling, buying or have questions!

Office: 202-362-5800 Cell: 703.244.3971

Licensed in Washington DC, Virginia & Maryland.

Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage - Chevy Chase
5028 Wisconsin Ave NW Suite 100 * Washington DC

Posted by James Downing - REALTOR®,GRI, ABR - DC Real Estate on 11/04/2009 05:28 PM

Comments (10)

realtors, selling tips

Originally posted at: DC Real Estate News: Dear Lazy Agent....

This post has been included in District of Columbia Information

10 Comments on Dear Lazy Agent....

NOV

You are so right. Research shows that buyers like listings with a lot of photos. But still we have agents who put in one or two pix, and bad ones (saw one where half the front of the home was cut off and another where the room was so dark it looked like the Bat Cave) at that. With so many homes on the market today, of course our buyers are first going to gravitate towards the ones that look great on paper. And more often than not, they will buy something before they get to the listing with few and poor pictures. In that case, everyone loses. The seller loses a potential profit, the buyer loses the chance to perhaps buy a great home, and the agents (even the lazy one) lose the chance to earn a living. Oh well. Guess that is what determines a great full-service agent from the rest of the crowd.

Bless you!

I get so mad at the agents for doing that too. There's a new listing today with 15 pictures but the quality is so fuzzy and so bad that they must have been made with an old worn out cell phone camera.

NOV

I love listing agents who are too lazy to include multiple photos in their listings.

Since most prospective buyers and buyer's agents will pass on homes that don't have multiple photos, I have an edge. I'll preview it and if it's a good home, I'll show it. I may even sell it and will probably get a better price for my buyer because the property listing has received little attention/showings.

Shucks. 4 photos is more than many with a front photo only.

NOV

It may not be laziness, Jim. It may be the house doesn't really look that great and isn't that "photogenic" in the first place. It may be the agent is too cheap (as opposed to lazy) to do a lot of photos or higher a virtual tour company to do the job right. But, Lenn is right. Four photos are better than just the front exterior....or none at all.

NOV

James, I have someone looking in Silver Spring and there are tons of places with NO photos!

NOV

Around here if there are no photos, well you don't want to see the inside of the house! You should see some of the things that I've seen around here! Ugh!!!!!

Sometimes the kindest thing any agent can do is NOT post photos of the interior. I have a listing now with a deadline of this weekend for the owners to haul stuff to storage so I can take photos. If a showing agent assumes I'm lazy, they're wrong; if they assume the house is worse than awful, they're right.

Margaret -- Touche!

NOV

Even if the house is awful, you can get other photos, like a tree outside, or a community photo showing a nearby park, restaurant etc. One my recent listings, I photographed the new HVAC, the staircase etc. Come on guys, use a bit of creativity.

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