Pictures are not the Whole Story

As an Edmond Realtor, I see plenty of houses.  Most of the homes that I tour, I see with a client while searching for homes.  But I do try to preview other homes available on my own to stay informed about the inventory currently available.  Yesterday, I previewed three vacant houses in an Edmond neighborhood.  It was a neighborhood with new homes in the popular price range of $225,000-$250,000.

When I was selecting the homes to tour in my targeted subdivision I searched specifically for vacant homes (I did not want to disturb homeowners without a specific buyer in mind) and price (I only wanted to tour homes in the price range that is selling in Edmond right now).  While a prospective buyer would read the details of the listing and check out all the pictures on the MLS, I did not.

I toured the first two homes making mental notes about cabinetry and floor plans for prospective buyers.  When I headed to the third house, I drove right by it three times!  You know why?  The picture displayed on my printout was not the house with the sign in the yard.  I bet I looked pretty funny.  You should have seen me checking the address on the mailbox and the street sign to make sure I was at the right place!

I chuckled and thought the listing Realtor must have uploaded the wrong pictures to the listing.  I planned to call him and let him know when I got back to the office.  I went ahead and toured the house.  The seller took the time to stage the house and it showed very well.

When I got back to the office, I pulled up the listing on MLS.  I clicked on the pictures (20 of them) and read this caption under the first photo; Pictures shown are of previous project, all materials will be similar in color and appearance. Floor plan is identical.  Are you kidding me?

From time to time you will see this type of disclaimer with new construction when the house is still in sticks or just a slab.  The listing Realtor and builder want to give prospective buyers an idea what the end result will be.  But this house was very much complete; established landscaping and staged.  It is just lazy on the Realtor's part not to update the photos.  But, it's listed by a discount broker.  So, the seller got what they paid for.

When you are selling your house with an Edmond Realtor, you have many choices.  Edmond is certainly well represented by a variety of brokerages offering a wide range of services.  For my business, I have chosen to align myself with a full service brokerage, CENTURY 21 Goodyear Green.  When you are ready for full service representation, give me a call at 405-359-7400 or let's start an email conversation kristyn.grewell@century21.com.