Are sellers setting the bar?

For a long time I have been baffled at home sellers apparent indifference as to how their homes show up online. In other words, how many pictures, what's the quality of those pictures, is there a virtual tour, a video, floor plans, details etc... It seems like some Realtors have been able to get by with a single picture, usually taken by the MLS staff photographer. Maybe it was the strong market, maybe the bar just hadn't been set very high in the early years of the Internet. I always felt a sense of frustration when I looked at that beautiful million dollar home with nothing more then a single exterior picture and sketchy details BUT the fear of an 8 hour ethics class for sign crossing has always been sufficient motivation to keep me from acting on my impulse to look at the seller and say "Wise Up"!

I have been pleasantly surprised a couple of times this week. First, an excellent agent in my office was looking around for a professional photographer's number, her sellers were not happy with the photos she had personally taken of their home. Way to go sellers for not tolerating bad pictures and way to go agent for stepping up and finding a pro. Later in the week we got a call from the friend of a past client trying to sell their home. There was very little marketing information and some really bad pictures, one actually had the seller sitting at the kitchen table eating breakfast or something. When they contacted the agent and asked them to step it up, they got a pretty strong "how dare you" type response. This prompted their call to us.

So as someone that thinks every home should be shown in it's best light online no matter what the price or size, I am encouraged that some home sellers might be insisting on a certain level of marketing professionalism, especially when it comes to how their homes appear to the home buying public.