In the last several days I have enjoyed reading the blogs of those who have responded to Kathleen Daniels challenge, prompting ActiveRainers to write about any pet peeves we have, while performing our real estate profession tasks.
If you have been a Greater Sacramento real estate agent, like I have these past 35 years, you will have accumulated a number of annoyances that are worth documenting. I noted several of mine while reading through what other bloggers had logged as their pet peeves.
However, there is one topic I haven’t seen addressed, which I think is worth covering. It is the over use of a camera’s wide-angle lens. There have been numerous times when I have had a home buyer gaze deliciously upon MLS or other marketing photos, and all but fallen in love with a home. HOWEVER, once we actually step inside the property, we find that spacious kitchen actually looks more like a narrow hallway – OR the master bathroom which looked like a luxury spa, was in reality closer to the size of a broom closet.
Because the quality of digital cameras and equipment have improved dramatically these last several years, the importance of high quality photos have increasingly become premier tool in marketing homes. Add to it the amazing array of special lens, and creative editing tools, and photography has become an art form, which sometimes has home marketing materials bordering on misrepresentation!
I fully understand that we are long past the days when the MLS was a book published once a week, and left at your office door on Saturday mornings. Home listings in that era, were relegated to a printed space of about 3” x 4” max, with a single black and white photo included.
So, here’s what I would like to suggest. (1) Keep it real with your photography. There are special times to use a wide-angle lens without abusing its power, and misrepresenting the reality of what something actually is! (2) If you are intent on going ahead and doing so anyway, at least publish room sizes in the MLS listings, so we can better gauge the reality of your pictures before we waste time, inconveniencing your seller with a showing that will have no positive results. You’ll be doing your seller and us, a big favor!
Comments(35)