The most important time for any listing is the first few days. As soon as your home is placed in the MLS system, notifications start to go out to buyers and agents who have been waiting for a home such as yours. Whether it's the number of bedrooms, baths, square footage or anything else that is important to them, your home shows up in their email right away. And usually within the next day, your for-sale property will also show up on all the other major home sale sites. And then the calls start rolling in!!!
Screech! Not so fast!
The calls start coming in IF the information provided is complete, the pictures are plentiful and of high quality, the price is market-defined and the descriptions capture the buyers' attention. And while the descriptions, information and price are extremely important, in today's visual age, the most important part of the listing is the photos. Often buyers will see photos and something will strike them wrong and they won't have any desire to see that home. That's true even if everything else is perfect.
For example, buyers finally found a condominium in the development they wanted. The condo had the right number of bedrooms, a price within their range and a reasonable HOA fee. The pictures showed an updated unit with new kitchen with granite counters and stainless steel appliances and more. Those buyers refused to see the property. Why? Because the photos had orbs, which for those of you who aren't sure what that means, are white or grayish roundish circles in the photo that look like water marks. The buyers believed those orbs were spirits and they wouldn't even look at the property. The "orbs" could have been the flash illuminating dust or other particles, or perhaps a dirty camera lens. And the seller could have had a fast sale had their agent included non-orb photos.
Another photo issue is when pictures are taken with the toilet seats up. That sounds like a silly thing, but if you have photos of your home with the lids up, people tend to not want to look at that photo. Or if there are items all over the bathroom counter. Viewers can feel as though they are intruding and speed along in search of better photos and a different home.
And there are other photo issues that will make people move along to another home. Too few pictures ("Why no photo of the kitchen, what's wrong with it?"). Too many pictures of the same thing ("why 30 kitchen photos, what does the rest of the house look like?"). Blurry photos. Photos of people or cars. Kitchen refrigerators covered with magnets.
But the worst offense? A way to automatically put your listing on the back burner? Something I saw twice this morning? Include NO photos. Just a few words that describe the house but nothing to look at. Buyers NEED to be able to SEE something about the house. That's how they know whether or not to set up an appointment. And with the availability of online photos, buyers often fall in love with homes before they ever set a foot in the door. If a listing promises to include photos in the future, buyers and agents won't always remember to look again. Once that house is put in the "NO" pile, it typically stays there.
So what's my promise? My promise to sellers is this. Not only will I never put a listing on the market with no photos, I will share the photos with you BEFORE they are placed online. You will have the ability to say "yay" or "nay" to each one. If you work with me, you will never have people put your home in the "NO" pile because of a lack of photos.
I promise.
Originally published at thehousekat.com.
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