Ok - I'm at it again.  Doing research, talking to the public, and compiling the data for you!  After speaking with many real estate agents about technology and online marketing (particularly their listings),  I realize that there are a lot of misconceptions out there. 

Remember the days of 2005 when all you had to do was throw a sign in the front yard and you had 5 competing offers?  You didn't even get a chance to take the photos and you got above asking price offers. 

Welcome to the hangover!   Those days are gone!  But let's not beat that dead horse.  From my meetings with these agents, I have noticed that many of them have not changed their online marketing tactics at all.

I asked one agent who had a $900,000 listing with 2 lousy pictures (and no virtual tour) why he didn't take advantage of Realtor.com's full 25 photos.  He said that he just wanted to put out enough info to tease the buyer and get them to call him to show the listing.  I understand the fundamental concept of that approach.  I also get what today's consumers are looking for. 

Here's the hard facts. Times have changed and credit is tighter, inventories have skyrocketed, and Days on Market have elongated tremendously since 2005. 

I took a survey of 50 potential home buyers in today's market.  Almost all, (47 of them) look for homes online.  Most of them go to Realtor.com.  The overarching sentiment is that, "There are so many homes to choose from now that if the agents pictures are few, bad, or missing completely - they are NOT thirsty to SEE MORE!"   They DON'T take the time to call the listing agent and get more details.   They simply go right on to the next listing.  Period - end of story.

What makes this even more compelling is that the home sellers get aggravated when they go online and see how their homes are being marketed with lousy photos and no tours.   

So, if you are a listing agent, the public is speaking and perhaps you should take notice. Price and condition IS #1 - no doubt.  But the way you are presenting your homes online these days are what is going to generate showings, offers, contracts, and closings! 

So please -  get out there and take some great photos of your listings, and even better - make yourself stand out by doing a full motion video.   And if you just don't have the technical stomach or the patience for it all, hire a professional photography and full motion video virtual tour company to do it for you.