Ahhhhh....ugly listing photos! We have all seen them, heck you may be one of the guilty agents who has taken them and worse yet...actually had the audacity to publish them for the world to see. Let's face it, the days of being able to take a crummy photo of your latest listing (notice I said "A" crummy photo) and just have other agents who take equally crummy photos see it,are long gone. Now you take a photo and it better not be just one, it better be a plethora, and whammo your photographic skills or lack thereof is plastered all over cyberspace for everyone and their dog to see. Folks, it is time to learn some simple photography skills or hire someone who possesses them to take your listing photos for you.
Some of the most heinous foto felonies just happen to be some of my pet peeves as a professional REALTOR trying to get some of these listings sold. Number one on the foto felonies most wanted list is...drum roll please...taking pictures of a bathroom with the toilet lid/seat up! OMG! People...please! How much effort does it take to walk over and put the thing down before you shoot your obligatory potty shot? No one wants to be sharing listings with their buyer client and have a big nasty photo of an exposed commode staring them down! EEEWWWW!!! Simple photography tip number one...scan the room before you start shooting! This is so simple. Try to see the room the way your buyer will see the room. Simply moving things, turning on a lamp, opening some blinds, hiding kids toys behind a sofa are simple ways to take care of the problem. Now for the stagers among us...and yes I advocate staging and do it myself on my listings...yes, the toys should not be in the living room to begin with, but in the event that you are dealing with a listing that you are not staging and your advice of de-cluttering went unheeded, this tip will help!
Okay, next on the list of foto felonies is the dreaded laundry pile. Yeah, I know, we are adults hear and one would think that people would know better than to leave their laundry (dirty or clean) in a gi-normous pile anywhere in their home, but we are not dealing with a perfect world. So, if you have counseled your sellers about putting away their personal Mount Olympus of clothing and they still are not quite getting the home to the level of acceptance that you would like, you may have to move stuff around. I photographed a wonderful home, impeccably decorated, and lovely in every way excepting the piles of clean (and folded) laundry that lined the vanity in the master bath on photo shoot day! I simply moved the piles to the hallway, shot the photos, replaced the piles and informed the listing agent to counsel her sellers on fixing this issue.
Another pet peeve of mine and a most wanted foto felony is the dirty dishes in the sink and on the counters. Man, oh man, this totally falls under that laundry pile and clutter speech that should have been unleashed before photo shoot day. But please do not shoot photos of someones breakfast dishes if that is what is there when you arrive...I know you want to post as many photos of your listings as possible and you should, but much like the dreaded toilet scene, no one wants to see icky dishes online! It never ceases to amaze me what agents will photograph and then even worse...post in MLS as if no one will ever notice. I am sitting there taking this insanity in and thinking "Holy cow Batman...do they seriously not realize how bad this appears???" Evidently not in some cases!
Now I am certainly not a fan of flying in the face of being truthful in advertising...especially since I am not only a REALTOR but I have a degree and background in graphic arts working in the advertising industry. But there is a difference between showing people reality and doing a little damage control in trying to get people's homes sold. Pets are fabulous. I love pets. I have pets and always have. But they do not need to star in a cameo appearance in MLS and on REALTOR.com! Please have people remove their pets from the home before shooting photos and virtual tours. The craziest pet photo I have ever seen was this little dog who showed up in every virtual tour scene, twice! Evidently, as the panoramics were being shot in each room, Sparky (or whatever his name was) would run to another piece of furniture and strike a pose! It was super comical, but highly inappropriate for MLS and the internet to get this home sold.
I do believe that my number one, top pick for the foto felonies most wanted list was this and the sad part is, the crime was perpetrated by a friend of mine in the business and it shocked me to no end! People in the photos, whether it be you (by accident of course...watch those mirrors!) or the people who live in the home. I have seen photos of agents standing in the dining room at a office caravan posted on MLS and on the web, I have seen the owners drinking coffee at the breakfast bar reading the paper, but my personal favorite was the following. The family's two children were home from school sick on the sectional sofa in the living room, surrounded by blankets, tissues (new and used), cold meds, et al and they took the photos of the living room which resembled a TB ward and posted them online for all the world to see! UN-believable!!! I hope and pray that I don't even have to elaborate on what is wrong with that whole scene, but if the kids are home sick...reschedule your photo shoot!
Basically what I am getting at here is consider what you are shooting, how it appears to potential buyers and remember that whatever you post on MLS will almost inevitably end up floating around in cyberspace. Happy shooting!
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