I'd rather not have a blind date with that house....

I have been working with more buyers recently and I have noticed that a lot of them don't care to look at houses with no pictures.  They skip right over them.  Some listings even meet all their specifications but they don't want to waste their time heading over to that property and getting suprised.  Prior to becoming an agent I owned my own advertising/marketing company, and if there is one thing I learned...IMAGE IS ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING.  I don't understand why some agents can't make that small effort of reaching into their pocket, pulling out a camera, snapping the pictures, connecting it to your computer and uploading.  All that is needed is AT LEAST one exterior and one interior.  Now the quality of the pictures that i've seen...well...let's leave that for another blog.

Recently, I had a client looking for a property.  He was very specific about what he wanted and where he wanted to be.  I sat down with him and showed him everything that was available.  He started by picking out the ones he wanted and skipped one, that in my opinion, was a very good one. 

I asked him, "Why don't you want this one...it's within your price range and it has everything you want and more."

His response was simple..."It doesn't have a picture...I'd rather not have a blind date with that house." And he laughed.

He then later explained to me that he believed that if the agent didn't bother to take a picture its because it wasn't that great.  He said that if the place would be beautiful, why wouldn't the agent snap a picture of it, why wouldn't he proud to show everyone his listing?

I called the listing agent and asked him why there wasn't a picture up and he said, "I have no time" but assured me that everything was okay.

I convinced him to take a look at it.

When we arrived and stepped foot inside...
IT WAS ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS!

Everything had been redone...brand new hardwood floors, brand new stainless steel appliances, freshly painted, brand new bathrooms...I'm guessing you get the point...EVERYTHING WAS BRAND NEW.

My client fell in LOVE with it.

I always try to convince my clients to look at properties with no pictures...if I can, I'll even take the drive out before to make sure I don't waste their time.  But fellow agents...please take a picture because we don't want our clients time being wasted but we certainly don't want our time being wasted as well.  We don't care to have blind dates with any houses!!!!