I recently commented on a post regarding how good professional photos are to your listings, and it got me thinking about one of things I complain about almost daily as a real estate professional; listings without photos. I can't count the number of times when I am looking through comps, it mentions updates or needs TLC but no pictures of the inside are provided, sometimes none of the outside are even provided.
I am a certified residential appraiser in CT, we provide appraisals for divorce, estate settlement, tax appeals, all sorts of foreclosure related appraisals (including REO appraisals for banks to set a listing price), pre-listing appraisals, purchases and refinances. It's almost daily that I'm making a comment to myself about how lazy some of these agents are because they have provided no pictures, or 5 pictures of the yard. I would venture to guess some clients don't want interior pictures, OK. But I also assume sometimes the agents choose not to take pictures, I believe this is a disservice to the real estate community as a whole. Agents trying to use your listings as comps for a CMA, or to try and entice potential buyers to go and look at the house. Appraisers using these properties as comps for their appraisals. And buyers with or without agents searching the Internet for listings.
As an appraiser I rely on comps day in and day out to estimate an opinion of value for properties for many different reasons, including purchases which the agents have an interest in; sales commissions! So many times agents give me their comps (which I appreciate), sometimes they will have one that they listed, where they say, this house needed work, not as nice as this house...I can't take your word on it, my jobs relies on verified information. No information which cannot be verified should be used, especially from someone who has an interest in the sale, therefore, if there are pictures I can compare the inside of the comp to the inside of the subject and adjust accordingly. Without verification, all I can do is drive-by and inspect the exterior of the comps. So, in short not only will photos help your listing at the time you have it listed, it may be relied on as a future comp for another purchase you are involved with. If you want an appraiser to use your comps accurately, adequately comment on the condition (another issue I have is no comments, but that's for another post), and provide photos for all listings.
As of today, I am also looking at purchasing a house, and again everyday I get upset when I cannot get pictures on listings. Since I am younger, and fairly handy, and also some people, I'm looking at fixer-uppers. I want pictures too...why do only the high end buyers get to see pictures of the inside of houses? Why do agents not provide pictures of interiors of fixer-uppers? I know what I'm looking for, and it needs work. I want to see the inside on-line before I spend more time and energy to go and look at the house in person. Fixer-uppers deserve photos too, please provide photos so I can make a decision whether it needs a remodeled kitchen or just updates, is it livable and the updates can be slowly done, or does it need to be repaired prior to living in it? This is the on-line era, most people are looking at your listing on-line, give them what they need, MORE PHOTOS.
Now for the higher end houses, they almost always have photos, sometimes have good photos, and once in a while have great photos. I may be biased as I am a service provider (high quality photos integrated with interactive floor plans) for http://www.floorplanonline.com/, but a high quality "virtual tour" is an amazing way to differentiate your services from the rest of the agents in your area. With FPO, you are guaranteed 20+ high quality pictures with an interactive floor plan (example http://www.seetheproperty.com/u/24735 ). No matter what or who you use, the highest quality photos and a good virtual tour can and will set you apart from the competition. Agent's get paid good on these high end houses, paying a little extra for high quality photos is necessary, in my opinion.
To sum it up, all listings need photos, the great, the good, the bad, and the very, very, ugly. Consider it a service to the entire Real Estate community, I thank you in advance for making my job a little easier and allowing me to provide better appraisals to my clients!
-Shane Trotta
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