In showing property we all know the photos can be very deceiving. Most houses have to be physically toured to get the reality of it -- the tactile. You just have to be able to see the place up close and personal to know if that's the house you want to call home.
So last Friday I'm out touring with my lovely buyer client and we go to a home that's been listed fairly recently. The photos look fine. Nothing "OMIGOSH" about it, one way or the other. It just looks fine.
We get there, and there's no lock box, so I knock.
And Boy Howdy, did I get a scare.
I have never toured a horder's house before. I've seen crappy foreclosures, with ripped out everything, kicked in drywall, roofs that needed to be mowed . . . but I have never been to a horder's house.
Everywhere you looked . . . stuff. Piles, and piles, and piles of it. The walk-through from family room to hall: blocked with piles and piles of stuff. There were rooms that you couldn't even open the door all the way. Why? Piles and piles of stuff.
Stuff here, stuff there, garbage, food, pots, pans, cloths, books, games, stuff, stuff, stuff.
Oh, and it smelled too.
When I got back to the office, I felt like I needed to bleach my brain.
What made me go there?!? I pulled up the listing sheet . . . and of the ten pictures attached, eight were of the exterior, which seemed fine. The two of the interior were probably the only two corners of the ENTIRE 2,465 sq. ft. home that the listing agent could clear off. One photo showed the corner of the kitchen with stove and cabinets, seemingly "normal." The other photo was the bathroom with the shower curtain, toilet and medicine cabinet showing.
In 20/20 hindsight, of course the rest of the house couldn't be photographed. Forget "staging" they'd need a bulldozer to remove the piles and piles and piles of stuff.
Now, why didn't the listing agent call / email me for feed back?!?
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