Last night I showed a few properties in Eureka, CA, three different single family homes that were in my buyer's price range and had the characteristics that she wanted in her first dream home, at least 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, double car garage, a yard, etc. Well, we were surprise at two listings in particular. Lets call them listing A and listing B. For listing A, there was only two pictures, one of the front with lots of unkept trees and shrubs covering the house, so we could not see the house at all, and the other picture was of a part of the back yard with vegetation growing all over. From the pictures of this listing, we could not care less about the house, but the property characteristics from the mls sheet fit my buyer's needs, so we put it on the list anyways. For listing B, there were about 6 to 9 pictures on the mls sheet and the front picture of the house showed a house that was fairly new with good features.
Well, we were in for a shock. The first house we saw was listing A. The pictures did not do it justice. The house had an open floor plan, good simple layout, spacious 2 car garage, large master and good sized bedrooms and bathrooms. Also, a great bonus was the over grown yet landscaped back and front yards filled with fruit trees and flower bushes as well as a private hot tub. My client was very impressed with the house and we were there a good half hour before moving one.
When we got to listing B, with the great online and mls sheet pictures, we were also shocked. The house was located on a very busy city road leading to the hospital and it was hard for drivers to pull off the road to get onto the driveway of the house. I almost got hit as I pulled the car onto the driveway because there was a tail gator behind me who was very impatient and did not understand why I had to turn onto this driveway. Well, the house did look like the front house picture from the mls sheet, but the down side right away was that busy road. As we walked into the house, we noticed the steep staircase leading to the front door, the house had been built onto a hillside and the builder obviously tried to conserve as much land as possible. We were impressed by the living room because of the vaulted ceiling, but the rest of the house was not too impressive with the small kitchen, bathrooms and bedrooms. Even the master bath had a flaw because there was only a shower and no tub. Also, we had to walk down a narrow set of zig-zagging long set of stairs to get to the garage. Imagine carrying groceries up that staircase, my buyer did.
So the moral of the story, never judge a house by its pictures, whether from fliers or the mls. A Realtor may not be doing that house justice by taking too few pictures and not of the right angles, or a Realtor could be doing too much justice by taking too good pictures manipulated by creative angles, and the buyers would be disappointed in real life. Go see the properties for yourself before you judge, or have your real estate agent preview the home for you before actually going inside the house yourself.
For buying or selling homes in Humboldt County, Eureka, Arcata, McKinleyville, Crescent City, call Lucky at 707-954-7926 or email: lucky@luckystarrealty.com and visit www.luckystarrealty.com
Comments(0)