Let’s recap: We’re in the throes of an awful real estate market, where sellers have to fight for their listings to get noticed among the thousands already sitting there. It’s a time when agents should be shifting their marketing efforts into high gear, doing everything possible to get their clients’ properties noticed. Right?
Then tell me how any agent worth a five-figure commission can put this new listing out there?
The place sounds nice enough: a two-bedroom, two-bath condo in West Hollywood Vicinity for $499,000. Want to see a photo? Here you go!
That’s right: This listing is out on the MLS and Redfin with zero photos of the property. So we can only imagine what this “Birght West facing 2bedrm 2bth@ The Courtyards” with a “pl” and spa looks like.
How can agents be so cavalier with their clients’ listings? Why are homeowners standing for it? Sellers, you have a right to a listing with photographs. And complete sentences with words spelled out and spelled correctly. It’s true!
Every day, my Redfin update contains listings like these, describing what sound like lovely properties and then including no photos. For example, here’s a “beautifully upgraded” $649,000 two-bedroom condo in Westwood; no pictures. And here’s a huge foreclosure in east Hollywood for $476,000; no pictures!
Maybe the agents are planning on adding the pictures later, you say. I say: You have exactly one chance to make a first impression. A listing with no pictures says you’re trying to hide something.
Don’t put the listing out there until it shines, with a detailed, literate, lively description, the right price, and a healthy array of great photographs. That’s the least a seller should expect.