Isn't it the worst when you're browsing the MLS for homes and the agent didn't bother to insert any pictures? There have been several posts in the past about the importance of including pictures with listings. I want to share my experience from early last week that will hopefully re-iterate the benefit of pictures. I received a call from a nice woman on one of our team listings. It turns out she was looking for a home to rent, not buy. I don't specialize in rentals but I was willing to help her. Sometimes renters eventually become buyers.
This potential client told me exactly what she was looking for and the particular area. She also told me she'd made an appointment to see a house (and emailed me the link) but that if I could find something similar that she would gladly look at it. I told her I'd do a search and get back to her. Given that she's in another part of town she would review the details and pictures of the results and select a few homes to schedule a visit.
So I logged into the MLS to see what I could find. My search came up with 6 homes that fit her criteria. Guess how many had pictures? One. That's right, one. One out of six. That's less than 17%. I went through each listing and the second to last is the one with pictures......and it looked familiar. That's because it's the same house from the link she sent me!!! So here's a potential client who WANTS to sign a lease but I can't even show her pics. The next day I grabbed my camera and went to two of the listings and took pics which I emailed to her. In my opinion, one house was inferior, however the other was not bad. The lady went ahead with the one she'd already visited so I didn't get the business. I'm ok with that. What I don't understand is why an agent with a decent home doesn't have pictures. How are people supposed to know how nice a home it is? And it's not as if these 5 homes just got listed. At least one had been on the market for over 2 months - there's really no excuse for that.
I don't expect any agent to have professional pictures taken for a rental or to necessarily use the full allotment of pictures, but is it too much to snap one of the front and several interior shots? 4-6 pictures is better than zero. If you're going to take a listing, please do the right thing for your client and market it with pictures. After all, that's part of our MLS subscription!
Wow, how progressive Sarah! I like that idea. I don't like the notion of "forcing" agents to do something, but there are so many listings in S.Florida that don't even have a single picture, you want to pull your hair out. (Good thing I barely have any hair!)
Quite frankly, that's the main reason I don't like to do rentals. It's not the smaller commission, rather it's the near blank rental listings. I don't have time to drive around and preview every rental. Kudos to your MLS!
Tim - I agree it is for the greater good and I'm glad your MLS has that rule. Yep, 1 out of 6. The ratio improves significantly with forsale listings. I would say 50-60% have pictures. But to me, anything under 100% isn't acceptable.
Adam - Does your MLS enforce the $500 fine? That's stiff but it sure will send a message. A good friend is an agent in Cerritos, I'll have to make sure she doesn't mess around. BTW, I was in Fullerton in late August...went to the 'downtown' area and ate at an Italian restaurant on a corner. Could I be more vague? LOL!
David - Thanks to Sarah, Tim, Adam (and hopefully others) I might do a little research and put together a proposal for my MLS. Perhaps you might pursue it with yours as well.
Michael - you're tugging at my inner barbarism! This blogpost only complained about the lack of pictures and not the other problems. You are so right in that many listings are way off. The sad thing is that it often only takes a few minutes to locate the right answers.
Kay - I agree with you 100%. Just to be clear, when I wrote that pics in rentals don't have to be taken by a professional, I meant that an agent using a good digital camera will suffice. Not camera-phone pics (yes I've seen those!!).
Brian - I no longer have MLS access in the DC area but I remember agents doing a pretty good job with pics. Has that changed? You're right about clients weeding out particular homes by one picture alone, I admit to doing it on occasion - unless I happen to know the particular area well. The agent loses and the seller/landlord loses.
Donald - Indeed it is a good policy. I'm happy (and surprised) to hear that a number of MLSs do that!
Renee - Great hearing from you! I believe Vegas is similar to S.Florida in that aspect and you aptly described my feelings on this issue. Perhaps we should get our respective MLSs to enact fines.
Tchaka,
I agree - I like the idea of fining Realtors who do not submit at the minimum an exterior shot, but I really think we should all be utilizing the full extent of pictures we can with all of our listings. I recently told our staff photographer some very specific shots to take of a 633 SF condo, to more effectively market this listing, so being more involved with our listings may be part of the equation.