Have you seen your listing photos? Now that your house is on the market for sale, have you checked out how it’s displayed? You should.
Nothing in a listing gets me more upset than seeing how poorly a house is marketed. It starts with the first look and that’s the front picture of a house. You expect pictures on your listing. The fact is that many homes go on the market without even 1 picture. This is how the MLS displays it.
It is 8:44 am and 50% of the new single family homes listed in the New Jersey MLS do not have even 1 picture. Let’s be fair because you first input the listing and then add pictures. As a result, it does take a little while but less than 1 minute’s time to get even a few pictures posted.
So let’s wait a minute or two and come back to these. It’s 5 minutes later and not one of those listings have pictures. These are all single family homes. So I ask you again – Have you seen your listing photos? For homes without them, I’m sure you haven’t checked. Rentals do worse.
Rental properties never have pictures sometimes. I am not kidding. The New Jersey MLS does the best it can. The MLS will fine an agent and even take a front picture. Because of the volume of properties in the NJMLS they limit this to single family homes. You are out of luck if you listed a rental property.
I find this very embarrassing as a real estate professional. There are times I must send a listing twice to a buyer – once without and then later with pictures.
Imagine how this affects consumers. If you are searching for a home, would you spend time looking at a listing with zero pictures? If you need to rent an apartment would you stay on a listing without pictures? Because pictures are so important to consumers, properties without them are often dismissed by them.
As a result, your property doesn’t do as well in the price you get and in how long it takes. There is no excuse for this. Even if it’s a rental listing and the tenant won’t allow pictures, at least a front view should be posted. A good agent gets creative by taking pictures of the bus stop, school, town etc. Anything is better than nothing for at least search engine purposes.
I have no doubt this post will upset some agents. It is, however, the truth. So sellers check your listing. No pictures? Kick your agent in the pants and get some posted ASAP. How good they are is a blog article coming soon. Questions, comments? Contact me.
