COMMENT OF THE DAY: SIGHTS UNSEEN 
“Pictures don’t sell homes. People don’t buy sight unseen. At best, high quality photos will give you a few more showings (by people who were enticed by the photos, thus not likely your buyer).
List a property in Montrose, and take 6 photos of various homeless people, old-man armpits, and urinals, and it’ll still sell in a day.” [Cody, commenting on Houston Home Listing Photo of the Day: The Back Carpet] Illustration: Lulu
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lol!, funny picture LuLu! Now I know you picked this based on wanting to draw a funny picture (which you definitely did) because the comment makes little sense. I know lots of people who have bought h
Homes in Montrose and I don’t believe pictures of Arm pits and urinals were the clincher, I’m not ever sure what the person who wrote the comment was getting at..or I hope I don’t
Also Cody, I like to see a house without furniture. Blank canvases intrigue me and staging is money lost on me.
Unless there’s an exclusion for 8-plexes on 12,000 square feet asking over $1m, this is not completely true! I’ll send a HAR message to the listing agent with suggestions. :)
ba-HAH!
OK, Cody, you made me spew my beverage all over my screen. Oh, what an image you conveyed…
Lol. That made comment of the day?? :)
Disagree completely. Simply not grounded in truth.
Htown: Perhaps. Just going based on my own experience both as a buyer and seller (and someone that’s rented units to people and from people)
Yeah, I don’t agree with this either. Good photos establish not only help buyers to filter properties that don’t fit their profiles, but they also establish a first impression that reflects on the perceived quality of the house AND the professionalism of the agent.
Buyers are consumers…not savvy business-headed real estate professionals. Packaging counts.
I suppose it depends what caliber of properties you’re peddling. Whether it’s a Mercedes dealership or Tres Colores, no credit, no social security number needed, type place.
Try selling a 14 million dollar mansion in River Oaks with poor pictures on Zillow or MLS. It looks unprofessional and gives the impression of incompetence. I’ve worked in high end residential real estate and know how competitive it is not only to get the listing but also to sell the property at a premium. It’s not just whether your house will sell it’s getting the most return and believe me, pictures (professional images that show the property in its best light)can make a huge difference. The notion that even in River Oaks you can market a property in the way the comment of the day alludes is just not creditable to those in the field.
Creole: I can only speak in my own little bubble but when I list a property for sale/lease, I can have great pics, bad pics, no pics, etc. Depending on each, the showing # might change, but the result does not. Thus my conclusion that pics don’t matter (fine — don’t matter much). This might not apply outside my own bubble (I’m not in the market to rent or sell a $10m+ river oaks home)
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Each way we list, people are going to want to view before they buy, lease, or make an offer. The difference is, on my properties where I’ve done staging and taken nice pics, we get a TON of leads. However, I think the “extra” leads we get from having good pictures (vs. bad) are those people drawn to the property BY the good pictures — and not necessarily those that are going to buy/lease once they view.
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So if I have a few apts for rent and take great pics, I might show them 100 times and finally get a few renters. Or I can toss up “meh” pics, show them 10 times, and get them rented. For the sanity of my leasing agents, fewer showings are better and if someone is interested even though we have terrible pics, it means they’re pretty serious about taking the place.
Good photos are like the first impression you make in a job interview. You can either present yourself as a slob or be well-groomed. Which one stand the better chance of getting to the second interview?
leasing a property vs. selling a property are obviously 2 different things.
People don’t necessarily expect good pics for a rental. The commission structure is lower so it doesn’t make much sense to pay someone $100 to take pics for you. I can take fine pics with my cheap Nikon DSLD but it seems not everyone has the desire or skill to do the same on rentals. There’s also usually such a limited inventory in good areas that beggars can’t be choosers.
Whereas you see it as a pain to show the property a lot, someone who has had their home sitting on the market for a while would be thrilled to get a few extra showings. You can’t sell the house if they never come see it.
When I see bad pictures on a house for sale, I usually think the agent is probably incompetent and expect the rest of the transaction to be a headache.