We need more than 4 photos per listing
Our number one request is by far, “more photos”. It’s crazy, close to 10 emails a day with just basically, “more photos please”. Apparently, for now, our MLS only exports 4 photos per property. What does this mean? Basically, we display every picture we can; there are no more.
Kip has set up a cheap, simple virtual tours site, in an effort to get local agents to post more unbranded photos so we, they, and other agents may better know, promote, and sell their listings. Additionally, agents that utilize these tours will have them linked from their listings that appear on our website.
With that in mind, we thought we would provide a friendly online “petition” to perhaps get a more public view of the kind of feedback we receive on a daily basis:
Dear Northeast Georgia Realtors,
I would like to see more than 4 photos per listing…
MORE PHOTOS, PLEASE
Signed,
Kip Draper
More photos please!!! 4 just isn’t enough…why? front and back of the dwelling, view or creek, and kitchen are ‘must haves’. That’s 4 right there. Give 6 photos to improved properties, 4 photos to commercial properties and large undeveloped tracts, and 2 to building lots and raw land. Sound fair?
Also, please ask agents to stop adjusting the perspective of a property’s view photo by using a camera’s zoom lens. That’s the same as trespassing onto another person’s property with a closer, more dramatic view and thus higher sales value, taking a picture, then using that photo to sell the listed property that’s farther away with a lesser value mountain view. These “zooming-in on the view” photos are very misleading to prospective purchasers and could be argued as unethical because they are misrepresenting the listed property. Buyers want “what you see is what you get” from the agent’s listing photos, particularly when they are on the web. Buyers don’t want to waste their time visiting properties only to have to use opera glasses to get the same view as in the agent’s photos.
Great points Cat. I use the stock Nikon lens on my D90. I am going to try a wide angles lens for interior photos. Zoom lenses are worthless for real estate unless you’re shooting from an airplane! Secondly, I don’t doctor my photos at all; who has time for that? I just snap 100 and toss out half.
Another sneaky agent trick is to “Photoshop” the photos. One agent is known to crank the hue & saturation on every photo so that it looks more lush, etc. The problem is that she overdoes it to the point of pixelating the photos. I’ve even seen her make the double-wide next door disappear using the rubber stamp tool. Needless to say, I don’t trust her listings so they’re filtered out of our Website and I don’t show them unless a customer demands it.
If you see misleading photos on our Website, report it here and that agent’s listings will be banned from the site.
PS: We’re also looking for a way to filter listings with blurry, low-res, mobile phone photos like here. Man, if all of the agents start using their cell phones for property photos, I’m going to have to quit the business or go blind.
More quality photos please
I’m in the market for a new home and looking to spend a lot of money. The more photos I can see the better chance I will have in making up my mind. The web is where most people start looking these days for that new home and pictures is all we have to go by. Let it happen.
i like the moutnins