In today's market, or in ANY market, what can be done to quickly sell your home for the best price possibly?
PICTURES!
I did some research the other day and boy, was I shocked! Here is what I found:
Out of 53 homes for sale, with a maximum sales price of $400,000 (yes, I DO sell regular homes as well, not only mobile homes or manufactured homes, even though selling mobile homes is my specialty) eleven of those 53 had NO PICTURE AT ALL!
No picture, not even one. How in the world could that agent deserve to make a commission when they are too lazy to even provide one picture.
Let's move on. Out of the 53, how many had one picture? Two. Wow. Now, 11 with no picture, 2 with one. That makes 13. How many had two pictures? One. No, this is not a joke, it is all true.
Did you know that as a real estate agent, when you place your listing of a home, you are actually allowed to put 20 (twenty) pictures in the multiply listing system? Yes, you can.
That multiply listing system (MLS)is the national internal system for real estate agents to so to speak "display their goods". So, for no extra charge, they, as an agent can easily display 20 photos of your home for maximum exposure.
Do they do it? No. Why not? Don't ask me, maybe they are lazy? Maybe they do not own a camera or maybe do not know how to take a picture. Whatever the reason, YOU ARE NOT GETTING THE SERVICE YOU DESERVE!
Here is a complete breakdown of my findings:
0=11
1=2
2=1
3=1
4=2
5=0
6=5
7=3
8=3
9=2
10=2
11=3
12=3
13=3
14=3
15=0
16=3
17=3
18=1
19=2
20=0
Yes, NONE had 20 pictures, only 2 out of 53 had 19 and 1 out of 53 had 18. How is that for a star performance, not.
In my opinion, carrying around a digital camera 24/7 is a pre-requisite (did I spell that right?) as a real estate agent. Carrying around an extra set of batteries is not a bad idea either.
In the beginning of my career, my digital camera had a ball, eating up my batteries constantly. I out-smarted the little battery-sucking thing though, bought myself rechargable batteries. A one-time expense and no more dead batteries polluting our earth.
What if the photos doesn't come out that nice? Re-take them. I am a stickler for insisting on (and proving to my sellers) that they indeed have their 20 photos on the MLS. Why shouldn't you, if you made the decision to sell, you NEED all the help you can get and your agent should do EVERYTHING in their power to sell your home, period.
If you are thinking of selling, please give me a call, I will be happy to help and yes, you will get your 20 pictures!
