“You’ve only got one chance to make a first impression.” I am sure many of you have heard this saying countless times in the past. Well, it applies just as much in the Big Bear real estate world as well.
One of our jobs as real estate agents is to market the properties we sell in the best light in order to get top dollar for our clients. That said, it always fascinates me when I see such a poor job being done by some listing agents (those representing the property sellers). And sometimes it is just the little things.
Case in point, listing a property for sale and not inputting photos at the same time. Many agents will go back later and add them, but the opportunity for a positive initial first impression has been missed, and that can be costly.
As I’ve said before, the first sale in real estate is to the other agents. When a property hits the Big Bear MLS, it is most likely going to be seen within 24 hours by the majority of real estate agents in Big Bear. This is the first impression they get on the property. If the new listing is not showing a any photos, most of the agents are going to write it off and move on to the other new listings that have more details and pics.
Take a look at the screenshot below from some new listings that past few days. Which listing would you click to see more details on?
Missing the first impression with potential buyer is just as costly as well. According to the 2010 NAR Profile of Home Buyers & Sellers, 85% of buyers found property photos to be very useful in their search. Missing out on this small, but critical first step risks alienating a large percentage of potential buyers right from the start.
Even more, with technology these days, thousands of emails are going out on new listings everyday. And don’t forget all of the of the real estate websites (Realtor.com, Zillow, Trulia, Redfin, etc) that get updated every 15 minutes with new listings. The key point – if a new listing shows up in a buyer’s email box, or on their new listing alert feed, how much time do you think they are going to spend looking at it if there are not any photos? I say very little at all.
Plain & simple, if you list a property for sale in the MLS, make sure the property photos are ready to go from the beginning.
Tyler,
Once again you are right on the money. I can’t believe that any agent would allow a listing to hit the MLS without photos. It is akin to malpractice. Also, the quality of the photos is critical too. Yours are some of the best in the business. There have been many times that I have been to preview one of your listings to find that it looks better in the pictures than it does in real life. When I list a home I always send the seller the property detail sheet from my website https://SearchBigBearRealEstate.com so they can see the quality of the pictures and the content of the remarks for their home. I take a lot of time getting my pictures right and I’m proud to show the seller the work I have done on their behalf. In addition, I make sure that I have a virtual tour up with a live link when I post new listings to the MLS. I find that the virtual tour is clicked many more times when it goes out in the initial email blast to all buyers who have set up alerts. I’m always astounded to see listings with errors and misspellings and blurry badly cropped pictures which are poorly composed and don’t even show the best features of the home. Yours are always excellent quality. Keep up the great work.
Thanks Will. One at a time, we can all slowly change the game in real estate and bring the level of professionalism to where it should. That’s really what we are talking about here.