House of the Day: 1217 Ditmas Avenue
Why do sellers keep using brokers who haven’t figured out how to take a decent digital photograph? This was the first thing that popped into our mind as we looked at this new listing at 1217 Ditmas Avenue on the Kestyn website. (We lifted the exterior photo above from PropertyShark.) The second was that this…
Why do sellers keep using brokers who haven’t figured out how to take a decent digital photograph? This was the first thing that popped into our mind as we looked at this new listing at 1217 Ditmas Avenue on the Kestyn website. (We lifted the exterior photo above from PropertyShark.) The second was that this one-family house (with two-car garage) could benefit from some staging. After all, it has some respectable bones but it has a very drab, dated feel to it. Declutter the furniture, take down those drapes, punch it up a bit, and you’d definitely have a better shot at achieving the $999,000 asking price. And get a broker who won’t cut corners on the photos. You have to put your best foot forward in this market.
1217 Ditmas Avenue [Kestyn] GMAP P*Shark
traditionalmod, I hear what you’re saying…
… I guess my thing is that even when I was a casual looker/buyer I was not swayed by the photos. What got me interested were things that sounded interesting (location, specs, etc).
I looked at tons of houses/condos/co-ops, some staged well, some not, but I was never once sold on a house by either (in fact I’ve seen amazingly staged homes that I laugh at because the baseboards don’t line up and the fridge door can’t open because the dishwasher is in the way…).
I suppose it’s just a personal thing…
(as a side note, traditionalmod, are you more a lambretta or vespa leaning mod? 😉 )
But Christopher and Amanda, why on earth would you only limit yourself to serious buyers looking specifically in that neighborhood and price range? To rule out all the casual lookers who show up attracted by the pretty house photos is a huge mistake. My husband and I were only casually checking out the neighborhood and we ended up buying our present house. You hear those stories all the time. When I bought my house in CA, I was intrigued by the photos and went to see the house even though it was a bit out of my price range and I didn’t plan to buy it. Loved it, bought it.
Plus even if the only purpose the casual lookers serve is to fill the house during open houses so the serious buyers make an offer more quickly, that’s a great thing. If serious buyers show up at an open house and there’s nobody there, it’s a ghost town, that does not help you. At all. Those people will know there’s no other interest or offers and they’ll wait it out to see if the price drops or lowball you. They’ll hardly offer asking price if nobody is showing up at the open houses.
Totally agreed christopher.
Looks like the staging professionals are out in full force today! Serious home buyers (myself included) are on alert for even the lowest-key listings with rinky-dink, no-name brokers. I’ve never *not* gone to see a house because the photos were crappy. If anything, I’m happy to hear that I’ll have less competition in my house search.
There is something to be said for staging and professional photos, but I agree with Amanda, I think most home buyers are looking at the keywords/stats/neighborhood info/etc.
A smart home buyer will look at the structure, the bones of the property, and be unconcerned with the staging. The majority of home buyers renovate/paint/decorate/etc to their own liking, regardless of how the house was staged.
Maybe I’m in the minority, but staging never mattered to me, the stats of the house were the selling points.
It’s anti-marketing! Draw people in by letting them think they’ll get a deal.
On the other hand, properties with bad photos, non-existent staging can be real deals. There are so many people out there who cannot imagine pulling up a carpet (that may be covering pristine floors), cleaning out all the crap. There was a unit in my building where the two women who lived there refused to clean the place out (ugly carpeting, cluttered kitchen, stacks of papers – just screamed “old ladies”) and it sold for at least $100K less than it should have.
The pictures may be bad MR. B. they must have been good enough for you since you’ve made this house of the day
“Why do sellers keep using brokers who haven’t figured out how to take a decent digital photograph”
I went to see this house. They did use a decent digital camera. The place is as dummpy in real life as it is in the photos.
Artfully staged, well-lighted and thoughtfully taken photos on a quality camera go a very long way towards capturing an audience for a given property. It wont make a potential buyer sign the contract or coax an offer in and of itself, but it will get the appropriate audience interested and in the door. The lighting and spatial arrangement of a property during a showing or open house have a similarly critical impact on the all-important first impressions of a property, and the photos will, more often than not, become the lasting visual record to refer after a buyer’s first (sometimes only) visit to a particular property.