A Lesson in Picture Taking!

Okay, not so much a lesson but a rant. I swear there are a lot of Real Estate Agents out there who don't know which end of the camara to hold on to when they are taking listing pictures or if they do, they must be cross eyed! I know I have seen this discussion before but I experienced first hand yesterday how horrible some of the MLS pictures are.

I was helping a friend look for property out of town via Realtor.com. Most of the listings either had no pictures, or just a couple of pictures, or pictures that were so horrible you couldn't tell anything at all about the houses. How in the world do they expect to get anyone to call on them when they take pictures that are not identifiable? I mean seriously, some of those pictures were so bad you didn't know what you were looking at. Some looked like they were taken by an agent with wings? They were taken down on a room but were so crooked or cockeyed that it looked like the room was tilted on it's side.

I wonder sometimes if it is intentional so no one will want to show the properties so the agents can sell the homes themselves, or are they just badly in need of some photography classes. I am not professional photographer myself, but at least I can tell through the view finder if the picture is straight or not. Some of these were so out of focus or crooked you really couldn't telll anything about the homes at all.

Maybe we need to make it a requirement that all agents take some photography classes as part of their continuing education. Maybe they shouldn't be allowed to put a listing in the MLS without pictures. No pictures, no listing exposure. All I know is I can understand why the consumers get frustrated because I have never seen such horribly illustrated properties as I saw yesterday.

Oh well, rant is over. Have a Happy Holiday Week everyone.

Sandra Paulow, Associate Broker, GRI, SFR