They say a picture is worth a thousand words... When it comes to real estate photos, depending on the commission associated with the sale of a property, we can probably translate each of those words into a few Benjamins.
There are fabulous photographers on AR giving members advice on just how to take that awe-inspiring photo of a dwelling that one might fall in love with; great advice on what sort of camera to buy, basic editing techniques and so much more, all going towards the all-important first impression...
Some choose their IDX providers based on how the property photos will be displayed to the buyers and are willing to pay top dollar for the ones that can provide the best presentation...
What if you were one of those agents or brokers who has gone through the trouble to do all the right things, acquired just the right camera, learned PhotoShop, got a Cadillac of IDX providers and signed up for all the premium Zillow, Realtor.com, Trulia et al services to have your listings with their beautiful photos appear at the top of the searches... ?
What if you had spent thousands of dollars getting to this point only to realize that NONE of it makes the slightest bit of difference? How pissed would you be if upon uploading your high resolution photos, where a potential buyer can see every vein in the granite countertop, every doorknob that you meticulously polished is reflecting the love previous owners put into the home, where your landscape photos of the surroundings make one feel the crisp blue of the Atlantic...only to realize that your potential customer will be looking at a tiny thumbnail?
If you are a member of the Daytona Beach Association of Realtors and submit your photos to the DB MLS - NO MATTER who your IDX is provided by, and no matter how large the photos you sent in with your listings - the consumer is looking at 290 by 218 pixel images you so painstakingly took. Take a minute and scroll through Daytona area listings via Realtor.com or any other engine consumers may use, even your own search option on your site, and you will be looking at itty bitty photos.
Navigate to Flagler area, or South Florida or quite possibly any place else in the US, and if you click on enlarge photos - the thumbnails generally speaking will, in fact, get larger. Except for the 22 mile stretch of beautiful coastline that is the greater Daytona Beach Area.
For the ones curious enough to know why that is, here is my take on it so far. In a few short words, the DB Board of Realtors technology officer or whatever the official title is has no clue whatsoever about technology. We have been designing a few sites for a local brokerage firm, and once we installed the new IDX (the very expensive but cool Diverse Solutions type) we realized that the images in the slide show stayed tiny. We called IDX folks and they referred us to the board, as they get their feeds directly from them. The above-mentioned person at the Board had no clue about what a pixel meant and insisted that the only limitation as to the size of images they impose on the realtors is a 2 MEG max file size, but outside of that, it's someone else's problem.
So we called their contracted MLS provider, Innovia to see what they could tell us, thinking that, at the very least, the people there would know the difference between file size and dimensions, and surprisingly - they did. A very nice man by the name of Austin found a checkbox or something to that effect that indeed limited the output of all images to feeds to their thumbnail size, and promptly put in the work order to have it lifted.
My husband and partner in crime is a sweet-natured guy, so he figured all the realtors here have been somewhat cheated for at least a year and a half of being able to properly show their listings to consumers, so he called the board to let them know about this very simple fix and that it would, indeed, be resolved for EVERYONE.
Upon hearing the great news, the technology officer promptly explained to my hubby that he had no right to do that, and that we CAN"T have our feed display larger images than anyone else, and berated him for trying... She then promptly contacted the MLS folks, Innovia, and put a stop to the work order.
It took a few threats, and a few more calls, and might still take a trip down to Daytona Board of Realtors office tomorrow to settle the dust, but Innovia just let us know that the IDX's will in fact start displaying larger photos shortly. So for any of you who work in the area, just in case the incompetence wins yet again, if you have an issue with displaying thumbnails only to your prospects, speak up in the comments, and we will use your names in addition to a few we already have to get it fixed for everybody.
In the meantime, I wish MLS access was no longer necessary to sell real estate, or at the very least that there were options. I find it offensive that the Association's Board took no steps on their own to resolve this issue and when we helped get it solved found it imperative to let us know who the boss is. The way I see it, the boss is a person sitting on the other end of the computer screen looking for properties in the Daytona Area with a magnifying glass. That's who cuts the check or not.
So again, to any members of the Daytona Association of Realtors - speak up in the comments.
Thanks all!
PHOTO by Jon Hardison.
It was a picture perfect day in Daytona Beach. At 79F it felt on a cooler side, crispy and clean air, blue sky...
Well, need to go and check if Gary Woltal has placed his incredibly great pictures of a liftoff, like he did last time (LOL). Not that he lives here, he is in Texas, but he somehow manage to be in the right place at the right time.
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