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In an effort to improve the impact of the marketing of listings, I randomly choose current listings around the country in a variety of price ranges and comment on their effectiveness. No current clients of mine are used, nor do I know any sellers or buyers or have any additional information about the property.
5183 West Pea Ridge Rd., Huntington WV, $194,000 4 + 3
http://hdhomes.trulia.com/property/1048600908-5183-W-Pea-Ridge-Rd-Huntington-WV-25705
The seller of this house should be extremely disappointed with this agent. For that matter so should other agents. No wonder this property has been on the market for more than 6 months. It must be a one-year listing and the seller is stuck.
I actually chose this one to review because the online advertisement through the Herald-Dispatch (the area's leading newspaper) listing indicated there are 28 photos. My expectations were for a motivated seller and an advertisement overloaded with information, descriptions, and photos to die for.
Not here. After a couple of exterior photos make the house look very appealing, the interior photos show us that the house is practically empty. Some are taken from poor angles. Rooms without furniture do not allow a potential buyer to envision what their furniture might look like, or get an idea of the scope and depth of a room. In addition, a couple of the photos have items left laying around. It reflects that the photographer wouldn't take 30 seconds to move a few items over for the sake of a photo. Not acceptable if I was the seller. Or the manager of that agent.
Yet, it gets worse.
The description copy, which is supposed to provide selling point after selling point, reads "Large updated home, main bedroom suite, lots of amenities". And nothing else. We don't even know what is "updated".
What we do know is that it has been on the market for a long time, is empty and countless people could have been inside to know security secrets. Nothing about the community, whether or not there is a garage or parking, or any reasons for a potential buyer to want more information.
At least six months ago somebody whipped through with a camera and took a ton of photos, and they are probably all on the spread without reviewing each. Then one sentence was typed in for the ad copy. And so it sits.
I think it will sit there until this listing expires through this agent and the seller wises up.
What hurts even more is that with using a few of the existing pictures (and taking out the bad ones) and adding even a mid-level description, this home could easily be attractive to potential buyers.
GRADE: F
Note: This commentary is uncompensated and for marketing purposes only and is no reflection on the featured property. Its accuracy is not guaranteed. Neither Dave Kohl nor First In Promotions shall be held responsible for any representations.
At this time, I have openings for more realty agent/office clients to critique current and brand new listings on an hourly basis. No current or past client listings are featured on this blog.Random listings are chosen around the country.
Your comments are most welcome!
In an effort to improve the impact of the marketing of listings, I randomly choose current listings around the country in a variety of price ranges and comment on their effectiveness. No current clients of mine are used, nor do I know any sellers or buyers or have any additional information about the property.
2360 Centre St., (West Roxbury) Boston MA $249,997 3 + 1 http://realestate.boston.com/homes/listing/2205-71066925/Boston-MA-USA/2-beds/200000-250000-price/142-71072605--431-71072664--2190-71026759--2190-71026758--13699-136006--1049-71072671--2190-71026751--3195-71068710--2205-71066925--1745-71058035-ls/159-t/Price_Sales,1-ns
This one is typical of listing advertisements I like to use when meeting with a realty agent or group of agents who are potential clients. Here is an example of a home that has challenges but could be presented much better than this agent is.
The primary photo provides little more than an example of why agents need to ride herd over the photos of their listings. There is absolutely no reason for this to be such a wide shot from further back. All that does is show what a dreary weather day it was and the bare trees. (I found this ad in mid-May, so it is obviously an older photo, which is another negative.) We see a vehicle parked in the drive way on the right, and a poorly landscaped open stretch on the left. Both of those, plus some of the bare trees, would not have been in the photo had it been taken from closer in.
There is only one other exterior photo in the photo spread. While I understasd they want to show the "large yard", the photo that shows it with a clearly temporary fence not even completely upright and what looks like mud taking up much of the space. It is poorly landscaped. This photo does more harm than good, which is also the case on a couple of the interior photos shown.
Overall, the photo spread does more harm than good. Especially when it is obvious by the bare trees that it was taken weeks ago. Frankly, there is no excuse for these photos to be in a Boston Globe advertisement weeks after the fact.
Those who stick around long enough to read the copy read a careless description. It is then that we find out it is only the 2nd floor unit that is for sale. Because the primary photo is so far removed, it appears to be the entire house for sale. Nothing about this being a duplex or two-flat.
How about the copy reading "newer replacement windows"? One would think that an agent from a nationally known firm would know not to have "newer" and "replacement" together like that. Another red flag to a potential buyer. The "private driveway for 1+ parking" is not a plus when it tells us there is no garage while the exterior photos were taken on a rainy day.
At the end, the last sentence is "Walk to T, commuter rail....." and names a school. Besides "walk to" being an outdated term for Realtors in recent years, naming the school without telling a potential buyer whether it is a grammar school or high school does not help very much.
Based on a couple of the (good) interior photos, and with an exterior one taken to show this home properly, combined with description copy written by someone with expertise, this could be presented as an attractive property. This seller should be extremely disappointed in how their home is being presented.
GRADE: C-
Note: This commentary is uncompensated and for marketing purposes only and is no reflection on the featured property. Its accuracy is not guaranteed. Neither Dave Kohl nor First In Promotions shall be held responsible for any representations.
At this time, I have openings for more realty agent/office clients to critique current and brand new listings on an hourly basis. No current or past client listings are featured on this blog.Random listings are chosen around the country.
Your comments are most welcome!
In an effort to improve the impact of the marketing of listings, I randomly choose current listings around the country in a variety of price ranges and comment on their effectiveness. No current clients of mine are used, nor do I know any sellers or buyers or have any additional information about the property.
277 Willow Lake Dr., Albany GA 4 + 2 (no price)
http://www.albanyherald.com/home/misc/86877137.html (page 6)
This magazine ad shown online provides plenty of information; however it does not provide a price or an agent name. As a result, a potential buyer scanning the ad before reading the copy has no idea of price, and most likely moves his/her attention to the ad immeidately to the right. The one with homes in 4 different price ranges, two of which appear more attractive (based on the photos) than our featured one.
There is only one photo, which is an exterior shot taken from a good angle. However, the garage is open and shows a car parked inside, which is considered a "no-no" for advertisements.
While the concept of featuring an Open House with directions at the top is a solid one, the failure to include the price wipes out any reasonable chance of good attendance. Even though the ad includes 3 phone numbers including a cell number, there is no agent name at all within. As if people are going to call a person whose name they don't know to ask the price of an open house?
The description copy includes notes such as "2225 Living Area". I suppose it means square feet, but the garage is attached. More confusion shown by the nameless person. There is the "Wooded Lot With Green Space In Rear (Just Completed)" line. Does this mean there was no lot in back until recently? I won't even comment on the use of a capital letter to start every word.
If I were the seller, I'd be upset at how poorly what information is there is communicated, and even more upset that no price is given.
What might have been......
GRADE: D
Note: This commentary is uncompensated and for marketing purposes only and is no reflection on the featured property. Its accuracy is not guaranteed. Neither Dave Kohl nor First In Promotions shall be held responsible for any representations.
At this time, I have openings for more realty agent/office clients to critique current and brand new listings on an hourly basis. No current or past client listings are featured on this blog.Random listings are chosen around the country.
Your comments are most welcome!
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