Picture This Alabama Home

Not everyone agrees with me that a big part of the reason that homes do not sell fast enough and/or for the prices they should is because of how poorly they are advertised and marketed.

If ever there was a prime example, it is this ad for a home in the Montgomery AL area, listed at $199,000.

This advertisement, for a 4 bedroom 3 bath home, was one of SEVERAL shown at the same price as found via the Montgomery daily newspaper's statewide online network search.

I chose to look at this particular home, at 38 Travertine Dr in Pike Road, AL because of the primary photo being difficult to comprehend as a thumbnail.

When I opened up the full web page devoted to the property, I quickly understood why. The photo is taken from an angle looking DIRECTLY into the sun, making the upper portion of the photo too bright to see detail. Incredibly, the rest of the photo shows the home under construction, compete with the siding visible and what looks to be debris and supplies instead of a front lawn. There are NO other photos available.

Even more incredibly, the one paragraph description has NO mention that the home is not finished. Therefore, either the photo is way outdated, OR the advertiser left out an important piece of information if there is NO house at this point in time.

The description copy includes the phrase "This is a must see at only $199,900". A "must see" that anyone looking at the photo cannot see?

This advertisement goes on to invite viewers to come visit the model home for the builder, and gives an address on a different street without a city. And no directions or any indication of the community it is located in.

I'll say this again. This is not the only property shown on my search at this same price. The other advertisements I could have opened up all had photos of "real" homes with the promise of several photos.

Incredibly, the web site claimed that this page (for the home on Travertine) had been UPDATED on the very day I found this. Which means that someone, somehow, somewhere, actually approved to continue running it this way.

Sure. If this home doesn't sell, blame it on the housing market. Right?

http://realestate.al.com/?classification=real+estate&temp_type=detail&tp=RE_bama&property=al.com&finder=buy&ad_id=741631650