Another Reason Why Agents Need To Monitor Their Property Ads

An NFL player lists his home - and the advertisement for it has a car in the photo!

It is always considered a "no - no" to have a car included within an advertising for a residential listing, primarily for security reasons. When a home is still occupied, there are people who could watch the property for times when a pictured vehicle is not in the driveway or carport.

While doing research for agents and brokers around the country, finding cars in photos is actually only one of the things we find "wrong" with property ads.

As bad as having a car in the primary photo is, it becomes even more significant when the home currently belongs to what could be termed a celebrity, since it belongs to a current NFL player. Worse yet, the home is located within minutes of the stadium where this player has played for the local NFL team!

Jermaine Gresham, just signed as a tight end with the Arizona Cardinals, has listed his home across the river from Cincinnati, with the Bengals being one of his former teams.

However, part of a recognizable vehicle appears in the driveway in the primary photo of the home. What makes this so incredible is that this appears on Realtor.com, which is the real estate advertising site with the most credibility of all.

While it is bad enough that a professional real estate photographer could not work around a vehicle in the driveway when taking photos, the fact that it appears on such a major web site, monitored from around the country, shows the scope of this problem.

For example, because of his fame, the story about Gresham looking to sell his home, including this photo, made the "Celebrity News" section of the site, thus giving it even more views.

This never should have happened.

http://www.realtor.com/news/celebrity-real-estate/jermaine-gresham-selling-kentucky-home/

A Realty Firm Hiring As A "News" Story?

The journalist in me is fuming this afternoon. After I was tipped off to this, I went to the web site for the NW Indiana Times newspaper to see for myself.

On the front page (on the afternoon of 3/16), one of the local "NEWS" story links was headlined "McColly Real Estate Is Hiring Now". Again, this was a "NEWS" story link.

After clicking the link up came the "story" which is nothing more than a press release from this firm that they are looking to hire. And, how is this for a coincidence?

At the top of the page is an obvious ADVERTISEMENT for, you guessed it, McColly Real Estate.

It is bad enough when the news media simply runs a press release verbatim without checking facts or adding their own touch. But running a blatant advertisement as if it is a news story hits rock bottom.

How are its readers supposed to believe anything positive about a local business from here on out?

If I was a real estate agent in this area (which is technically a part of the Chicago metro market), I would start sending announcements and press releases to the News Editor. When it doesn't get published (since you are not an advertiser), I would bring this to the attention of others, such as the FTC or even local government.

As of March 16th, this is the link to the story:


http://www.nwitimes.com/mccolly-real-estate-is-hiring-now/article_87d0c2be-f39d-5cca-bfe5-940c7f1df1c2.html