Attention To Detail In Marketing

If only the listing agents and sellers would check advertisements carefully before putting them out there. It doesn't help the industry, either.

This ad is for a home up for Short Sale in a Chicago IL suburb. In this case, the "problem" is not with the incredibly short copy that tells little to nothing about the interior.

The problem is in one of the photos, and not from the angle of the picture. There is an interior photo (as of this writing) that clearly shows a date of May 2, 2010 on it. Granted, this could actually be a recent photo and the camera was not set to the proper date. Nonetheless, it gives the appearance of being an old and outdated photo. Someone could think that no one could sell this place for more than three years and be scared into looking elsewhere.

I simply can't believe that an agent would allow this to be published. For that matter, the seller is under a Short Sale and obviously wants to move on with his or her life as well. Why don't those involved double check every advertisement?

To make matters worse, this is how it appears on Realtor.com. It's not some out-of-the-way publication that only the advertisers actually read.

I have no idea how copy such as "Looks like a model" to accompany the potentially outdated photo is acceptable as a sales pitch either, but that's for another column.

Yet, many agents and those in the industry continue to go with prior home sales statistics and other factors as being the primary reason that certain homes don't sell. Look again:


http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/6142-Washington-Ct_Morton-Grove_IL_60053_M87462-85097?row=17