Bad MLS photos are getting more notice

Bad MLS photos are gaining in popularity – at least in terms of being called out as bad. Mary Umberger recently wrote an Inman News column about an agent/collector of bad MLS photos on their Active Rain blog (Mary’s article is for Inman subscribers only, but here’s the Active Rain blog Mary discusses).

Our readers know we’ve been touting bad MLS photography over the last few months, along with some very high quality photography, to help educate agents on the difference between “reference” photos (taken just to recall some details) versus “marketing” photos, those which are intended to engage, move, and motivate prospective buyers to take further action. Those actions can be clicking through to your property details page, calling you, or emailing you. Hopefully it stops them from dismissing your listing and stating, “Next”!  Many times “reference” photos get uploaded to satisfy the MLS requirements but are then included when this listing is shotgun-syndicated across the web and become “marketing” photos.

As we’ve said before, you only get one chance to make a good first impression, and in this market, that lasts a fraction of a second for buyers who are trying to filter out homes they DON’T want to investigate further when viewing search results screens on major real estate sites.

Don’t know what we mean? Take a look at this Wall of Shame entry – remember these photos are to help sell homes. What does this photo say about the property?

Click here to view more Wall of Shame entries.

I bet you could use a palate cleanser right about now, so here’s a Wall of Fame entry from this week:

Click here to view more Wall of Fame entries.

Let us know in the comments if you have more candidates for the Walls of Fame/Shame.  We’d love to feature them here!