I was shopping again for a vintage guitar on eBay. This took place after I had to explain to my wife why the eight guitars I currently own (not all are pictured here) aren’t enough. There is a particular sound I need for a recording and only a 1962 Gibson Les Paul SG with PAF pickups will fit the bill.
Sure enough, I found one. Notice the 75 pictures taken from every conceivable angle.
Now take a look at this $800,000 home on Realtor.com and note the 6 pictures.
Or here, $2,000,000+ listing on Realtor.com. There are no pictures at all.
Now go here and check out this $169 suit on eBay. A $169 suit marketed better than most homes on Realtor.com!
A waterfall of content and images.
eBay sellers get it.
eBay shoppers expect it.
It makes their world spin in perfect harmony.
Buyers and sellers working together.
Cheese on macaroni.
Real estate has no such synergy.
Oil and water.
For every k’ching the agent chooses not to spend to upload more pictures, a dozen consumers are dissapointed.
They diminish their promise to the customer.
They destroy their own claims to expertise.
They fall short of their commitments.
Their words mean nothing. Their conversation — one sided.
It matters little what Realtor.com’s photo policy is.
Posting 6 pictures is a disgrace.
Posting none is borderline criminal.
Its time to fix what’s broken.
You owe it to your clients.
You owe it to the people who want to sell their homes so they can move on with their lives.
You owe it to every person who steps into your web space and leaves unfulfilled.
You owe it to yourself.
- Davison
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A mist of difference
Freaking...
Wow.
Great post. I thank you for it. I'm going to make sure that all the addresses I buy when I sell homes, 8080 W Wildcat Drive.com, I'm going to have many many pictures.
The eBay example… Great paradigm shift.
-Ron
Check out realestateshows.com
Check out vflyer.com
Sign up to flickr.com
So many options exist online to enhance the listing, it's scary.
Good digital cameras are cheap.
2mb storage discs are cheap.
Uploading hundreds of photos to the web are cheap.
Its amazing how far a little bit can go.
I couldn't find what's so special about realestateshows.com. Seemed a bit confined with the small thumbnails instead of the pictures laid out in front of you like eBay but something powerful for the many who aren't computer savvy.
But vFlyer. Liked that alot, mainly the idea of creating a flyer and being able to distribute it among all the classified sites, once.
You're totally right. A little goes a long way nowadays.
1962 Gibson Les Paul SG…ha great taste Marc.
With PAF's! That thing probably growls even when not plugged in.
Marc, I think that you've arrived at the fundamental challenge that real estate will answer — for better or worse — in 2008. The challenge is how will the great majority of realtors respond to a growing population of clients who have adopted a fundamentally different set of cultural "rules of engagement" than we've ever seen before.
If agents aren't already using Flickr (or something like it) to show and share their own images, they will not think of using Flickr when it comes to posting their property photos. If agents aren't running the rest of their lives through MySpace, they won't be running much of their business through MySpace either. If I'm not posting content and watching videos on YouTube or Hulu, then I'm sure as hell not thinking of posting videos online.
Seth Godin's new book, Meatball Sundae, does an excellent job of explaining this new divide and further pointing out how those businesses that have been commodotized must do more in strategically re-positioning themselves than simply trying to adopt the latest widget. Using technology-based tools when you and/or your company can't keep the cultural promise represented by using those tools won't cut it.
I think that everyone in our industry will have to answer this challenge in 2008. Those that really "get it" will win big. To lots of other brokers and agents, trying to answer this challenge will simply mean 'business as usual' — posing for one more photo with the dog until the last traditional/analog client has died.
Great comment.
What's interesting to me is how so many web 2.0 applications today are built to deliver an old school sensibility of what agents, especially the veterans, are or were all about.
For the past 10 years web apps created more of a wedge than connection. Think auto responders and voice mail and sign in form and links out to data. An agent is not like that. Realtors are giving people. They want to serve and service their clients. The great promise of the web for the ten years, distilled that service.
If real estate is all about the relationship, I charge that most of the tools build over the last decade did not support that agenda.
But today, they do and agents can reclaim whatever may have been lost over time. Maybe all of it.
For me, that's exciting.
I couldn't find what's so special about realestateshows.com. Seemed a bit confined with the small thumbnails instead of the pictures laid out in front of you like eBay but something powerful for the many who aren't computer savvy.
But vFlyer. Liked that alot, mainly the idea of creating a flyer and being able to distribute it among all the classified sites, once.
You're totally right. A little goes a long way nowadays.