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Selling Points? Not so much...
In a tough real estate market that continues to sag and drag due to the monumental mortgage meltdown of 2008, real estate agents have to work double time to make sure the properties they represent are presented in the best possible manner.
Since so many potential buyers begin their home search on the Internet, it’s a no brainer that good listing photos are a necessity for attracting interest. So why, then, are there so many ill-conceived, utterly pointless and inexplicably bizarre listing photographs floating around on the Web? A consumer could easily come to the conclusion that many real estate agents — and sellers — believe that a bad listing photo is better than no photo at all.
But is it really? You decide.
Note: These are actual, unretouched photos of actual houses currently on the market around the country.
Photo Credit: Getty Images
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Reflections
Mirror, mirror on the wall, is this the most outdated bathroom of them all?
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Empty Shelf
Completely devoid of any spatial context, this fuzzy photo of an impossibly narrow and empty shelf imparts exactly nothing about the property. Nada. Zip. Zilch.
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Teapots and Anchors
This photo of a rustic cabin on Long Island might just as well be an abstract art installation in a high-priced New York City gallery.
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Filthy Facilities
A listing picture of a disgustingly dirty toilet is never in good taste and always a punishable real estate crime of the highest magnitude.
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A Cavalcade of Clutter
One of the most important rules of selling a house is to clear the clutter so that a potential buyer can picture their own belongings in the space. Clearly neither the real estate agent nor the seller of this $5 million apartment in New York City got the message.
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Shower Abstraction
Bathrooms are notoriously difficult to photograph due to their usually quite limited proportions as evidenced by this counterproductive photo of a not quite clean corner of a shower/tub combination.
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Another Shower Abstraction
Here’s another photographic faux pas of a bathroom guaranteed not to create any kind of desire in a potential buyer to look at let alone purchase the property.
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And Still Another Shower Abstraction
Useless and failed photos of bathrooms seem to be in a painfully endless supply.
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A Vast Emptiness
The listing agent for this house should be tarred, feathered and deep fried in beer batter for uploading this completely purposeless photo of absolutely nothing on to the Internet.
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Blue Mood
There is something vaguely pornographic about this photo that will not likely appeal to very many buyers.
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A Dated Disaster
Hello? Is anybody there? It’s me, 1974 calling and I’m as ugly as sin.
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Funereal Fugliness
This is exactly why drapery bought at the yard sale of a retired mortician should never be re-hung in a private home no matter how cheap they were.
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A Cataclysm of Collections
Tiny Christmas villages, posters of Mickey Mouse, dizzying wallpaper, faux brick and angel figurines. Have mercy. Does it get any worse?
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Storage Shortage
This photo lets everyone know there isn’t nearly enough storage in this house.
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Doors Galore
I’ll take door #3, please.
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Not in the Closet
The real estate agent for this house was too busy or too lazy to bother to roll this over-stuffed clothes rack out of the frame before taking the photo.
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Basement Enigma
Dark, dank and unfinished basements often make people think of axe murderers and buried bodies. This is why.
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To Grandmother’s House…
This is just so sad and lonely…heartbreaking really.
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Futon Confusion
It’s unclear if it’s a house being sold here or the futon sofa with the campy leopard print pillows.
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Residential Confusion
Apparently the real estate agent isn’t even sure exactly which of these two houses is for sale. Are you?
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Photo Credit: lawtonchiles
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