Brett & Megan

Tip #7: Take good photos. This is the entry in the Idiot’s Guide to Selling Your House. OK I didn’t really look but it’s gotta be in there.

Ever since we’ve been married, Megan has been on the hunt – for a house. Visiting Zillow & Realtor.com is not a daily hobby for Megan, it’s an addiction. She’s always scheming some way for us to get into an area with good housing and good jobs. The search has taken us physically to a dozen places here in CA as well as virtually to just about every state in the West.

Recently, we stepped things up a notch by going out to look at places with realtors. We feel we’re getting to know the market and the game pretty well. We’re on the MLS list serve which sends us houses in our price range and geographic area. These emails come daily and most have pictures. The pictures are usually taken by the selling agent who wants to show off the attractive features of the house. They’re supposed to be good advertising, which is why it always surprises me to find something like this:

Yes, these are actual photos from the real estate listing for a house here in SoCal. What does this say to the potential buyers? “Yardwork and ladder to fix consistently leaky roof included. Creative storage opportunities for ladder & tools.” It was accompanied by the text, “Classic house, high on hill, montrous lot”. Apparently spelling and focusing the camera are not qualifications for a real estate license. How about this:

“Our decoration approach is best described as chaos theory.” And finally . . .

Oh . . . This one is pure sabotage.