I’m re-posting this entry in its entirety and regret doing so because of copyright concerns, but there’s no other way to show you how incredibly awesome and amazing the ENTIRE Catalog Living site is otherwise!

The Caption:
Sure Gary’s out of town, but I’m perfectly capable of starting a fire in the fireplace by myself, thank you very much.

Go to Catalog Living if you need a really good laugh!  Perhaps these picture perfect catalog photos aren’t so perfect after all!

Listing by Darin & Michelle Hasty, Hasty Real Estate Group.  (931) 684-4000

Listing by Wes Stone and Diane Stem of Crye Leike. (615) 444-8200

Listing by Sue Robinson and Kay Riddle Perry of Bob Park Realty, LLC. (615) 896-4600

And this is the “whaaat?” photo of the day.

For a house listed at nearly a million smackaroos, why why WHY would a seller submit this photo?  To show that it’s fun to four-wheel at the house?  Especially with no helmet?

One thing for sure… when you choose to list for next-to-nothing compensation with a company located out-of-state, you get what you pay for.

Happy Birthday, USA!

Photo by Shane Pope via flickr creative commons.

The value of a swimming pool is priceless during the hot summer months when the kids are home from school bored, after you’ve mowed the lawn and are covered with sweat, or when the family comes for a two-week vacation visit.

The value of a swimming pool - as told by pool salesmen - is about $15,000 to $50,000.

The value of a swimming pool when you’re spending hours cleaning it, spending dollars on the chemicals, or spending money on liability insurance is a whole different story.  The value of a swimming pool when you’re selling your home is also another story.

Kitchen and bathroom makeovers add the most to the resale value of a home.  A swimming pool is may be nice to lounge around in the summer, but for resale it’s a perk that just doesn’t always add up.  I’ve looked at homes with buyers who sometimes love them, sometimes hate them.  One buyer mentally calculated the cost of filling in the pool before deciding to NOT buy the house.  Another fell for the salt-water pool immediately and made an offer on the house.

Depending on your location, adding a swimming pool could be one of the worst investments a homeowner can make.  Massachusetts agent Bill Gassett says,

Swimming pools often times can actually end up being a detriment when selling a home. There are many buyers that flat out will not buy a home that has one no matter how beautiful it is.  Are there times where a buyer is specifically looking for a pool? Sure…if you are lucky you may find a buyer that will pay a little more for a home with a pool. Just don’t expect that it will be anywhere close to the money you have sunk into the ground.

If you have a pool, enjoy it now.  You may not so much when it comes time to sell!

Photo by my Mom. The kid on the right? The cute one? That’s me. 

I’m beating the photo drum yet again.  Taking a look at a “quiz” on the National Association of Realtors web site and one of the questions was: What feature on real estate Web sites do customers most frequently say they find the most useful?

Of the choices, I picked “Photos of the property”…

Sure enough, the answer is correct.  So why in the world do sellers not request that their agents put multiple photos online when the home is listed?  I just performed a random search on my own MLS using the price range of $130,000 to $140,000 - an average priced home, really.  Of the almost 100 listings that came up, ELEVEN homes had only one photo or none at all.  That’s over 10 percent of the homes listed!

When you hire an agent to represent you, make sure they do their job.  Take photos, post them online.  It’s what buyers want.

Once a home is listed, the sign is in the yard, lockbox on the door, flyers have been designed, printed and stocked, and web sites are updated with beautiful descriptions and great photos, you’d think a Realtor could just kick back and relax as we wait for a stream of offers to pour in.

Bzzzzzz.  (That’s the wrong answer buzzer!)

If the house doesn’t sell within a month or two - maybe three or four - the seasons start to change requiring updated photos.  Or the flyer box is empty.  Or you want to just drive by and make sure your sign hasn’t been vandalized and it’s still standing.

One a listing is complete, the work is just getting started!  I’m heading to a beautiful listing in a few moments to take a photo of the newly staged bathroom and restock the flyers.  Last week I drove by to take a picture of the gorgeous pink tree in the front yard so the MLS photo will no longer look like winter.

Onward ho!

Kick kick.

I’m still kicking that dead horse here.  Harping about MLS photos that don’t show the TRUE picture of what a house looks like.  I took a buyer to see a listing today.  It was a beautiful country setting, all-brick house, acre of land, enough bedrooms, enough bathrooms.  You’d think giddy-up, right?

Wrong.

Kick kick.

The MLS photos didn’t show the gigantic blue tarp covering the caved in roof.

I would hereby like to move that agents everywhere display honest MLS photos.  But I know it won’t happen.  When hired by sellers, our job as Realtors is to find a buyer for the house and to get the most for the seller you can get.  To do that, you first must attract people TO THE HOUSE … everything after that is negotiable.  If we’d seen the blue tarp in advance, we would have never gone to look at the house.

That picture would’ve been worth about 24 miles for me… 24 miles that I wouldn’t have had to drive had I only seen it.

Photo from here… not the actual house.

It’s been awhile since I’ve linked to Lovely Listing - the site formerly known as “It’s Lovely! I’ll Take It” that features funny, interesting, and sometimes just BIZARRE photos of homes for sale.  The author says, “I’m just trying to make myself feel better about buying a house at the absolute peak of the housing bubble.”

I was drawn back today because a friend sent me a link to a house featured on my own MLS … it rather has a party-time feel to it with the bar and spiral stairs.  The gold shag and built-in seating in other pictures add to the effect, but that’s just my opinion.

But this one is my favorite of the day from Lovely Listing … someone’s knocking at your door.

They’ve infiltrated your defenses!

Have a great Monday!

We spent a good part of yesterday evening rearranging the living room furniture so we’d have room for the Christmas tree.  We did something we’ve never done before - put the couch in front of the window.  It was the only way since I picked up a recliner for my mother-in-law this year to help her back pain.

We have decided to save on our electric bill this year and not put up outside lights.  It makes me sad, but sometimes sacrifices must be made.  I’m not going so far as to not use tree lights, but if I decided against them this would be a great alternative!

HT: Brittney from San Francisco (and she found it via Flickr).