I spend a lot of time on the MLS. A lot of the time, I’m looking for properties for my clients. But I also spend a ton of time pulling comps. Just now, I came across a real beaut of a property, with perhaps the worst kitchen layout ever. It’s really a kitchen to die for.
And when I say “to die for,” what I mean is, I think I’d kill myself if that were my kitchen.
I could pull a lot of photos out of that listing and share them with you, and virtually every one of them is more laughable than the one before.
When a property’s interior is short on saving graces, it’s probably a good strategy just to not include photographs that show it on the MLS. Sure, that’s a dead give-away that the interior sucks, but at a certain point, it enhances the marketability of the property to simply leave the level of suck up to the buyer’s imagination. If it’s really as bad as all that, better not to point it out.
So what’s the alternative? The MLS typically only requires one photo – and no photos with written permission of the owner. Put up as many photos as you can, so long as they don’t look too ridiculously horrible (like this one, of the worst kitchen layout ever). In a situation like this, you really need to sharpen your pencil and come up with a listing description that speaks to the property’s benefits, instead of its weak feature set.
And, of course: make sure you price it right, to get the buyers in the door. This particular property is an expired listing, and it’s easy to see why.