Wednesday, August 22, 2007


I do not know about the rest out there but I take all of my photos on every listing we have. You would think that any agent that is listing properties in this market would be running right to the office as soon as they can to import them so they didn't lose a days market time. I wondering if these types of agents want to sell the properties or just let them sit. Maybe the word "lazy" comes to mind? Well I have an even better story. I had this listing in Pembroke Pines about a year ago. The seller was in trouble. Same story...overpaid during the boom and now owes more than it can command in our market. He called me because his relative purchased the property from a seller who had me list it. I tried for 8 months to sell it. the only showings we had were my own cultivated leads. I did three open houses and I spent money marketing the property and I took pictures. Well after all that... we could not sell it ...he called me to say he needed to take it off the market. It was a tough sale anyway and the home was bare and was in poor condition.I do take pride in the photos I take even though I left the toilet seat up in one of my recent posted listings. "ok...no one is perfect!"
I told him I would be willing to try to sell it again but he needed to price it much lower. I never heard back from him. But recently I noticed he re-listed the property with another Realtor(R).
I had no problem with that because it was a property that in my opinion was not saleable the way it was. The new Realtor(R) listed it way too high"that's her problem now" ...but as I was looking over the listing I noticed that she decided without my authorization to use all of my photos. I thought I was losing my mind but I even matched them against my old listing and they were exact.
The funniest thing was the agent was not only lazy for not taking their own photos...but was simply stupid enough to include my sign in the yard from the front exterior shot. I decided I would just play it cool and email the agent that she had absolutely no authority to use photos I spent time taking and that she needed to remove them immediately. You are talking about an agent who has been around and works for a big company. Well..it has been a week since my email and no response form the agent. I went back into the MLS today to see if she complied and believe it or not ...she did. She probably was too embarrassed to respond back. This happened to me a few years ago when an agent stole my remarks word for word and the photo he used had my car on the driveway...you could almost read my license plates. What is the the deal with that?

The point I want to make is why an agent has to not only be lazy but has to steal another agents photos? To me it is the most unprofessional thing I have ever seen in this business. Why should I let another agent ride my coat tails? If you are going to interview a Realtor(R) to market your property then you should make sure you ask them about what type of photo layout they will provide when they market it.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Neal, I completely agree with you on this but, unfortunately, when you go to enter a photo on the S. FL (our) MLS, there is a notice at the bottom that reads "Notice: MLS users grant MLS, participants & subscribers rights to reproduce & display photos. The MLS shall own the copyright to all photos submitted." Had that agent chosen not to remove YOUR photos, she would've had the right to leave them up. On a very regular basis, I see agents who re-use the previous agent's photos. They've used my photos as well. The boards refuse to police this which is why they've chosen the lazy way out with that disclaimer. Of course, these are the same boards that refuse to require at least one photo of everly listing.