Hello. I’m very eager to sell my home and would appreciate some advice. My realtor has been disorganized—misplacing paperwork and not following through on deadlines she set, like lowering the price when promised. My biggest concern is the listing photos: they weren’t done professionally and include poor lighting, blurry shots, her fingers in the frame, awkward angles, and even random shots (like my litter box and a small, cluttered pantry), which I worry could deter buyers. She did hire a professional for 360 video, but not the photos. As a buyer, I personally mainly look at photos vs a 360 video, but maybe others are different?
I mentioned disliking the photos, admittedly I wasn’t specific because I have anxiety over confrontation, but I did express wanting new ones. She didn’t seem jazzed about it, but said I could retake them and send new ones to her, however she cannot remove what she has already uploaded.
I’m in central Florida where there’s a lot of competition from new builds, but I expected at least some showings by now, sadly there’s been no interest. I’ve asked about lowering the price, and while she said she would handle it, I’m not confident it’s been done effectively.
I’m also unsure about her advice regarding landscaping and presentation. My yard has minimal grass after some freezes earlier in the year (it had little before due to no irrigation), and while she said it’s not worth investing in improvements, I feel curb appeal matters. Similarly, she advised against decluttering and depersonalizing (“They know someone lives here, just make sure your underwear isn’t on the floor”) which goes against most guidance I’ve seen online and heard from others who sold their homes.
I’ve signed a one-year contract and am now regretting it. I’m questioning whether I should push for changes (new professional photos, staging, pricing strategy) or explore options for ending the agreement and finding a better agent.
Any advice is appreciated.
Over a month, no showings… unsure about realtor
byu/jamjamgayheart inRealEstate
Posted by jamjamgayheart
22 Comments
Probably worth reaching out to whatever firm she works for and seeing if you can get a different agent…
People need to look at your house to buy it, and if no one is looking at it, you won’t sell it…
That’s literally her whole job… if she isn’t telling you why no one is interested, you need a new agent.
Stories like this always make me sad. See if she has a supervisor and speak to her supervisor about getting out of the contract. There are good Realtors out there but many of them are mediocre at best and with so much at stake it’s frustrating.
Call her broker (the boss) explain you are done. You will be done.
If your listing has a picture of a cat litter box, nobody is going to come see your house. Pictures are the first thing that people see. Bad pictures indicate a bad realtor.
You’re right about these things.
You do want to do some light staging, additional cleaning. Professional photos.
Your options are:
1. Read the termination terms in your contract. Decide if you want to to terminate and interview some better realtors.
2. Do all of that stuff without firing/confronting. Call a local real estate photographer. Insist that she remove the old photos because that doesn’t sound real to me. Believe it or not, you don’t need an expert eye to tell you how to stage, you can just look at other properties online and try to emulate that.
have you looked into whether your MLS listing allows you to update/replace photos separately?
some platforms let the seller request that directly
Most people would rather flip through photos at their own pace than watch a video. For one, she should know that as a professional. Second, if she’s too cheap or unknowledgeable to hire a professional photographer, she’s gotta go. Call her broker, demand a new agent.
End the agreement ASAP. Take it off the market and make the necessary changes. You need quality pictures and good curb appeal to even get people through the door.
That she wouldn’t start out with professional photos or follow through on agreed changes shows a real lack of professionalism.
Not having great photos in this age is just unacceptable. It pretty much counts as your first showing.
Pictures are worth a 1,000 words. I’ve bought 4 homes and can assure you I pinch zoomed on every detail in those photos. When I’ve sold my homes, I always staged and hired a professional photographer myself. I did not rely on the realtor to do this.
Terminate the agreement via email and list all the reason, cc the broker. Tell them to remove the listing immediately- bad photos aren’t good for your home. Escalate if they refuse to release you with honest reviews and reporting to their board. Get a new agent at a different brokerage. Don’t sign for more than 3 months at a time next time.
Agent here. You absolutely should terminate your agreement, she sounds awful.
First, send your agent an email requesting to terminate the agreement. Then, do some research on agents in the area. Interview them ahead of time and stress these things being important to you and make sure they’re willing to do them for you before you sign anything with them.
Of course she can remove bad photos. She is lazy. Go to her boss and demand breaking the contract.
I would continue to work with her, and I would specifically request that she retake all photos. Not with her fingers, but with her toes… And her commission would depend on the quality of the toe pics
My friend is a Realtor and she handles my rentals, also did sells and buys for some mutual friends. She cracks the whip. You just do not want to disappoint her because she lets you know how hard she is working for you. It’s like, “I have 3 prospective tenants coming Monday. Did you finish that xyz?”
We joke about the awful photos out there. My faves are the bathrooms with the toilet seat up. You practically need to move most of your stuff out to stage it properly. Even more if you get a stager.
IDK what your market is like but that doesn’t sound like a great agent.
Wow.
I’m sorry you chose a shite realtor, although it sounds like you had a lot of warning signs up front.
You should call the broker. In fact, you almost have an obligation to do so. If they are even a halfway reputable brokerage, they will want to know that one of the realtors representing their name is suggesting to people that decluttering, professional listing photos, and the overall presentation of a house doesn’t make a difference. Those are practically the ONLY things that make a difference in getting showings (obviously, listing price as well).
It’s mind-blowing that a licensed realtor is so poorly doing their job; they should be fired or, at minimum, taught to do things correctly before they are allowed to take on clients.
OP, you’d have been better off doing FSBO at this point, as it sounds like you know what’s important! Call the broker and either get out of the contract immediately, or have them line you up with a more experienced realtor whose philosophies align better with your own (and the rest of the real estate world 😭)
Probably overpriced too, FL market is very saturated right now
People don’t want to see your house. They want to see THEIR house that they haven’t bought yet.
You can get out of the contract for sure. But yeah this agent sounds bad.
Spend 15 minutes on redfin favorite-ing houses that you really like. Now, go look at them again and ask yourself if there is something about the house that you really like OR if it’s the perfect lighting in the photos that is making the spaces inviting. Then go fire your agent.
Bonus: as a buyer, spend a few minutes more with listings with bad photos. Less competition there for sure and if you can imagine better lighting, you might like the house a lot better.