Hi Lucia,

It's me Radley from the Buckhead office.  I actually have done that before and I think can be helpful.  Especially in demonstrating sizes and scales.  Makes it more of a home.  But then again, I also leave personal photos in houses too.

- Radley

Which office are you in Lucia?

I disagree...for the same reasons that I don't pass along photos that agents sometimes include with their offers.  Discrimination!   While we always tell our clients that we and they cannot discriminate any protected class, buyers and sellers usually comment about the 'Looks' of people.  

I also have all my sellers remove personal photos from the walls and throughout the home.  They need to 'de-personalize' their home.  I can't tell you how many times I've shown homes where personal and family photos adorned the walls, bookcases, pianos, fireplaces and the buyers always comment on the photos and not the house.

Leave personal photos out.  The only time to use those are with your testimonials.

Lucia, I wouldn't include children.  It's a safety issue.  I think dogs are good.

I love the idea of dogs, hate the idea of people. Although maybe we could all start second careers as "Listing Models". I, personally would require at least a 2 drink minimum :)

It's hard enough to de-clutter, now I need to find people? Please don't make this a trend. Please?

lol @ Anna. De-clutter and then find beautiful people to sit in our listings or stand over the kitchen sink. More work for us. lol

Don't most of stand over the kitchen sink most of the time anyway? Just think, we would get to put on makeup, pearls and heels like June Cleaver.

From almost exactly one year ago today:

http://www.phoenixrealestateguy.com/home-staging-gone-bad/93

Takes the idea of people in listing photos one step further and puts actors in open houses!  I thought it was a ridiculous idea...

To avoid the discrimination thing, we could make the photos a "party scene."  We would have an ethnically diverse guest list and drink the 2 drinks that Anna requires at the same time.

How's that for a win/win?

Actually, I have actually had people in photos before out of laziness in the past and noticed that they ended up getting extra attention and good audience feedback.  In terms of protected classes and discrimination, I would need to check with the smart people on that.

But, if we cannot leave out family photos does that mean we have to hide the food in the refrigerator too?  You guys know as well as I do that EVERYBODY who looks at a house opens the fridge door out of curiosity.

In the meantime, Sellers also have lives and these outdated staging concepts are a little too basic.  Lucia, give it a whirl and see how it goes.  Geez, now I gotta go ask Anne another question because I do want to know the actual legalities to this.  I do agree with Cathy in terms of children though for safety reasons.

Do ya think Radley would pose over the toilet hurling? No that wouldn't sell a house, what am I thinking? Could show the capacity of the toilet, you guys have ruined me....

Our MLS will not allow people in photos of houses.

It is a HUGE safety issue to have kids in the photos on the mls.  You put your listing online and it goes to Realtor.com and then some scumbag is searching the internet and comes across your listing with a kid in the photo.  Guess what, they have the ADDRESS of the house too!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't want that on my conscience.

Mary, Mary, Mary, hurling is ONLY for Frat house listings!

Our MLS doesn't ban people in pictures, but they should. The only people I have ever seen are the ones too lazy to get up off the couch while watching the huge TV. (yes, the house usually has wheels)

mibad

LOL Anna, you are right and I have none of those types of listings so I guess I don't need models right now.

mibad2

Anna & Mary, please do not gang up on me.  You ladies think that I am just some frat house type guy but I am a highly advanced and forward type thinker.

For the blog record, I have only hurled one time in like 10 years !

If you will be nice to me, I will share my secrets with you.  I have not mastered it yet but I am still working on a way to "bend spoons with my brain."  Been working on that for couple months.

Five stars Lucia! I need to check our MLS rules, but it sounds good to me. I have two great listings right now that are new construction and one is not even close to being complete. Maybe I should shoot a few photos with the subcontractors doing their thing :)

For the record, I was in a frat..... in Austin, TX near YOU by the way !!

If you are nice to me, I can send you some frat bizness.

You cannot do that Bill..... it's like illegal or something !!

Sorry Radley, this crowd is taking me with them. I will be nice. I had a momentary relapse.

Now quit picking on Michaela. lol

Radley, The subs are illegal or putting their photos in the listing is illegal...or both ;)

Mary, you mentioned earlier today to a realtor on some Motivation type thread about being an independant thinker or something and NOW you are going with the crowd?

I like you Mary, but I am not giving Michaela a hard time.  Really, I am trying to help her.

Bill, I have no idea how any things work in Texas.  I just play golf there and hang out with frat buddies.  

I live in Georgia and really need to check with the smart people on that before I say anything.  I do not think that leaving family photos in somebody's house is a felony though.  In fact that might even be perfectly legal.  Heck, we might even get extra credit for that one !!

Thanks Mary! I need all the help I can get on this one!

Now back to the topic here ... Lucia, I too would be worried about discrimination issues and safety issues. Plus, I want agents and potential buyers to look at the pictures of the property itself and not have them study in detail the people pictured in the photos. To me, people would make the pictures more "cluttered".

Now connecting dots...... Michaela does not like "Pictures"

Sorry, that was too easy !

Radley,

You spelled bizness incorrectly.

In Texas, it's bidness. Now don't forget it!

I love frat bidness. Especially here in the Toober Capitol of the Americas. Just what we need another hurling competition to pollute our beautiful rivers. (There's that sarcasm again)

Anna, I am okay with your sarcasm.  At Texas I learned how to speak Spanglish so bear with me on my spelling.

Do you know where the talking rock is outside of Fredericksberg?

Yep

How far is that from your office?

About 70 miles

I will give you a live lead (or at least major introduction) if you back me up on the whole logo issue on the Abuse thread.

Poor Lucia, she just wanted to know if people in her pictures are a good idea. I would think only for your very upper end properties. It could get rather expensive.

Somebody told me a very long time ago that to sell a house you need to get the prospective buyer to picture themselves living in the house. I think that when the client starts talking about where their furniture will fit...it's a very good sign.

Great question, Lucia!

I think "staging" people in your photos would be a great advertising tool.

I came from an advertising background, where of course we use people (actors/models) in the pictures to help set the mood and sell the "experience".  We knew our target audience, and cast to meet the needs and emotions of that target. I think if you have a house with a highly targetable audience, it may be an interesting differentiator.  Track it and see what happends.

done poorly and I think you have take away my most important lesson in Real Estate. "We want a home to tell a story, it just needs to be the story of the person buying the home, not the person already living in it" . that is why I like personalization of the home to be gone before showings.  They don't care about your family Mr. Seller, they care about their own family and how they will live in the property.

Shelly

How about manikins like store displays?  Probably too weird.

yeah rod, that is just weird.  And weider that you thought of it.  It might give folks the creeps.

Okay, It's time to be like "real".....

Humans have 5 senses...... we are in the marketing business so how many "senses" do we want to tackle?

Have not considered manikins but I will sleep on that one !!

you are going to sleep on a manakin?  Say it isn't so.

Geez, you have A game !!!

I would say bad idea. We want the people to see themselves, not others in the home. I think it would take the buyer away from looking at the house and looking at the people instead.

Not sure whether people in pics will help sell houses or not, but I can explain the discrimination.  I remember a fair housing class discussion of a case (in Boston, maybe?) where a random citizen successfully sued a builder for using people of only one color in his advertising.  She never purchased from this particular seller, and she claimed that his advertising discriminated against her because she was a different race, and his photos made her feel as if she were unwelcome in his developments.

So people photos in and of themselves are not discriminatory, but you need all the prtoected classes covered in each listing.  Sounds like a logistical nightmare, unless you can put together one big cast that would appear at every listing shoot...

I think that is ridiculous, but probably true and did happen in Boston. I think the whole "protected class" thing is a bit out of hand sometimes. I am all for equal rights, especially being a gay man, but there are times that it gets out of control and there is a lot of wasted money and time that could be better spent. Have you seen what is happening to our Earth people?!

I hate the whole suing thing. It is out of hand.

Hi Lucia,

I just listed a house today and the owner is a Residential Architect.  I told him about our Realtor discussion about whether or not to include people/models in listing photos and he said....

That ALL Architects include people in their drawings for "scale" purposes.  Said they have been doing that since the beginning of time and ever since the invention of paper.

I don't photograph that well but if you get stuck for a stand in, I'll volunteer !!

- Radley