I’ve written before about the deplorable photographs that some agents use on their listings but these photos of a short sale loft deserve a prize. I’ve seen people joke about realtors shooting photos with their cell phones on some of the real estate blogs but I never thought that really happened. Apparently so:

This shot of the living room shows you what the room will look like after consuming the Skyy Vodka shown in the kitchen photo.

The agent liked this shot of the kitchen so much that he put it on the MLS twice. The staging is priceless, with the towel wrapped around the refrigerator door, the garbage can in the corner, and the dishwashing soap in the kitchen sink. These are nice touches because they show that the kitchen is barely large enough to fit the garbage can and people can see that the sink is to be used for washing dishes. The Skyy vodka is to the left of the refrigerator.

This photo highlights the natural light available at night.

In general, short sales have the worst photos. Who knows how the banks come up with the agents to handle these and I can assure you that the bureaucracy of a bank would make it near impossible for a capable realtor to take business from these amateurs. Is it any wonder that the banks are losing their asses on these properties and need the taxpayers to bail them out?

I just downloaded the latest roster of Chicago Association Of Realtors (CAR) members and was delighted to see that the number of realtor members plummeted by over 4,000 in the last year. At December 2007 the number stood at 17,266 and as of January 2009 it was at 13,051. That’s almost a 25% drop. And based upon what I know about the productivity of individual agents right now I would guess we are going to see even further declines.

While I sympathize with people who are having a hard time making a living I have to believe that this is a welcome change for the industry. Chicago just had way too many agents. But more importantly, I would imagine that many of the weaker real estate agents have left the business and both the industry and the customers are better off without them.

However, there is a flip side to this story as well. Some of the agents that are leaving are ones whose real estate skills are fine but they just don’t know how to generate business. And generating business is in fact the hardest part of real estate. It’s so difficult that the median net income for a realtor in the first two years is only $9,400 per year and 80% abandon the field in their first year.

So why do so many people go into real estate in the first place and why do they keep banging their heads against the wall? Presumably it’s because of the promise of substantially more money down the road. Some agents make a lot of money, with 13% of the realtors with 6 – 15 years experience netting over $100,000 per year. There is really no other explanation as to why these folks continue to starve while trying to get their own business off the ground (especially in this environment).

Of course, we think this approach of agents trying to run their own business no longer makes sense and that’s why we’ve created a different and better model. Our agents do not do any prospecting or lead generation. We do it for them so that they can focus their efforts on providing real estate services and in the process earn much higher commissions.

The amazing thing is that so many real estate agents are still clinging to the old way of doing business and starving while reaching for that brass ring.

The Ministry of Truth (NAR) is at it again with the launch of a 2 hour weekly radio program called Real Estate Today. Here is how it is being described to realtors:

Real Estate Today will premiere the weekend of February 14-15. We’ll show consumers why REALTORS® are the most credible, trusted source of real estate information, and convince them that using a REALTOR® when buying, selling, or investing in real estate is the smartest decision they can make.

We’ll also be building consumer confidence in the market and in the long-term value of real estate to help bring buyers back into the market.

Kinda makes your skin crawl, doesn’t it? Maybe the above description is just targeted to realtors. I listened to a sample broadcast and it didn’t come across this poorly. As long as they provide objective information about home ownership and the real estate market then it might not be that bad. However, if this is just a thinly veiled self-serving attempt to  do exactly what they are telling realtors that they are doing then it will be another industry embarrassment.

If you have two hours to kill some time Real Estate Today will air online at www.RETRadio.com – visit the site anytime after the premiere to listen to current or past programs. Beginning on February 14, satellite radio subscribers can hear Real Estate Today on America’s Talk, XM Channel 158, Saturdays 5-7 p.m. EST; Talk Radio, XM Channel 165, Saturdays 1-3 p.m. EST; and Stars, Sirius-XM Channel 102, Saturdays 6-8 a.m. and Sundays 9-11 a.m. EST.

Bet you can’t wait.

There is apparently no limit as to how stupid some real estate agents can be. Or maybe they just don’t care. One of my pet peeves is the outrageously awful service/marketing that some real estate agents provide – especially on foreclosures or short sales. In addition to not answering the phone or returning phone calls there is a pattern of using really awful photos. It’s one thing to take your own photos (we do not) but these realtors are really bad photographers:

• Pictures taken with cell phone cameras
• Poor lighting
• Out of focus
• Center on the wrong thing

The last point is my favorite, of which there are numerous examples. For instance, it is fairly typical to see pictures of floors or corners of rooms as in this picture below for a condo in Bronzeville (it took me less than 3 minutes to find a picture like this).

With absolutely no perspective on the room, it’s not at all clear what attributes the realtor is trying to highlight. The dirty carpet? The abandoned phone in the closet?

However, nothing compares to this photo found for a listing in Riverside, CA, which quickly became an Internet sensation because of the contents of the toilet, which were not pixelated in the original listing.

I first learned about it in the comments section for a post on Cribchatter and it was originally part of this listing from Redfin. Now if you go to the Redfin listing link you will no longer find this photo because apparently they eventually figured out that they were drawing the wrong kind of attention to the listing. Fortunately Dr. Housing Bubble preserved the photo for posterity and had the good sense to pixelate the contents of the toilet. I might not have been so sensitive.

So let’s give this realtor the benefit of the doubt. Maybe the water had been turned off and the toilet couldn’t be flushed. But then why isn’t the lid closed? I see pictures of toilets all the time in the MLS (but not dirty) and it always fascinates me that a) they took the picture of the toilet in the first place and b) they left the lid open.

The bottom line: if your home is currently for sale you should run to the nearest computer to find out if your realtor is highlighting your toilet.

During the housing bubble one of the national brokerages aired a commercial entitled The Debate. In it a married couple with 2 small children are debating whether or not to buy a house.

The video has been viewed over 120,000 times on YouTube. You might want to go to the site to check out the 228 comments, most of which deride the role of realtors in creating the real estate bubble and many of which are unsuitable for republishing here.

Why has this seemingly innocent commercial drawn so much ire? There are a few simple reasons:

• Clearly this couple is being pushed to their limits financially and the husband is very nervous about it. This is how we got into the current mortgage mess.
• What exactly did Suzanne research? She’s a realtor, not a financial planner and the implication is that Suzanne is telling them that “they can do this” financially. Of course, Suzanne is in no position to advise them on their finances.
• The wife “loves that house”, which appears to be sufficient reason for going out on a limb. She’s become emotionally attached, which I realize is a common reaction. However, when buying a house it’s best to keep your emotions in check so that you don’t overpay.

I’m sure the advertising agency and the brokerage that produced this commercial thought they had a winner but it subsequently has become an icon of what is wrong with the real estate industry.