Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Terrible real estate agent photographs

terriblerealestateagentphotos.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

311–320 of 346 posts

Re: Terrible real estate agent photographs

#311

Post by bamfly »

mike50 wrote: post #294
pg5 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree with this. You pay a realtor because a good one stays up to date with what's happening in the market, has a network of vetted contractors/potential buyers/other connections, has up-to-date frameworks for handling the processes and timing of tricky situations that can arise. Sure, you can do all that yourself if you want, but for the average person, they are providing value.

A Rolodex and a limited understanding of the real estate market. If they really had expert housing market knowledge would they be working as a real estate agent?

IME the ones who are successful long-term and make serious money do indeed use their market knowledge, connections, and access to make real estate plays themselves. Move into owning rentals, do some flipping, that kind of thing. The easiest path seems to be having a spouse who's in a different, but relevant, career (e.g. general contractor).

Re: Terrible real estate agent photographs

#312

Post by bamfly »

mjb wrote: post #86
altacc wrote: post #4

Finally, somewhere to share my a list of dubious property listings! In Norway agents hire house stylists to make a house look good. Airbeds dressed up to look like somebody just got up, magazine pictures on the wall, etc... often to a farcical level in a rundown house. On a similar theme is Zillow Gone Wild https://twitter.com/zillowgonewild and McMansion Hell https://mcmansionhell.com/

I viscerally dislike McMansion Hell. It's so mean-spirited and snobbish. People build themselves homes in the suburbs for their families to live comfortably and safely, and some jerks on the internet act all superior about how they have better taste. It sucks.

The parts that make them bad are mostly about trying to make the houses look (even) bigger than they are, and making them look fancier than they are as cheaply as possible.

That kind of inept, absurd pretension is a recipe for comedy.

Re: Terrible real estate agent photographs

#313

Post by rvba »

mtmail wrote: post #2

Interview with the author https://www.digitalesbild.gwi.uni-muenchen.de/inexplicably-b... "KP: Is it important for you that the photos actually originate from real estate marketplaces? If so, how do you verify their origin? AD: Yes, that’s actually really important, otherwise the blog is just unverifiable user-generated content. If an image is submitted without a link, or no agent’s logo on the image, or I can’t find…

Does the author steal the photos or asks for permission?

Re: Terrible real estate agent photographs

#314

Post by rightbyte »

HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #193
hospitalJail wrote: post #7

About 10 years ago, me and my wife took LSD on a vacation, and the sheer uselessness of a real estate agent appeared to us. What does a real estate agent do? They unlock doors. Who are real estate agents? We can all think of a few real estate agents, none of them are top performers. They are usually on their ~4th career before the age of 30. They are the type of person to wear a suit in public to pretend that it make…

When I bought my first house, my agent was invaluable. He certainly helped me avoid a bunch of bad decisions. He never actually said "don't buy this house" at any property we looked at, but he would point out things I wouldn't have thought about like, "it's nice, but I wonder if there's a lot of noise from that street later in the day when people are home from work" or "I guess you wouldn't want to play with marbles…

> He never actually said "don't buy this house" at any property we looked at, but ...

Taking hints from realtors is a skill. They are so subtle. I got exactly the same experience.

Re: Terrible real estate agent photographs

#315

Post by dahwolf »

I'm not in the market for a new home but still do a weekly check on property for sale in my town, just for the entertainment (and sometimes educational) value of the indoor photos.

I'm still only an amateur voyeur. Pros in my country would attend open home day, where you can go into homes for sale without an appointment. You take your spouse, tour the homes, feast on the free cake and drinks, and never make any offer. A fun and affordable day out for the family, kind of like a real-world Pinterest.

Re: Terrible real estate agent photographs

#316

Post by robocat »

hinkley wrote: post #250
dreen wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And it got sold! I happen to remember this https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64389615 I suppose leading with a picture of it actually on fire is better than a post or pre fire photo.

Our old house had problems. When we listed it, the best prospect thought we were stupid not honest, so he kept trying to get us to lower the price when inspection turned something up. In retrospect maybe a picture with the proverbial roof on fire might have been a good idea. Here's the thing about getting a house loan: If you try to buy a house for too far under or over market value and can't explain why it's that fa…

In New Zealand, houses can be sold “as is” which means cash only. It usually means that insurance cannot be acquired for the house, and mortgages always require insurance. It means there are bargains still available in my city (Christchurch) because there were so many houses damaged by the earthquake a decade ago. There are still houses that are about 2/3 the price compared to similar insurable houses. Few people can buy the as-is properties because most people need a mortgage to buy a house. People with cash usually buy better houses. A saw an as-is sold the other day to a buyer from the US.

Insurance policies have some queer rules that all insurers share - perhaps due to building code, or maybe due to a common reinsurer?

Your floor cannot have more than 50mm (two inches) drop between two corners of the house, as it can’t be insured. Unless you can show the unlevel floor existed pre-earthquake, in which case you can get insurance! Wierd.

Re: Terrible real estate agent photographs

#317

Post by reaperducer »

wpietri wrote: post #297
reaperducer wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He would use the same memory card and high end camera both during "stakeouts" for surveillance photos as well as listing photos for the homes he was selling. This really surprises me. I would have assumed that an FBI memory card used for taking surveillance photos would have all kinds of security and encryption on it for chain-of-custody purposes. Otherwise, the photos won't stand up in court. The healthcare company…

Why would you say it wouldn't stand up in court? As long as the agent shows up to say, "Yes, I took these photos of real things that happened," that strikes me as the heart of the evidence.

Because companies like Canon sell multi-thousand dollar cameras and attachments to police agencies that are designed to make sure photographs can't be tampered with so that they're admissible in court. There can't be the possibility that a rogue cop altered a photograph, or the case can get thrown out.

It's why the cameras police departments use cost 5x more than the consumer versions.

Re: Terrible real estate agent photographs

#319

Post by saalweachter »

afavour wrote: post #32
hospitalJail wrote: post #7

About 10 years ago, me and my wife took LSD on a vacation, and the sheer uselessness of a real estate agent appeared to us. What does a real estate agent do? They unlock doors. Who are real estate agents? We can all think of a few real estate agents, none of them are top performers. They are usually on their ~4th career before the age of 30. They are the type of person to wear a suit in public to pretend that it make…

Having been through buying a home I think I’ll push back on that a little: our agent knew what was a fair price, what we’d likely be able to push the sellers down to, advised us through the whole process. Rental brokers on the other hand… now they’re absolutely useless and you can sometimes pay astronomical brokers fees just so they can sit between you and the landlord.

Even an incompetent agent serves a very valuable purpose in a real estate purchase.

Without the agents, you'd have two people attempting to negotiate a 6 (or 7, nowadays!) figure purchase directly. Before it was over, you'd hate the other party too much to ever complete a sale.

Agents sit between the two parties and have a vested interest in seeing a transaction take place. They talk to each other and soften the communication so that you can tell someone you want to pay them fifty-fucking-grand less money for the single largest asset in their life that they were counting on to fund their retirement, and have that met with a counter-offer instead of an angry storming off.

Re: Terrible real estate agent photographs

#320

Post by praptak »

parkersweb wrote: post #140
mtmail wrote: post #2

Interview with the author https://www.digitalesbild.gwi.uni-muenchen.de/inexplicably-b... "KP: Is it important for you that the photos actually originate from real estate marketplaces? If so, how do you verify their origin? AD: Yes, that’s actually really important, otherwise the blog is just unverifiable user-generated content. If an image is submitted without a link, or no agent’s logo on the image, or I can’t find…

And for that reason the horse photo is still one of my long standing favourites: https://terriblerealestateagentphotos.com/post/62824754189

This must be the inspiration for Salvatore Ganacci "Horse" clip, the vibes are eerily similar.
Post reply on HN