Today is not just another collection of funny, ignorant, mistaken, shameful, and/or lazy photos on MLS listings.

No, today we’re doing something special.

Today, we’re going to look at the entire photo array, which represents the listing as a whole.

Because laughing at one photo pales in comparison to laughing at the entire listing.  You’ll see…

Choices, choices.

Honestly, how does one get through life?

You’re in aisle seven, looking for ketchup, and there are so many options!  Different brands, different sizes, different bottle types – glass and plastic, squeeze-top and spout.  And don’t even get me started on catsup…

So imagine being a Realtor and having the impossible task of choosing twenty photos for the MLS listing?

Such a tough feat.  I don’t know how anybody can do it.

Then when you consider that the first photo is usually of the outside of the building, your job is to set out the photo array with interior photos, amenity, photos, exterior photos, and pick a feature photo for the listing.

Like I said: tough job.

And here’s an example of somebody who went with five photos, instead of twenty, and decided to dedicate all five to the exterior of the building, via three unique images:

I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to book my viewing!

It doesn’t make any sense to me.

Why did the agent need more than…………..one?

One photo of the outside of the building, that’s it, that’s all that’s needed!

But they have five, and they repeated two photos twice.

Really, really, really odd.  I’d just love to get into the mind of the agent who spent time and effort on this….

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You get twenty photos on MLS, and as the saying goes, “Your first showing always occurs online.”

The very first showing is not when the buyer visits the property, but rather when they see the listing while browsing on MLS.

So your “feature photo” is of the utmost importance.

It’s the one photo that appears both along with the listing, but also as a thumbnail if you’re browsing.

Here’s an example:

Okay, sure.

This listing has a feature photo of a car in a parking space.

That might be okay, if it were the only photo to show.

But as you’ll see from the photo array, they’ve used all twenty photo spots!

There are a slew of other photos to choose as the “feature,” and all look a lot better than a blurry photo from a dimly-lit parking garage…

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Some of the most iconic photos in history contain people who the world never met, and never identified.

Think about that famous photo of the kissing couple on V-J Day in Times Square:

Over the years, throngs of couples have claimed to be those spontaneously photographed in 1945, but we’ll never truly know who they were.

Almost as famous is a young lady, walking a dog, in Greenwood Park, pictured in this MLS listing:

Who is this woman?

She’s so important – almost as important as the car pictured in the previous array, that she’s used as the feature photo.

Luckily, we can see a higher-resolution copy of the image, and determine that she’s left-handed, and that narrows it down to only a few million people in the Province…

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Here’s the photo array for a listing at Toy Factory, which doesn’t show the inside of the condominium for sale, let alone the exterior of the building.

It does however provide a low-quality image of what looks like “The Local,” which is a bar on the corner, as well a heart being drawn in smoke by an airplane:

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Combine an iPhone camera with bad lighting, a dark condo and/or night-time shoot, and the inability to properly size and rotate images, and this is how your photo array will look:

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Then you have photo arrays that really suggest, “I should not have bothered.”

First lesson in being a real estate agent: MLS uses landscape photos, not portrait.

So while one portrait or vertical photo is a mistake in my mind, what about when ALL the photos are portrait?

And what about when they’re also dark, and of nothing in particular?

No, seriously folks

A seller actually paid a real estate agent to do that to their listing.

I can’t even tell what the second photo is.  Is that carpet or hardwood?  Is that a bedroom or a living room?

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Here’s another one, which only gets an “F,” if the listing above were to get an “F-”

Can you even get an “F-“?  Is there a “minus” available, along with failing?

We should check up on that.

In any event, what the hell is the third photo?  The hallway in the unit, or in the building?

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And last, but certainly not least, what does it say about the condominium offered for sale when all you can muster up to advertise it is the artist’s rendering of the building, a few awkward shots of the common areas, AND……wait for it…….the door to the stairwell:

Actually, check that – there’s a door to the stairwell, but also the stairs leading from the pool to the change rooms…

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Well, this was an interesting spin on your typical MLS Musings post.

I’m getting a lot of input from agents and buyers throughout the city.

So please, if you happen to see something you think I’d like – send it my way!