Remember when I used to write on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday?
Those were the days!
I mean, for you, that is. My life was far more chaotic.
Then again, I cut back to Monday and Thursday, but I added a bi-weekly podcast, so maybe my life is just as chaotic.
In any event, classic TRB features like “The Friday Rant” fell by the wayside, and although you might suggest that I could have simply changed the title to “The Thursday Rant,” it just didn’t have the same panache.
Cutting down to only two blogs per week meant that I also felt an “MLS Musings” post was wasted space.
Matthew used to call it the “mail-it-in Monday” blog.
Ouch.
Believe it or not, the last time I published this feature was back in December of 2023.
“More MLS Musings: 2023 Year-End Edition”
That’s wild. I barely remember 2023, but I digress…
Over the last few months, I’ve received an unusual amount of emails from TRB readers and agents alike, not only asking me to revive this blog classic, but also sending me pictures to post!
So today, back by popular demand, we’ll take a look at all the crazy, unusual, incorrect, and downright embarrassing things that we’ve seen on MLS in the last little while.
Enjoy!
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Let’s start with a bang, shall we?
No preamble necessary here. I just want you to react the way you react:

Well?
How did you react?
This must be a joke, right?
Except it’s not! This was actually in an MLS description, which is just downright crazy.
Where do we begin?
First of all, you don’t need to disclose a death in the listing itself, but rather in the Schedule.
Secondly, you don’t need to say “deadly heinous crimes.” Who uses the word “heinous” outside of a Batman movie, anyways?
Third, to say “the prime suspect is still at large” is so far removed from anything logical, I just don’t know what to think…
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We’re being told that A.I. is going to work its way into all our lives, whether we like it or not.
The real estate industry is hardly immune.
But while virtual staging has taken off in recent years, I wonder if we’re going to move past tables, chairs, and couches, and into something more advanced?
Have a look at this kitchen:

Now, have a look at the photo that appeared in the next listing for this property:

Okay, so we’re now virtually staging people?
Nice family!
Except, well, the prime suspect is still at large…
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Say what you want about the virtual staging above, but this next one is curious.
Here’s the original photo:

Now here’s how it was virtually staged on MLS:

What was the marketing plan here?
“Bruce, Nancy, I have a plan for how to sell your condo. What we’ll do, see, is we’ll virtually stage a confused old man in the kitchen. We’ll even give him an ugly green hat and a cane. That’s going to help us market this property…”
Free coffee to whoever captions that photo better…
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Those of us born in the 1980’s were raised on apocalyptic movies that told us to fear a city that looks like this:

Or like this:

So then why in the love of God do people think that this looks good when they’re trying to sell a condo?

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Serious question for the guys out there: would you ever consider getting a urinal?
Asking for a friend…

….no, not that friend!
This friend:

Anybody can catch lightning in a bottle once, but twice?
This has to be part of a new trend…
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There’s something to be said for “putting your best foot forward” when you list a property for sale.
I do it.
I always recommend that others do it.
But I do it metaphorically, in that I mean you should declutter the house, make repairs, stage, move out, market the property, etc.
I don’t mean it literally.
The agent who listed this condo for sale doesn’t seem to understand similies, idioms, metaphors, turns-of-phrases, figures-of-speech, and anything else that would avoid this situation:

And the best (or worst?) part is: that is the feature photo for the listing!
In an unrelated story, foot fetishes have increased by 11.7% year-over-year in the Toronto Waterfront Area…
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Check out this listing:

I know what you’re thinking. I do.
You’re thinking, “Wow, what little effort went into this listing!”
But that’s not what I’m thinking.
Now you’re thinking, “They only included one picture?”
But that’s not what I’m thinking.
To be fair, you’d have to zoom in on that single photo to know what I’m thinking, so let’s do that:

I’m thinking, “This agent wouldn’t even drive down from her Barrie office to visit the property, so she took a screenshot from Google Street View instead.”
That’s crazy, folks.
Tell me this is a “time-saver” and I’ll tell you that somebody isn’t doing their job…
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Speaking of “doing their job,” I’m always shocked when agents list properties without floor plans.
I don’t care if you have a 5,000 square foot house or a 350 square foot condo, you simply must include a floor plan on the MLS listing, or you’re doing your seller client a disservice!
Floor plans don’t cost a lot.
In fact, most real estate photographers do floor plans as an “add-on” to their photo packages.
So trust me when I say that I have absolutely no clue what to make of this, which appeared as an attachment on the MLS listing for a property just listed for sale…

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Somebody sent me a 3D tour last week and told me, “Pause when you get to the desk, then zoom in.”
So I did.
Up close, it’s kind of hard to miss, right?

Seriously, what in the world is this guy doing in the iGuide tour??

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Here’s a photo that appeared in an MLS listing last week:

Last week.
I said last week.
Last week was, roughly, by my count, April 19th – April 25th.
That’s 2026, by the way.
Not 2010…
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I usually recommend that sellers take a photo of every room in the house, even if the room doesn’t show as well as others.
There are always exceptions to the rule, however…

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We’ve talked about “power of sale” here on TRB many times before, and it can be quite complicated.
There’s nothing routine about them either.
Every one of them is different.
Then again, this particular listing below shows you that we have absolutely nothing to worry about!
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If you don’t understand what this means, don’t worry – nobody does, nor would they, could they, or should they be able to read the mind of the listing agent…
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Speaking of not understanding, I’ve been in this business a long time, and I think I know what I’m doing.
When it comes to rules, regulations, conditions, and clauses, I’ve got a pretty good handle.
But I have absolutely no idea which “standard form” is required here…

…or why…
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Last, but not least, when we did “More MLS Musings” pre-2023, we hadn’t yet benefited from real estate agents using ChatGPT.
Since then, we’ve had countless examples of agents not only using ChatGPT to write their listing descriptions, but also examples of agents not proofreading before listing!
Imagine being the seller who reads this on their listing description?

I’ve got an adjective you can use:
Indolent.
It’s a cool word that means “lazy.”
How about this one:

Change any details?
Um, yeah, sure, I see one that you should change:
The listing agent that you hired.
Or how about this:

Any further refinements?
Yes, I have one:
Refine my occupation so I’m not in the same bucket as these people…
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Well, that’s it for me today, folks!
Crazy to think we haven’t done one of these posts in twenty-eight months, right?
Thanks to everybody who sent in submissions.
Have a great weekend!


Different David
at 8:03 am
“We didn’t have those new-fangled shiny ‘fridgerat’ers back in my day.”