August 14, 2019
It may seem obvious to some, but viewing houses & condos with an experienced real estate agent can save you a lot of time and effort as compared to endlessly looking at properties online. Not in the city? Our team of real estate experts can view properties on your behalf and keep an eye out for major flaws to be aware of.
Here are a few reasons:
- Layout – Unless the listing has an accompanied floorplan, it is very difficult to understand the complete layout from photos. An in-person visit of walking through the home room by room will allow you to fully experience the home as you would on a typical day so you can see if the flow and layout works well for you.
- Wide Angles – photographers tend to use wide angles to make rooms look as large as possible. In reality, the room could be much smaller than the photos are leading you to believe. They could also be conveniently cutting out a poor view, a curved wall, dated trim etc.
- Filtered/Edited Photos – yes just like social media, online photos are usually heavily filtered and edited to make them seem brighter, fresher and crisper than may actually be the case.
- Staging – while staging can sometimes be deceiving in person, this is exponentially the case in photos. A great real estate agent will be able to see what staging is possibly covering up.
- Positives Only – a listing online is a marketing piece. It is meant to entice and highlight all the positive features (Although this isn’t always the result! See next point for more details). An in-person visit allows you to judge the neighbourhood, lot, home’s features, structure, layout and more from an unbiased perspective.
- Bad Photos – Listings with no interior photos or poorly lit, un-staged photos can be a big turn-off for many buyers. Bad photos can be for a variety of reasons – tenants not wanting to clean before photos are taken, a lazy agent took photos themselves instead of hiring a professional, or the seller is selling themselves through the MLS network. These listings can be a great way to secure a property for a lower price with less buyers as competition.
Are you ready to begin your search or have questions before getting started? We’re here to help.