The latest annoying estate agent trend

[KerfuffleShuffle]

Currently in the market to move again and I can't help but be bemused by the latest estate agents tomfoolery when it comes to photographs.

An artsy angled shot of an ornament on a side board. Focused object and blurry background - check

A picture of a colourful pot plant in an otherwise begraggled and weedy garden - check

And my favourite one, a picture showing a kitchen tap turned on, cascading down like a serene waterfall not out of place in a spa promotional. I didn't know a working water supply was a top worry for house hunters.

Also do they know showing - 10 out of 15 photos of one room, 1 of the outside, 1 of the garden and 1 of the far fetched-squint and-you'll-just-see-it-view isn't fooling anyone. It just tells us the rest of the house is a bit shit.

So what are your most favourite or even annoying quirks estate agents and house sellers insist on doing nowadays? Plus, here's a link to a wonderfully quirky but fits list of the above house we nearly viewed.

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-67408549.html

The latest trend I have noticed is for photographs to show the house as 'lived in' ie beds not made, clutter on display

Now that is a trend I can get behind

I can’t see the link either.

that's an amazing house. really nice.

the local estates by me over the summer have been photographing mulberry bags by the front door along with pom pom sandals (in edwardian homes only i've noticed)!

Ive also noticed trays of tea and toast on beds. Its all getting very instagram and "lifestyle" blogger-ish. selling the dream

Wow, that is the exact opposite of my taste. They've stripped the soul right out of it.

I'm so old that I recall reading the Roy Brooks house descriptions in the 1960s, he wrote a book Brothel in Pimlico which was the sort of thing said in descriptions!
“Wanted: Someone with taste, means and a stomach strong enough to buy this erstwhile house of ill-repute in Pimlico."

I was hoping that Roy Brooks would come up. The quotations in his book were all from his own Estate Agency advertisements in the 1960s. The full ad that you quote;

“Wanted: Someone with taste, means and a stomach strong enough to buy this erstwhile house of ill-repute in Pimlico. It is untouched by the 20th century as far as conveniences for even the basic human decencies are concerned. Although it reeks of damp or worse, the plaster is coming off the walls and daylight peeps through a hole in the roof, it is still habitable judging by the bed of rags, fag ends and empty bottles in one corner. Plenty of scope for the socially aspiring to express their decorative taste and get their abode in The Glossy, and nothing to stop them putting Westminster on their notepaper. Comprises 10 rather unpleasant rooms with slimy back yard, 4,650 Freehold. Tarted up, these houses make 15,000.”

my mind is blown at how much you get for £465k in Lincoln too. that would be £850k in my area.

Just imagine what that esrtwhile brothel is worth now.

I sold through Roy Brooks once. Although he is obviously long gone his agency is staffed by very down to earth types who definitely retain a less wanky air.

That Lincoln house has a very odd home office. Like a tiny hotel business centre. Also 'price reduced for a limited time only'. Chinny reckon.

Pictures I have seen too frequently, both annoying and sometimes sad:

HDR photo editing. Bumping the lighting to make interiors look much larger and more dramatic than they really are...

Close-ups of bedding, shower curtains, stained carpet, toiletries, cleaning products, anything other than the rooms themselves.

Pictures of piles of boxed up seller's stuff, presumably for their impending move. Somehow doesn't work as a selling point.

Pictures of sad seller, often elderly person, often seen sitting forlornly at kitchen table. Wonder, could we keep them on if we bought here? Now I feel bad. And what about their cat, dog, parakeet, goldfish? Where they will go? Now I'm worried.

Pictures of open commodes. Clean or unclean. Seller had bodily needs, I figured as much. TMI.

Careful framing of exteriors to edit out microwave tower hovering like a Triffid next door.

And so on.

I think heattreated has hit the nail on the head. It's all about selling a lifestlye nowadays, people need to be told their life will be completely changed and perfect if they buy this property. Just the same as advertising has always been but maybe its becoming more blatant in our 'Instagram era'.

Which is all well and good but i saw photos for a very tired and dated house the other day (clearly an elderly resident had passed on or gone into care). Cue photos of one very minimalistic modern ornament and a working tap shot...in a 30+year old kitchen. There was no idillic lifestyle to sell yet. Very odd.

I get annoyed at hotels that do this.
A shot of a cup of coffee in the lobby rather than the sodding bed you are going to pay to sleep on.

I’m confused, is that house acghally a pub? It used to be a pub. It seems to have been bought by a developer who has tarted it up and converted to residential use. If you use the map link on rightmove to look at the google map satellite view, it's still in pub mode, with a car park on part of the garden, and a huge lorry parked at the front.

Garden in photos is much smaller than the former pub grounds. I suspect the same developer has got planning permission to erect a new house on the rest.

My pet hate is when pics are taken from a odd 'jaunty ' ( I hate that term but cant think of any thing else ) angle .

I wonder if we will ever get scratch and sniff photos so agents can get that just baked bread / brewed coffee / clean laundry smell

As a PP mentioned estate agents have now decided that certain suburbs in cities are now a 'village'. Here in Leeds Chapel Allerton is very much a village suited to young professionals, not a wankey suburb with a street of few useless shops selling overpriced trinkets and mediocre bars and restaurants. Most of the houses are not even in the area but on the boundary in more colourful areas.

It is also what EA do not show. No picture of kitchen, bathroom or third bedroom? Just show them and let people decide if they want a do-er upper. As for the property developer quick flip houses with all features ripped out, magnolia walls, cheap kitchen and cheap oatmeal carpet throughout. Less of the 'recently improved' and more of the bought v cheap, developed for badly for £5000 and on sale for £20 000 more.

This could be Rotterdam or anywhere, Liverpool or Rome, cause Rotterdam is anywhere, anywhere I own. But enough Beautiful South, this stunning house is in Beautiful Northwood.

That is 100% pure, solid gold Partridge!!

Estate agent showed me around a house waxing lyrically about the joys of country living (a drive up the road from the M25 on a busy cut through with the side of the house sitting directly on the road)!

That house still looks so much like a pub surely you'd have punters banging on the door all hours of the day and night?

My estate agent pet peeve is when a property is described as being ‘close to local amenities’. Of course it’s close - otherwise they wouldn’t be local!

"The property is on a bus route and a level walk to town."

Bus routes and town centre proximity are not top of my priorities. They must be for a hell of a lot of other folk though, judging from the amount of times I read that.

This is hilarious. I live in a very small rural town, and the running joke here is that the estate agents don't even want to sell the houses. You have to take your own photos, otherwise they'll consist of the under-stair cupboard, the rooms will look tiny and you won't even have a photo of the kitchen!

def looks like last orders please an odd sort of place is obviously old but the renovation has gone for modern and minimilistic or however you spell it bit like oh god the baliffs have been not very sympathetic at all

And don't the Americans pay people to 'stage' houses for sale?

Not just in America, there are home staging companies here too.

Totally agree about closeups of ornaments and croissants being silly.

But I am guilty of the "village" thing. Back just after the last bubble-pop economy crash we were desperate to sell (only on bedroom and baby non-longer a baby, and rapidly growing beyond what you might call a toddler). The house had been on the market for a year and no joy. We switched agents and tried to talk it up as best we could. It being just round the corner from (name of suburban railstation) was good. Said station has a 7-11 type newsagent and a nail salon next to it, and a pub over the road. So I suggested that in the description the location should become "in the heart of (name of suburban rail station) Village with local shops and amenities" - and lo and behold we were successful. I had never heard of the area being described as a village but it worked.