Are The REALTOR Property Photos Real?

There is a lot of conversation inside the industry right now on listing agents doing photo editing on their listing photos.

Some photo editing can really be mis-leading, but some can actually be useful for us on the buying end.

The comment I commonly hear from our buyer clients is: “that room sure looked larger from the photos online!” Just heard that yesterday as a matter of fact.

I see a lot of photos where the listing agent has edited a fire into the fireplace. I’m not sure how I feel about that.

Here is a promotional page for a company that does photo editing for real estate agents: https://www.tourdrop.com/virtual-staging/

There is another page on the same site that offers a slider so you can compare before and after on the same photo: https://www.tourdrop.com/before-after/

Here is a virtual staging example from this same company. TourDrop.Com:

Actual home’s dining room.

Virtually Staged Dining room

What do you think?

If you are interested in a buyer’s agent’s view on actual staging here is a report our national association did a couple years ago that talks about staging and how home buyers need to look beyond the staging to properly evaluate a home: http://naebareports.org/200708142151StagingReport.pdf

Jacuzzi / Bubble tub cleaning. Often overlooked.

We recently helped a couple purchase a home with a nice bathroom featuring a separate tub and shower. And the tub was what we call a spay tub, whirlpool tub, jetted tub or a bubble tub. A popular manufacturer for these tubs is the Jacuzzi company. But not all of these tubs are Jacuzzi. So as professionals we need to be clear with our descriptions.

After being on dozens of inspections of homes with these tubs we can tell you most homeowners don’t do the recommended cleaning. So when an inspector fills the tub with water and turns it on a whole bunch of dried crud sprays out into the water.

On one recent inspection the crud was all in a semi circular shape so the buyers at one point thought they were dead worms. It wasn’t pretty.

In this video you can see the gunk left in the tub after the water was drained out.

WE SERVE HOME, CONDO, AND VACANT LAND BUYERS IN WASHTENAW COUNTY. WE ALSO SERVE LIVINGSTON, WESTERN OAKLAND, AND WESTERN WAYNE COUNTIES, INCLUDING: ANN ARBOR, BELLEVILLE, BEVERLY HILLS, BINGHAM FARMS, BIRMINGHAM, BLOOMFIELD HILLS, BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP, BRIGHTON, CANTON, CHELSEA, COMMERCE, COMMERCE TOWNSHIP, DELHI, DEXTER, DIXBORO, DOVER, FARMINGTON, FARMINGTON HILLS, FRANKLIN, GREEN OAK, HAMBURG, HARTLAND, HIGHLAND, HOWELL, HUDSON MILLS, KEEGO HARBOR, LIMA CENTER, LOCH ALPINE, LODI TOWNSHIP, MANCHESTER, MILAN, MILFORD, NORTHVILLE, NOVI, NOVI TOWNSHIP, PLYMOUTH, PINCKNEY, RAWSONVILLE, SALEM, SALINE, SCIO, SCIO TOWNSHIP, SHARON, SHARON HOLLOW, SOUTH LYON, SUPERIOR, WALLED LAKE, WEBSTER, WEST BLOOMFIELD, WHITMORE LAKE, WHITTAKER, WILLIS, WILLOW RUN, WIXOM, WOLVERINE LAKE, YPSILANTI. THIS INCLUDES AREAS NEAR THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AND EASTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY.

New Construction Paint Quality Issues

In this first video we see a mostly finished bathroom in a high end home after the painting contractors have just finished. Unfortunately the quality of the painting work is sub-standard.

I don’t think the builder was going to be upset about this as the paint issues aren’t always visible depending on the time of day and the lighting at the time.

At home inspections it is prudent to take a high powered flashlight and shine it parallel to the wall. (A thorough home inspector will typically do this at some point, but normally won’t go through the whole house like this.) The beam of light from the parallel flashlight makes drywall and paint defects show up that might not be visible with the normal lighting in the home during a builder’s walk-through.

Luxury Home Chimney In Need of Major Repair

We were helping a university professor and family purchase a home on Ann Arbor’s East side a while back. The home was very nicely maintained, so this was a real surprise.

This home is about 60 years old and you can tell by the size and style of the chimney that it is a larger home that was very expensively built.

There are similar homes in many of the nicer Detroit Suburbs like Farmington Hills, West Bloomfield, and Brimingham.

This inspector, Richard Becker, was great example of someone who focused totally on the buyer’s side. He didn’t care what the real estate agents said or thought. In fact he felt home buyers should never take an inspector recommendation from a real estate agent. (That was before he met us, because we only recommend buyer focused inspectors.)

Unfortunately Richard Becker retired, but we do have other buyer-focused inspectors!

Common Lazy Builder Mistake: Brick Lintels

In this video our agent Laura Degiovanni discusses a common problem we see on new construction where a builder takes a shortcut that gets past the municipal inspector. It typically doesn’t become a problem until long after the builder is gone, but by saving on $10 worth of materials and a half hour of labor it can cause a problem that can take hundreds of dollars to fix. That problem is unpainted or improperly painted lintels. The steel leaves the factory with a dark red primer. But the building code calls for steel to have a coat of actual paint, not primer, when the home is finished and delivered to the buyer. Fortunately, with the help of various private home inspectors, we’ve been able to get builders to do the right thing and properly paint the lintels. Laura has helped many buyers with the new construction and custom build process. Call us if you would like 100% loyal help with your home buying adventures at 734-662-6240.

Found & Negotiated: Closet Hiss Mystery

We recently helped a luxury condo buyer and during the home inspection the buyer noticed a mysterious hiss sound in the hallway to the master bathroom. Between the buyer’s sensitive ears, the inspector’s curiosity and our thermal imaging camera, we were able to locate the source of the problem the current owner had lived with for the past 5 years. When the original builder installed the closet shelving a worker screwed some of the mounting hardware right through the exhaust line for the high efficiency power vent hot water heater. Once we identified the problem we used these videos to convince the seller and the listing agent of the issue and we were able to get the seller/builder to open up the wall, patch the hole, then patch and paint the wall. If you are interested in having a real estate company work for you with 100% loyalty when you buy your luxury condo give us a call. We would be happy to find out about your needs and how we can help you! 734-662-6240

Found & Negotiated: Problem Chimney in Luxury Home

We had a home inspection of an Ann Arbor luxury home built about 50 years ago. When the inspector was on the roof he discovered a lot of problems with the chimney. It was actually coming apart on all four sides. This was quite a surprise as the seller hadn’t disclosed any problem here. Fortunately we were able to negotiate a repair concession so the buyers could get this repaired after closing.

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Call us at 734-662-6240 to discuss your home buying needs and how we can help you!