Why You Shouldn’t Use Your Smart Phone for Listing Photos

So, we’ve talked about the value good real estate photography can have for a listing, and how hiring a professional is cheaper than your first price reduction, right? And we’ve talked about how even though your smart phone has a camera, it’s not for listing photos, it’s for snapping pictures of your food and your dog?

Good, glad we had this talk.

Because settle in, kids, as I give you an object lesson in why we keep telling everyone to hire someone who knows what they’re doing.

Meet Nashville Realtor Miguel Calvo. Calvo published a bunch of photos for a listing, and um, one of them was not a bug, nor a feature, but a huuuuuuuuge mistake.

What kind of mistake? Well, interspersed in all those pictures of granite, open floorplans and what have you, was a photo of Calvo and a young gentlewoman caller, engaged in some in flagrante delicto.

We’ll let the eagle-eyed folks that broke the story, ScoopNashville.com, explain.

“Late Tuesday, a Realtor Miguel Calvo with Benchmark Realty uploaded more than expected to a new home listing he published online. The listing for the $399K Priest Lake Park home on Saxon Mist Drive included 31 photos of the home, the kitchen, the bathrooms, the pool, and of the realtor engaged in a sex act.”

We’d give more details, but we know most of you are reading this at work, and the details are definitely NSFW. Let’s just say that the Realtor was um, getting lip service from his friend? Mouth congress? Shining the plumbing? Seriously, I googled “polite way to say …” and there is apparently no polite way to say that.

OK, fine, here’s  a picture with a lot of things obscured but you can get the general idea …

Benchmark Realty, the brokerage Calvo represents, quickly pointed out that its Realtors are independent contractors.

“We are a faith-based organization and hold a very dim view of impropriety. Yet we also have a set procedure of investigation when accusations are made, so that, in fairness to all parties, we do not unnecessarily exacerbate a situation. With that said, after due process of an investigation of such claims, should we determine the agent did act in an improper manner, you may rest assured that their license will be released back to the state for disposition,” Benchmark said in a statement to the New York Post.

“It also doesn’t appear that Calvo ever officially had the listing for this home, located at 137 Saxon Mist Drive, which hit the market this week, per Realtor.com,” the Post reported.

In summary, don’t use your smartphone for listing photos, especially if it’s the same smartphone you use to commemorate uh, special occasions. Because listen, real talk here, if you use your iPhone for your listing photos and your “fun” photos, there’s a good chance you’re going to upload your penis to the MLS one day.

That’s just math.