Staging And Professional Pictures Will Make or Break Your Listing

We’ve talked about this again, and again, and again — staging and professional pictures will make or break your listing. But you know what else will? Decluttering and cleaning.

In fact, if you’re marketing gut jobs to investors, you might even say that you don’t even need 56 photos of your scary, less-than-photogenic house. Post the exterior, post the grounds, and tell everyone the property needs a ton of work and that there are interior photos upon request.

Yes, you’ll be making my job harder. But this week’s Wednesday WTF is an example of a great investment property that either should’ve been decluttered and cleaned before photos were taken (at least, but staging would’ve also put this over the top), or there should be 50 less photos in this listing.

So, the property — located in Des Plaines, Illinois — could be a great investment property, or maybe even something for a multi-generational living situation.

Very unique private 4.06 acre wooded estate with 2 single family homes. Includes Mid Century Modern 8, 578 sf walk-out ranch & additional 2, 850sf 2 sty home. Main house features 5 bed, 4.1 bath, 12′ ceilings on main level & floor to ceiling fireplace wall in living rm w/georgian white marble. Large eat-in kitchen with island & 3 sided fireplace. Huge private master bedroom w/on suite bath. Open floor plan with large oversized rooms & 4 fireplaces.. Enjoy the incredible views of private mature treed lot & wonderful natural light throughout. Large attached 3 car garage. Main house also has 2 bed, 2 bath apartment on lower level w/private entrance. 2nd 2, 850 sf home has 3 bed, 2 bath w/full basement. Both homes need updating. Ideal for rehabber or handyman. Property backs to forest preserve. Located near Oakton Community College. Great travel location between Golf & Central Rds near 1-294. Sold in As Is condition. There are signs of mold in basement of 2nd home but has not been tested.

So yeah — two homes, a huge lot that backs up to a forest preserve, all for $1.2 million. And at that price point, at least a little effort (even if you didn’t go into the expense of staging) would be somewhat expected.

And there are some great details (if you can look past all the clutter) in the homes. Lots of fireplaces, big windows, big rooms for entertaining.

But then there are some head scratchers.

Would it have been hard to clear out all the scary dolls and the dead tree so you could see what appears to be a planter?

Would it have made it clearer what this room is if it didn’t have an old car in it? Is it a garage? A living room? A mistake?

Why leave all this clutter in what could be a decent bathroom?

And what in the name of Mr. Clean is going on in this kitchen?

I’ve been calling this property the Rapture Listing since I first saw it, because seriously it looks like the occupants of this home suddenly dropped everything and just left.

So how would you have curated this listing? What would you have done differently? Let us know in the comments.

Want to see more? Click here.