You may have heard that pictures don’t lie. While this may be the case regarding family photographs, real estate pictures may be slightly more deceiving. More often than not, you can come across pictures of a property you see online and marvel at just how nice it comes off. However, when you see the house for yourself, you may quickly be made aware of the flaws the respective photographs hid in plain sight. It is not uncommon for real estate photographs to embellish the property. That is why they exist. Therefore, before you make an offer you need to see the property for yourself. Trust your own eyes and don’t leave your potential earnings up to pictures someone else took.
It can be easy to fall in love with a property you see online. Everything seems so perfect and it can easily look like a home run. It is important to understand, however,that it is the job of the realtor or the homeowner to generate interest in the property and put the home’s best foot forward. If there is a crack in the tile, do you think they are going to post a picture highlighting it? They are only going to show you the best features of the best pictures they have available. Even if you are pressed for time or the property is a fairly lengthy drive, you need to put the work in and put eyes on every property you consider buying.
This may seem obvious, but there are many instances in which busy investors rely solely on the pictures they get from the internet. They may have had a long day and don’t want to drive 40 minutes to take a look for themselves. After double and triple checking the pictures, these individuals may feel pretty confident in their offer and asking price. When they finally get around to the property and neighborhood, they are less than pleased with what they see. A house is more than a dozen pictures you may see online. In order to fully access a piece of real estate, you need to look at the yard, the street and every inch of a property. A miscalculation in your repair estimate will throw all subsequent numbers out of whack and make a seemingly good deal turn ugly.
Would you make an offer based solely on a listing sheet? You probably wouldn’t. The same concept should be implemented with any pictures and videos you see. These should be nothing more than an enhancer of an opinion, with the final decision open to when you see the property. The minute you start getting lazy and relying on other peoples’ information is when you start getting in trouble. If you try to cheat the process and not look at the property, you will eventually end up with a lemon that will cost you either time, money or both.
The internet and technology have made property evaluation as easy as it has ever been. That being said, you still need to do your due diligence and put the work in. Whoever told you that pictures never lie probably wasn’t taking about real estate.
