Bring Back Newspaper Advertising!

Yes, that's right. I said it. Me. The ARCH ENEMY of NEWSPAPER ads. The ANTI-CLASSIFIED CRUSADER. The STOP THE STUPIDITY SPOKESMAN for agents who just can't bring themselves to stop running classified ads in the paper. And yes, I'm now calling for their RETURN. Begging, actually. Please, let's return to 3-line text ads!

Why? Because at least they won't have CREEPY, SCARY DIGITAL PHOTOS in them!

To make my point, take a tour of some of the "cream of the crop" photos from REALTORS online today. (WARNING: DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS ON A FULL STOMACH!)

For starters, visit this site from a fellow REALTOR who created an actual visual tour of terrible listing photos. Sure, his voice over work is pretty creepy itself, but it's forgivable compared to the photos he collected.

And the list goes on. Here's a bunch of photos for a "new listing" for an "affordable" home:

Now just which sellers wanted their property online so fast they couldn't at least pick up the laundry?

Now, let's not just say "fixer-upper" listings have bad photos; Here comes a set from some "upper crust" listings (all over $850,000 listing price):

Now, we can understand if you can't take good photos from the curb; it's so hard to avoid those trees who jump into every photo. But back inside, what's the deal....?

And can someone PLEASE explain to me the REALTOR-Fetish with UGLY, MOLDY BATHROOMS??????

And of course - my personal FAVORITE DIGITAL PHOTO - on a $1.5MILLION dollar listing.

So, to summarize: Maybe sellers WERE better off when all we did was run "mysterious" ads in the newspaper; at least nobody was SCARING AWAY POTENTIAL BUYERS through their "expert " use of their digital cameras.

REALTOR!! STEP AWAY FROM THE CAMERA!