David Sherfey

I use HDR on everything. Maybe it is overkill, but it's my hobby so what the heck. I don't want to spend the money on lighting and HDR provides better exposures than most real estate photos get. I am one of those wide angle transgressors, because I want as much of the room as possible in one shot. On every property site I do I make it very plain that the lens makes it look larger and deeper. Just for fun, here is a HDR set of photos I just shot for the curator of our local historical society. The house is the oldest one in the village, 1744 I think, and it was all ambient light with HDR. some of the colors are too intense, which is what you can get with Photomatix when you batch process and your settings aren't right for all the shots. Still pretty decent photos, shot at 31 degrees F.... Everything in the house is being moved out for a restoration, and we wanted to know where most of the stuff was before it went into inventory. http://www.zenfolio.com/saison/p138748583?slideshow=1 David Sherfey - Associate Broker http://ResidentialPropertyMarketing.com

Sounds nice on the surface. I would certainly forego the risk value portion of the commission to be paid a weekly check for services. However, many sellers and buyers don't have the money in pocket to actually employ someone. Even for those who do, for a seller, this might reduce the amount of money they have to use for the purchase their next home, and for a buyer it could do the same. Putting all of the risk into the client's hands doesn't sound like a great service offering. It would be fun, though, to see agents and brokers describe what they do, AND how it works - when they pitch their services to the public. David Sherfey - Associate Broker http://ResidentialPropertyMarketing.com

Maybe if the buyer's house is in an area where properties are jumping off the market quickly, but where is that happening? House sale contingency means that the buyer is in the weak position. The weaker their position is, the more motivated they will be to get their house under sale contract quickly. Whatever local MLS mechanism and contract structure is required for the seller to also keep their house on the market fully-available continuously should be employed. Taking a house off of the market is not a good marketing strategy(!). Yes it is a buyer's market now, but in this discussion we actually have two sellers in the chain, with a weak buyer in the middle. Dian contradicts herself toward the end; "...it can benefit the sellers in terms of their overall marketing strategy." Followed by an explanation why; "a release clause can slow down the marketing of the sellers' property..." Perhaps there was something missing in the article? David Sherfey - Associate Broker http://ResidentialPropertyMarketing.com