Worst Agent Photos

Before I Begin

Business is all about image, and every good business owner strictly vets everything a prospective customer sees during the course of a transaction. I speak to hundreds of REALTORS® in many markets around North America and one message I’ve heard loud and clear from top producers is:

“Image is everything. Every flyer, business card, website, etc. must look sharp and consistent – no exceptions.”

The photos below all have one thing in common: they’re bad – and not because of the way the subjects look, but because of the things they’ve done (or not done) to ensure that their photos are terrible. They all say the same thing to a prospective customer:

“Perfection is out of reach for me, so don’t expect anything special.”

So, without further adieu – here are the top 5 worst agent photos I’ve seen in the last 6 months:

#5 – The amazing oil-spill jacket

Shiny Jacket?

Is it leather or pleather? Neither: it’s a brand new fully-plastic jacket from “Armani GarBaj”. At least the over-powering red sign in the foreground distracts us from the most damaging part of this photo: the crappy point-and-shoot camera you’re so intently using to demonstrate to everyone that you’re not a professional photographer.

“I take my own photos…”

You sure do. And that’s why you chose this photo to put on your website.

#4 – The great-to-terrible machine

Flattering is so 2009

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There’s no reason this woman needed to look so bad! Worse yet, IT DIDN’T NEED TO GET ON HER WEBSITE!!

#3 – Unluckiest arrow

There's an arrow pointing at your... left.

The only thing that’d make this photo worse is if “home” was replaced with “fly.” Sign-aside, the brick-sized cell phone completes this masterpiece of “bad”.

Surprisingly I really like this photo. The sign is obviously well-intentioned, but so misguided that it’s startlingly hilarious. I’d also be inclined to list with this guy just to see if he still uses that cell phone. Well done sir – you’ve won me over by your ridiculousness.

#2 – The Impersonator

Rockalike

Apologies for the size of the image, but it was all that I could find. I’ll go soft on this one because it’s not all that bad. In fact, if it was on facebook it’d be downright great! Unfortunately it’s on your website, and unless it’s combined with a guest appearance of “the rock” at my open-house, then I’ll pass on your marketing expertise – sorry.

#1 – The winners! (losers?)

There were three winners:

Class of 85: Voted most likely to fail in real estate

Always the bridesmaid, never the top producer

In conclusion

Believe it or not, these are all genuine profile photos on active REALTOR’s® websites. The worst part is that it took me less than an hour to find them – along with about 20 that I didn’t use.

I’d estimate that at least 1-in-10 REALTOR® photos is absolutely terrible, meaning that there are at least 200,000 more photos out there that belong in this article.