Tanya Lemcke

In the effort of not sounding like I am about to step on my soapbox I just want to blog quickly about my personal thoughts on Virtual Tours and some of the companies that promote virtual Tours and the showcase of photos done by professional photographers for those VT Companies. Let me start by saying it's not because I am too cheap to pay for this extra service for my clients! At only $100.00 per listing you can get these absolutely phenomenal photographers to take all the interior/exterior shots of your home and WOW does it ever look great. I started by getting my exposure to this unnamed VT Company by checking out a listing on another agent website and my first reaction was "Incredible! My clients have got to have this!"  Then I hit a home I had listed before on the site and so I took the tour...... Okay, tour completed my new thought was - "those pictures and tour are a lie" a distortion of the truth some would say but, let's be blatant here - what you were seeing was not going to be what you were getting. I know because I had been through the house numerous times. And as I quickly ascend to my soapbox, allow me to tell you what I really think. I really think that if someone is taking the time out of their busy, busy schedule (sometimes with all the kids in tow) that they deserve to not be disappointed or disillusioned by stepping in the front door. I feel that when I list your house the photo's I take may be good, but they are not doctored or zoomed or telescoped or whatever in any way so the room is as the room is. One home I looked at looks at least 70 feet from the very busy street it sits on and driving by I would be surprised if it's 30 feet. Whether it's the camera they use or they are able to photoshop and literally "bend" the view of the room, elongate the halls to look so long....it doesn't matter. See I like woman to be a healthy weight, not skinny like in the magazines (maybe I'm partail because I've had 4 kids), I think a man is still very handsome even if he's bald (my dad was the coolest bald guy ever!) and I hate being deceived by the idea that everything has got to be perfect. No home is perfect, but you can enjoy what you put into it. Our home has undergone many changes since we first moved in. It had robin's egg blue paint in the master bedroom, boring beige everywhere else and dusty rose in the living room, the basement had a leak and we loved it - we could see the potential that the rooms could be if only a different colour and we reparged the basement. Not perfect, but honest. I want to deal with both Buyers and Sellers with integrity and honestly and I know I can only do that by giving you the "straight goods", no matter what. So no Virtual Tours and photos for now, just undoctored taken by little ole' me photo's and placed on the #1 ranked real estate website in the world!