Until July 10, 2008, Athol Kay in Connecticut was publishing nearly daily the bad MLS photo of the day. Then all of a sudden, after 422 bad photos, they just stopped. In August, I sent Athol an email, which was never returned. That was odd, as Athol had often published photos I had sent him.
I lost sight of Athol, and then this week, began looking at my feed reader, when I noticed that Athol still hadn’t published a post. Not even an, “I’ve stopped blogging” post. I checked the comment thread for his last post, and there wasn’t a comment from Athol. So I did what I should have done ages ago, and Thursday morning I called Athol. Cleverly mispronouncing his name (although we had spoken in email many times, we’d never spoken in person), I introduced myself, and then asked the obvious question, “What are you doing?”
Athol told me he had gone back to nursing, and that life was better with his family, his salary, benefits, and just plain everything. Later Thursday, Athol published this post: So Long And Thanks For All The Fisheye. Even in his not quite fair well post is written, Athol’s wit shines through. I sincerely hope Athol can break away now and again to share his insights when possible.
Getting on with it, I’m announcing a contest to thank and congratulate Athol for providing a service to the real estate community. While the bad MLS photo of the day was certainly a chance to have a little fun, it was more importantly a plea to REALTORS everywhere to pledge to take better photos of our properties. And it’s in that spirit that I am personally sponsoring a contest to identify the absolute worst real estate photo.
The Rules
The rules are simple. Just write a post on your blog, and publish the worst real estate photo you can find. Anybody with a blog can participate, not just real estate agents, including photographers, home owners, folks looking through craigslist, etc. The picture can come from any place that you find a real estate advertisement online, including MLS, craigslist, Google Base, Zillow, Trulia, PropertyQube, Postlets, and my web site. Once you’ve written a post, contact me, and let me know you’ve posted an entry. Only one entry per person, even if you have more than one blog.
As well, this contest is not a chance to call out an individual for taking and (more importantly) publishing a bad real estate photo. Your entry will be denied if you attribute the photo to it’s original publisher. I realize this is contrary to normal publishing rules, but I’m not trying to embarrass anyone with this contest.
Disclaimer: illegal, immoral, and inappropriate photos will not be accepted. Please keep it clean.
The Prizes
For every 20 entrants I will create a category, for which there will be one winner. The winner of the category will win a $25 gift certificate for either iTunes or Starbucks (your choice). Initially, I’m going to go with interior and exterior photo. If we get 60 entrants, I’ll do my best to be creative with a third category, etc.
The Judges
This is the best part. Once I post all of the entries, everyone that enters will identify their top 3 worst photos, and will have one week to publish a post with their votes. You can’t vote for yourself, of course. If you want, feel free to post honorable mentions, runner ups, etc. Be as creative as you’d like with your vote post, but be sure to identify the top 3
The Deadlines
Entries must be submitted by October 8, 2008, 5pm MST. This is the last date you can publish your entry for the contest. As well, don’t forget to tell me about it. Stay tuned here, as I’ll publish the official list via a separate page you can monitor, to be sure your entry is counted.
Judging may begin October 9, 2008, 8am MST, after I publish the official entries. You then have until 5pm on October 15, 2008, 5pm MST to publish your vote. I will announce the winners on October 10, 2008.
Questions
If you have a question, feel free to leave a comment or contact me. And Good Luck to everyone that participates.
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Interesting article.
Steve, Thanks for the update on Athol. Very much appreciated.