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Why does every listing I look at lead with the kitchen when the curb shot is embarrassing

I've been studying listings in the $280k to $340k range in the Columbus suburbs because that's where I'm trying to buy, and I keep running into the same thing. Bad exterior photo goes first, sometimes a driveway shot at a weird angle, and then the listing pivots to a staged living room or a granite counter close-up. By photo three I've already written the house off. I'm not even getting to the good stuff. I've clicked away from at least six listings in the past month where I later saw the house on Zillow 3D and it was actually decent inside. The first photo killed it for me. I know I'm not an agent but I'm a buyer who looks at a lot of listings and the ordering feels like whoever uploaded the photos just went in the order they shot them, not in any order designed to keep someone clicking. One house in Westerville was on the market 34 days and dropped $9k, and when I went back and looked at the listing the hero shot was a utility room. An actual photo of a water heater, first in the queue. I don't know who catches this stuff before the listing goes live but something is going wrong somewhere between the photographer delivering files and the MLS going public.

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The Westerville example is real and it happens constantly. I lost money on the sell side of a duplex in Reynoldsburg in 2021 partly because of this. Photographer delivered 47 images alphabetically named, whoever uploaded them just went in sequence, and the first shot was the back fence in November. Sat 41 days and I took $7,200 under asking.

The gap is almost always that nobody with a stake in the sale reviews the photo order before it goes live. Photographer is done, admin uploads, agent approves the description and moves on.