These listing photos bring new meaning to the expression, “a room with a view.”
David Ferrugio, who was working for Compass at the time of posting these photos, boldly went where no agent has gone before and posted photos of himself in the buff wearing nothing but an untied grey fleece robe and an artfully positioned blur in new listing photos for a $1.29 million home in the Monterey Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles.
Published last week on Instagram, the photos were already causing a stir by Monday on social media, though not necessarily for the tasteful three-bedroom, two-bathroom layout nestled inside 6340 Monterey Road.
To hear from Ferrugio’s followers and would-be admirers, the photo shoot drew eyes and wagged tongues thanks mostly to the not-safe-for-work snaps of the agent reading a newspaper near a driveway, scrambling eggs in the kitchen and lazing about in a bedroom and a back patio.
“Does the dude in the robe come with the house?” wrote one fan on Ferrugio’s Instagram, ending the question with an 🤓 emoji.
To hear it from Ferrugio, a real estate agent who joined Compass in June following stints at luxury brokerages Rodeo Realty and Revel Real Estate before launching a watch and accessory line, there was no grand plan behind the provocative listing photos. More of a whim, really.
“I wish I could say that I had an epiphany like a parting of the Red Sea moment, but I just thought of lifestyle shoots and thought it’d be funny,” Ferrugio, who regularly posts comical photos and sketches of himself commenting on real estate on his page, told Inman.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CU5rf95htEU/
Zillow’s listing for the property features images of the interior and exterior, but far more revealing pictures can be found on Ferrugio’s Instagram account, which he added as a way of having fun and drawing attention to the property. He also made the choice to only keep them on his own social media so that the photos posted to sites like Zillow and realtor.com would remain professional.
6340 Monterey Road | Instagram (@ferrugio)
Ferrugio said that the owners of the home did not need much convincing. They were familiar with his Instagram account and open to drawing more attention to the property in non-standard ways.
While homes in Monterey Hills typically sell quickly (Redfin estimates an average of 48.5 days after listing) and rarely need aggressive marketing campaigns, the owners agreed that any increased attention was a good thing. It clearly worked because the post has received hundreds of comments from both agents and buyers and Ferrugio has already held an open house.
“My clients are amazing for being open-minded and giving this a fair shot,” Ferrugio said. “I think that anyone who says ‘oh, it’ll sell easily’ is using a cop-out instead of puling out all the stops.”
6340 Monterey Road | Instagram (@ferrugio)
Other photos that Ferrugio included on his Instagram include one of him standing in front of a stove with a skillet and an apron not covering his bare (but blurred-out) behind and one in which he lies on the bed provocatively wrapped in bed sheets. The most risqué photo, however, comes at the end: Ferrugio sits on a lawn chair reading a newspaper in the nude with his legs spread out.
6340 Monterey Road | Instagram (@ferrugio)
Revealing photo shoots have, over the past five years, occasionally sprung up as an agent marketing ploy. One Texas agent, for example, hired models to pose in underwear in one of her homes. But few have revealed as much as Ferrugio due to a high degree of professional risk. In 2016, two Coldwell Banker agents were fired after posing nearly naked in a “Men of Glastonbury Chamber” calendar.
6340 Monterey Road | Instagram (@ferrugio)
When racy photos come to light, the debate tends to be renewed over whether the shock-factor truly helps sell homes.
Ferrugio said that while he will not make racy photo shoots a habit, he believes it’s good to take occasional risks from time to time — with the owners’ permission, of course.
“This is obviously not for everyone, but in an industry where everyone does the same thing over and over again, I think you should take these opportunities to make your brand and your property stand out,” he said.
CORRECTION: This article has been changed to reflect that Compass has disassociated itself from Ferugio after the images were posted.
