About once a week, I receive a big, glossy brochure inside the daily paper. The brochure is for a luxury condo building located about a mile south of me. Inside the document, you’ll find pictures of the outside of the building and the views from the condos, plus photos of happy owners. But there isn’t a single picture of what the actual interiors of the units look like.

I’m not in the market for a condo, but this seems like a big red flag to any potential buyers. I understand that the developers probably think they’re selling a lifestyle, and the views and such are part of that. But the thing people actually see the most when they live there is the interior of the condo itself, so it’s a rather important part of the experience. By leaving out pictures of the kitchen, living room, and other areas, you make it impossible for prospects to form a mental model of what it would be like to live there.

Plus, there’s another problem with leaving out a key set of images. When there are no interior photos in the marketing materials, potential buyers are left to wonder: if the interior is so underwhelming that the designers couldn’t squeeze a single picture into this big brochure, how bad must the inside of the place actually be?