Shrinking consumer attention spans and an increasing dependence on technology has solidified the internet’s role as a mecca for Realtor and prospect interaction. Without fail, prospective homebuyers will preview homes and listings online before ever contacting a real estate company or agent. This includes researching information about neighborhoods, developing preliminary price points and maps, and, most importantly, viewing property listings. The saying “a picture is worth a thousand words” is never more true than when it is applied to the creation of a listing that successfully represents a property.
With this in mind, it’s more important than ever to learn how to create a listing based upon appropriate marketing photographs.
Understand the Basics
1) Picture Quality
Photo clarity is only one part of the overall marketable quality of an image. Brightness, color, frame, appealing distortion, and highlighting appropriate interior and exterior attributes are all aspects that lend to the overall quality of a marketing photograph.
Don’t use a cell phone!
Instead, invest in quality photography equipment or hire a skilled professional. This doesn’t necessarily mean purchasing expensive, top of the line cameras, but aim for a lens with at least over 12-megapixels for the best quality.
2) Staged, Not Cluttered
A shoddy picture of an empty or elegantly staged house is still usable with the appropriate editing. Exceptional pictures of filthy, cluttered, or untidy rooms should never be used not matter how crafty the editing is. Not only can photographs of disorderly living spaces diminish the appeal of what might otherwise be an elegant home, but they also relate poorly on the listing agent and the seller. The potential buyer may love the property, and yet have reservations about the realtor or listing agent that would allow such photographs to be posted.
In the end, a photograph of scattered clothes or stained carpets may repel potential buyers all together.
3) Keep it Light and Bright
Just as one should never use a cell phone to take marketing photographs, photo shoots should never be scheduled on an overcast, rainy, or otherwise dreary day.
Overcast skies blanket images in gray and silver lighting. This may hide elegant architectural accents, dull beautiful landscape, mutate colors, and cast an overall pall on the listing. Also, when possible, schedule photo shoots in the spring, fall or summer or on a snow-free, sunny day in the winter. Snow completely obfuscates a potential buyers ability to view landscape, gauge the approximate house size, and can take away from the natural beauty of any vegetation that may highlight the plot.
4) Find the Best Angle
A stellar photograph may be the determining factor in snagging the right buyer for a first time viewing. Therefore, it’s important to know how to find the appropriate angles to highlight the property.
Below are a few simple tips that listing agents and realtors abide by:
- Find the full canvas. Interior shots are generally more appealing when taken from the doorway.
- Avoid a flat canvas. Portray depth by taking exterior, full frontal photos at an angle.
- Prep the canvas. Remove obstructions such as cars, signs, and garbage cans. Avoid utility poles, dumpsters, and other properties.
- Quality and count. Take more photographs then you’ll need. Create a selection to pick and choose from.
Total Curb Appeal: A View From Up Above
While advancements in technology has allowed potential home buyers to research and educate themselves on the real estate market independently, it also has provided the real estate industry with high-tech gadgets to better market their properties.
Drone photography and video services offer listing agents and realtors the opportunity to extend a property’s curb appeal to three-dimensional and 360 degree angles. While great land-level photographs snag a potential buyer’s interest, elegant drone images of spacious back yards, new roofs, and surrounding homes create interest and provide a level of certainty about the property and the neighborhood that could not be achieved otherwise.
By offering this level of attention to marketing a property, a potential buyer gains a unique look at the individual real estate company, realtor, or listing agent. Drone marketing offers a tangible transparency that helps develop trust in the potential buyer and displays the effort the agency or agent is willing to put in to appropriate the highest quality of marketing.
Incorporating elegant, high-quality photographs with drone images to heighten curb appeal is the ultimate marketing package for any property.
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