Some real estate agents understand the importance of real estate photography, and the impact it has on an agent’s business and success, and some don’t. Robert Wagener gets it:
Nice work, Rockin’ Realty Guy! Here are a couple of the most important things he says here:
“We as real estate agents like to throw out numbers like we’re geniuses. We say,
‘94% of all homebuyers are looking online to find their next house.’
But we haven’t been able to figure out, what does that mean? What’s the next sentence that should be coming out of my mouth? We just stop there. But the next sentence should be …
‘And because they’re online we know that pictures are the most important part of the marketing process, and that’s why I hire somebody to take my pictures!”
Yes, that’s exactly it! It’s not complicated, and the general public gets it. They know the importance of quality photography, but they are relying on their agent to manage the campaign. After all, the agent was hired as the expert, weren’t they? So they don’t say anything, but I think they breathe a sigh of relief when the agent takes control and says,
“Hey, we want to get the best possible result for your home, so we’re going to bring in a professional real estate photographer!”
Anyway, Robert goes on to say:
“I think we are failing our customers by not taking the time to figure out,
‘Okay, if that’s true, if they’re looking at it online, if that is the first showing, what do I need to do to be prepared when they show up to look at this house for the first time online?’
I mean, when they’re there in person you’re cleaning, you’re making it smell good. I mean, if they’re coming to your house you’re trying to spruce the place up to impress them! Well, why aren’t we doing that with the pictures? Why are we putting up sub-par pictures with the camera turned sideways, and bad lighting, and pictures where you can only see a part of the room? Why are we doing this?
We are short changing our clients …
We are short changing ourselves because it’s not going to help the house sell by having crummy pictures up.”
Robert has even gone on to create a pretty cool blog post called “5 real estate secrets that you never knew” where he says:
“A home that has professional level photography has 3X the chance of selling, and 7X the exposure than a competing home that’s trying for sale.* When buyers are online shopping, they want to be able to picture themselves in the home, before they ever step foot in it. As great as cell phone cameras and point and shoot cameras are, they are no match for real photography. In the current technological era of real estate, nothing in the marketing process has a bigger impact on your home that the quality of photos.”
Well said, my good man!
So after hearing him say all of this, I was really excited about seeing his listings, and what kind of photography he’s using.
And I was disappointed.
I mean, the images are clearly a step above a lot of the bad stuff you see from agents, but still, as a photographer myself I know they could be better. A lot better.
So whilst it’s great to see agents who know that real estate photography matters for them and their clients, it’s a little disheartening to see some agents settle for images that could be so much brighter, straighter, more beautiful, and more appealing for buyers.
What is possible for agents? I’m talking images like these, taken by various real estate photographers across the USA and Australia:
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