Market It

Article from Florida Realtor Magazine - April 2012 Issue

30 FLORIDA REALTOR April 2012 -

Promoting and Marketing your Luxury Listings - "GET THE MONEY SHOT"..

Great photos sell.  Luxury niche Realtor JOYCE MARSH shares the tricks of her trade with Florida Realtor Magazine readers and agents:

 “Pictures are for entertainment, messages

should be delivered by Western Union.” —Samuel Goldwyn, American film producer and studio founder

 “The son said, ‘Oh my gosh, Dad. This is the house,’” says Joyce Marsh Broker Aassociate with Stirling Sotheby’s International Realty in Orlando.  “They didn’t even want (to buy in) Florida and had an offer on a house in a different state,”she laughs. But Marsh’s professional online photos beckoned the buyers to fly to Florida and reconsider. 

While Marsh specializes in luxury homes and spends about $3,000 per listing on photography, you can use her tricks to take photos of your own.

Stage the scene.  Great photos allow online shoppers to see themselves living in the home, says Marsh. “Make sure that anything you don’t want in the shot is taken out,” she says. “Create several shots by setting up a scene with a table outside, things like that.” The trick is to make it homey and eliminate the clutter and personalization.

Capture natural light.   If you’re using a photographer, “select [one who’s] great at architectural photographyand walk around the house to look at every single view,” says Marsh. Doing it on your own? Write down what stands out and what’s going to catch the eye.  Then, start early to catch warm morning light and consider staying late to get shots at dusk. “We put every light on inthe house,” she says. The perfect time, she says, is during the “blue evening light when you can still see the view.”

 Get the money shot.  Every house has one picture that creates an “emotion to move,” says Marsh. The trick is to carefully go through your options and find the perfect shot that sums up the house. It could be a shot of the backyard with the table set that invokes a feeling of warm summer nights hanging out poolside. “[I look for the] perfect shot that [makes the] person looking at the photos feel like they’re sitting in the house looking at the view. [You want to] personalize it by putting the buyer right there.”

 Develop interesting virtual tours.  Marsh’s multimillion-dollar listings get virtual tours using still photos, not video, but she uses a trick to give them impact. “[It’s a mistake to put] one horizontal shot after another,” she says. “What stops your eye is a vertical shot. So I put in vertical shots of the most prominent house features.” Armed with lots of good photos, Marsh not only promotes the listing but shows potential sellers how she makes homes look great. The photos open other doors too, such as getting her listings featured on the brokerage’s website home page.

Would you like to read the entire article in Florida Realtor Magazine?

You can see one of her tours at www.tourfactory.com/mobi/tourasp?t=488235#tTT2

Joyce Marsh Stirling Sotheby’s International Realty, Orlando & Coastal Areas

Joyce Marsh, Winner of the National Luxury Home Marketing Award for 2011

Institute for Luxury Home Marketing (ILHM)