In real estate photography, there are three ways to go about showcasing listings.
Hire a professional photographer to capture the images
Do it yourself
Skip that whole thing and list it without pictures
In this series, we'll be talking mostly about doing it yourself. However, in many cases, it would be advantageous to hire a photographer. If you are so busy with other parts of your business that you don't have time to do it right, get a pro. If you don't have the skills (and/or you aren't willing to take the time to learn them), get a pro. If you don't want to dedicate the time to get it right, get a pro. These aren't meant to be mean... but to let you know that the pictures on a listing are one of, if not THE most important marketing tool you have.
There is no shame in hiring a pro... I have better than a decade in professional advertising photography behind me, and I have hired photographers to shoot some of my listings. I did, however, go back and shoot more supporting images. And that is a GREAT way to transition from hiring out the photography to handling it in-house. Bring in a pro to shoot the major scenes, then shoot the details yourself. It will save a little money, and not compromise the marketing of the listing.
There are a few things that you need to know in order to get started in handling your own photography for your real estate listings. Over the next few weeks, we'll be covering them in more detail, individually...
Cameras (you don't NEED to have a big, expensive camera to shoot great pictures, but it doesn't hurt)
Lighting (this is where the action is)
Aperture and Shutter speed combinations (the mechanics of taking pictures)
Composition (framing it up to make it work)
Tricky Details (those little things that catch us off-guard)
Photography isn't hard, but it does require attention to detail. The techniques are all pretty basic, but stacking things on top of each other is where things can get a little tricky... for example, combining flash and ambient lighting, or balancing inside and outside light. And one of the greatest aspects of modern digital photography is the ability to see immediately the results... in time to correct the images BEFORE breaking down and going back to the office.
I will try to get specific as often as I can, and the tips will be related to shooting real estate. Of course, some of them might also jump over into your vacation shots and family pictures. Stay tuned...
Why should a buyer or seller read MY market report instead of one of the hundreds of other reports out there?
Am I providing value?
What do consumers want in a market report?
I am specifically NOT leaving a link to one of my market reports in order for everyone to grade it. Rather, I would love to hear about what YOU think makes a great market report... whether you are an agent, broker, consumer or vendor.
Less than 10 days from now, Atlanta will have its second rebarcamp event.
If you haven't been to one of the rebarcamp (rebc) events around the country, you REALLY need to change that. rebc events are billed as the "unconference". Unlike a traditional conference, there aren't a bunch of vendors running sessions that are thinly disguised sales pitches... and sometimes they aren't even thinly disguised. If you've ever been to the NAR Convention, you know exactly what I'm talking about. It seems like every "education" seminar ends with "and you can get my DVD set at booth 347, for just $199."
At rebarcamp, you talk with other real estate professionals about things that each of you are doing to build your businesses. Small groups get together and share ideas around specific topics. There aren't any "presentations" or lectures, but rather crowd sourcing solutions.
One of the coolest things about the rebc movement is its flexibility. Unlike a traditional seminar, the schedule isn't preset. It makes it seem a little crazy at first, but there is a HUGE advantage. Participants come in with needs and questions, and they have a much better chance at finding solutions and answers.
We are bending the "normal" rebc conventions a little bit. The first round of sessions in the morning will be set before the event, but after the first hour, anything goes. When we have the opening remarks, we will call for ideas on sessions. They could be anything from "Better Leveraging FaceBook Pages" or "Twitter for Non-Twits" to "Short Sale Disaster Avoidance" and "How Should I Spend My Advertising Budget... like I actually have one".
rebcATL2011 is only $17.50... for a FULL day of learning and networking. This year's event will be held at the Mansour Center in Marietta, GA.
Check out the website for more info. If you want to go straight to the ticket page, you can do that, too...
Those of us that live in the Atlanta Metro area are all pretty familiar with Buckhead. And I have lived here for a little over 22 years... but I have a connection that goes back WAY before that.
I lost my father in 1997, and he never lived here... but he did visit Buckhead... LONG ago. He visited me several times after I moved to Atlanta in 1989, but when he was still a kid, he was passing through Buckhead with a few teammates. He was a student at the Columbia Military Academy in Columbia, TN, and on the Rifle Team. They had just completed a competition in South GA, and were passing through on the way back to school. It would have been around 1946... and my father would have been around the tender age of 14.
The driver of the car stopped in Buckhead for a short break. While he was out of the car, my father made a quick run into one of the local bars (yes, there were bars there then, too...) and bought a beer. He was in his Military Academy uniform, and the bartender probably assumed that he was a soldier...
So my dad had his first beer in Buckhead.
True to his nature, we drove down to Buckhead one day... probably around 1995 or so... and he was able to show me the exact place that they were parked, as well as the bar where he got the beer. It wasn't a bar then, and now it doesn't even exist as a building, but we found an old picture... and he was right on point.
Oddly, my dad was never really a beer drinker. He joked that if he'd bought a 6-pack at that time, it might have been a lifetime supply.
A few days ago I posted that (in my humble opinion) real estate blogs should be about real estate... not movie reviews, restaurant reviews, not recipes... Real estate. That is what the audience is tuning in for, give them what they want. I gave a few examples of what I see from my traffic patterns, and generally tried to support my opinion.
But, real estate agents that are marketing online (should) have a LOT more channels aside from their real estate blog. And I DO believe that there is a place in some of those other channels for items with less focus. First, let's run down a few options:
YouTube
Posterous
Twitter
FaceBook (Business) Page
Delicious (Link sharing)
Flickr (Photo Sharing)
FourSquare (Location Sharing)
Community Websites
More...
With the exception of the community websites, EVERY one of those items listed is FREE. Community websites might be free, might cost a few bucks a year, or might cost as much as $100 (if you have to have someone set it up). But there is something that they ALL have in common, too. They can all be support systems for your real estate website. And they can all send links to your real estate website... they are all outposts, providing information and hopefully send a few people trotting off to visit your cyber-office. A community website is the absolute toughest to get going... and has the most reward if you get it right.
Video is hot. You should have video of testimonials, communities, local events, YOU and likely a plethora of other things. Host them on YouTube, embed them on your site (the ones that belong) and let them pull in a little traffic. Flickr is much the same... but with pictures instead of video.
Posterous is COOL. It is a great way to get some of the content to the other sites... and also share news and tidbits about things that are happening in the community. Grab an RSS feed from your Posterous site and let it run on the sidebar of your blog. Pull in calendar entries from local events, interviews with local politicians or business-people, news items, reviews or local places, etc. Don't make it the focus of your website... let it stand on its own, while contributing a little to your website. Better yet, make it community specific, and find people in the community that want to load THEIR content onto it. Be the publisher...
A great source of news is Twitter. I have come to see Twitter as "broadcast media" rather than as person to person social networking. Some will disagree, but I look at Twitter the same way as I look at the "newswire services". Filter it down to what is important, and then share that in a news feed on your site. It isn't terribly difficult in a geographic specialty... but a bit tougher with a lifestyle specialty.
Delicious is a link sharing site. Instead of having a giant blogroll of all of the people you might know, share the links through Delicious... they can be tagged and categorized to make finding resources easier for your reader. Again, publish a feed to your sidebar.
On FourSquare, do those reviews (in the "Tips" section of the location). Have a great profile and point it back to your website. If there is someone out there that will buy a house from you based on your incredible writing about an ice cream cone... they can still find you.
FaceBook could be 20 posts all by itself. But, the basic idea is to make a Page about a community and then get the community to give it life. You should be there to nurture it, cull out the junk (and competitors) and keep it moving along. Talk about the parks, restaurants, movies, local parades and a zillion other things. Let it be a virtual Town Square where people can gather at 4am in their underwear without being laughed at (nobody has to know).
The bottom line is that there IS a place for all of that other content we want to use to show everyone how connected we are to the community. It just might not be the main real estate website.
I have been blogging about real estate since 2008... so over three years. I can say proudly that I have a few thousand posts. Of those, there are a lot that were NOT about real estate, but that appeared on my real estate blog. Some were about cars (I just started a car blog JUST for those posts). Others were about local news. Still others were about local businesses, entertainment venues, parks and recreational opportunities.
As long as I have been blogging, the mantra has been to "Be the source of information about EVERYTHING in the community".
But after years of blogging, and looking over my blog posts and traffic patterns... I'm not so convinced any more. I see where my traffic is coming from, and I see which posts are the popular entry (and exit) posts. BUT, I also talk to the people that call, email or contact me in other ways... and I ask them what made them make the call.
Let me make a few points...
Almost without exception, my most read posts are NOT real estate related in any way.
My most read posts are NOT about local issues, businesses, personalities or events.
The post types that causes the most direct contact from consumers are market reports.
I've NEVER had someone say they wanted to work with me because of a review of a local business.
Most of my local name recognition has come from local event and local issue posts... but I can't say one has ever brought me business.
Keep in mind, this is specifically about real estate blogging...
Here are the take-aways that I see from the above points.
A real estate blog needs to be focused on real estate. There is plenty of room for reviews, lists of area attractions and other local interest items, but they should not be the focus of the blog.
Hyper-local news DOES belong on a good real estate website. It shouldn't be the focus, and even a "curatorial" style might be enough (rolling links to a variety of hyper-local news stories, for example... like a Twitter based local news feed).
Market Reports are one of THE most important things to have on a real estate website. Consumers want to understand the real estate market, whether they are buying or selling.
Market Stats are nice... but people want interpretation of the stats. They want to know your professional opinion is about the direction of the market... up or down.
Community profiles are VERY in demand. Buyers want to know about the communities and the schools that they are considering. They might like to know about the history, school performance and local culture... but they REALLY want to know about prices, styles and economic outlook. All of those items belong in the community profile, but some might be links to specialty sites, like GreatSchools.net or sections of a city's website.
Daily updates are overkill... but a good real estate blog needs to have depth. After you have 40 or 50 solid posts, posting up 2-3 times a week might work... assuming that will cover the areas you need to cover.
Helping real estate "Do-It-Yourselfers" is good business. Give them your best tips for promoting their property, warn them of the most common pitfalls they may face (Fair Housing laws, for example) and give them the steps for a smooth transaction. But don't talk down to them.
Is this a sure-fire path to success? No. But it might help. Don't forget, though... it's just my opinion. Look for a related post coming up about Social Networking.
****Post-script... I just added the next part of this series to Active Rain. I had it up on LaneBailey.info yesterday (for those that wanted to jump ahead...). Here is a link.
It is NO secret around here that I am a Car Guy. I guess that would be why I am THE Garage Guy, too. For the last 4+ years one thing I have had NO problem being transparent about is my love of things automotive. Here on this blog, as well as my blog, LaneBailey.com, and my website, GarageHomesUSA.com, I have written numerous posts about cars, garages and cool tools.
Recently, I started a blog solely targeted to other car lovers. It is called CoolCaroftheDay.com. And because I seem to be a glutton for punishment, I also created a network of supporting sites:
Cool Car of the Day on FaceBook
Cool Car of the Day on YouTube
Cool Car of the Day on Twitter
CoolCaroftheDay.mobi on Posterous
Blogging here on Active Rain and meeting so many influential and successful bloggers has taught me a LOT about creating content and delivering it. I've tried to take some of that knowledge in a new direction.
I still enjoy blogging about real estate... but I have also written around 2000 posts. I have 1780 posts here in the Rain, and there are around 1600 on LaneBailey.com... there is certainly a lot of crossover between my blogs. I am slowing down a bit on real estate. I have trimmed back from 7 days a week on LaneBailey.com down to 3 days a week.
The new blog has been up around a month. There have already been some really cool cars... and there are more coming.
I have been pulling Gwinnett County Real Estate Market Data, and I'm not done with it yet. But, I have been seeing a few things.
Listings are down markedly from where they would normally be. This can be either a positive or negative, depending on your outlook.
On the Plus Side, fewer listings means that Absorption Rates are better. There is less inventory to get sold... it tilts the table back toward sellers. It has been largely tilted toward buyers for quite a while.
On the Minus Side, it shows that there is pessimism in the market on the side of sellers. They aren't confident about the market. That lack of confidence has carried over to buyers... sales are also slowing.
Sales are down... like I just mentioned. Even though Absorption Rates make the market look better... the sales just aren't there.
Results are mixed. There are a few cities that are doing well... and there are a few price segments that are doing quite well. Others are VERY weak.
Kind of odd that for a "Wayback" post I would talk about an upcoming car show... But the show happens around the first Saturday in May each year... and so THIS Saturday is the day.
Smokerise Baptist Church is having their 11th Annual Smokerise Car Show on Saturday from 9am until 3pm. Registration runs from 9am until Noon... so there might be a few cars that don't show up until late. Judging runs from Noon until 3pm.
And check out this link for pictures from last year's show. There were some pretty cool rides on hand... and that was with showers threatening all day.
BTW, the other car show mentioned in that post, Mud4Blood, will be on May 28th. That one promises to rock, too...
I've NEVER had a buyer client tell me that they thought the garage was too big. Granted, most of my buyers are "car people", so the deck is a bit stacked, but not all of them are. In fact, I've had clients with little interest in cars... and they still wanted a garage that was just a little bigger.
You see, lots of people use their garages for a lot of different things. Many of my clients like to build cars or weld something back together in their garage, but others just want to be able to fit two cars and their riding lawnmower. Some people might want to move the cars out and build a nice piece of furniture. Others need a place to store their camping equipment while they are back in civilization.
Of course, square footage is valuable, especially as margins are squeezed, but homes with more generous garages might also sell a bit quicker. And that helps the margin, too. Turning over inventory faster lowers carrying costs. And while we're at it, can we have a couple more outlets in the garage? I've seen too many garages lately that only had one outlet (aside from the one for the garage door opener). One. Even my 40 year old house has four outlets...
Disclaimer: ActiveRain Corp. does not necessarily endorse the real estate agents, loan officers and brokers listed on this site. These real estate profiles, blogs and blog entries are provided here as a courtesy to our visitors to help them make an informed decision when buying or selling a house. ActiveRain Corp. takes no responsibility for the content in these profiles, that are written by the members of this community.
At rebarcamp, you talk with other real estate professionals about things that each of you are doing to build your businesses. Small groups get together and share ideas around specific topics. There aren't any "presentations" or lectures, but rather crowd sourcing solutions. 
The driver of the car stopped in Buckhead for a short break. While he was out of the car, my father made a quick run into one of the local bars (yes, there were bars there then, too...) and bought a beer. He was in his Military Academy uniform, and the bartender probably assumed that he was a soldier...
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