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When is it okay to edit your photos?

By The Moody Group Keller Williams Realty

Services for Real Estate Pros with Full Property Management and Rentals in the Tampa Bay area

March 15, 2011 08:41 AM

Well, I've been lurking in the background on Active Rain for some time now and finally decided to create my own account instead of using my agents. I love photography, video, and the marketing aspect of Real Estate so my job besides being personal assistant to our property manager is Social Media and Marketing.

I've spent hours looking through blogs and vlogs searching for the in's and out's of Real Estate marketing and have found so many useful items that I took to heart. The differences in between some of our photos in before and afters is amazing, and its thanks to you here at Active Rain that we've been able to take that next step.

Before (taken by another Agent):

After:

Wide Angle Kodak z981

We went from a Casio Exilim (of which I had even heard of before I started here) that took blurry pictures even if on a tripod to a Kodak z981 which even if it isn't a true DSLR is as close as we can get for the price.

The range on this camera is wonderful and I am still playing with the settings to see what I can capture.

Moon

Personal images aside, here is a question for you. When is it okay and not to doctor a photo? Personally we had to take a photo of the house mentioned before that was being offered for sale and since we do property management we can't use the photo that has a "For Sale by XXXXX" on the MLS for obvious reasons. I was able to doctor our photograph to take the sign out:

Before:

After:

So, what happens in homes? Do agents take out faults in properties? Or leave issues in their images? I am personally leaning towards it's not right to take out faults so that prospective buyers or renters know what they're getting involved in, but does it deter prospectives from even giving the home a chance?

What are your views?

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Kate Elim

Dockside Realty - Spotsylvania, VA

Realtor 540-226-1964, Selling Homes & Land a

Hi Valerie...I love the difference between your before and after pictures of the room. I noticed a hint of staging going on which improved the look also.

You should not remove faults. They are there and buyers need to know it before they arrive. It's best to actually eliminate the fault not Photoshop it out. We need to provide honest representations of our listings.

Congratulations on the purchase of your Kodak Z981. I'm going to take a look. Congratulations also on becoming an Active Rain member with your very own blog.

Kate

Mar 15, 2011 08:49 AM

Victoria Lorusso

Illustrated Properties - North Palm Beach, FL

Florida and CT Real Estate

I think doctoring basic things is fine. Like turning brown grass green, the sign you did. But beyond that you could be liable for hiding known things.

Mar 15, 2011 08:50 AM

The Moody Group Keller Williams Realty

Full Property Management and Rentals in the Tampa Bay area - Tampa Palms, FL

New Tampa

Kate,

Thank you very much! I agree that it's best to take care of the issue than photoshop over it.

Also, if you're looking for a camera, the Kodak z981 is fantastic and very user friendly, but I'm finding it's not the sort of camera I want to use for videoing homes. Other than that it's fantastic! I'm excited to finally be blogging here, and hopefully I'll be able to get some tutorials up on photography and video soon!

Victoria, that's true. It's nice having green grass over brown, but it's important to hear about the liability aspect.

Mar 15, 2011 09:00 AM

Gary Wooldridge

Donnybrook First National - International, IT

Minor things are fine. Especially removable items (such as dogs legs lol). But I always leave most things , even things that are fixable to enhance the presentation. Things such as dirty glass, my argument is it could have been there for so long that when it comes to clean it, by seller or purchaser it is near impossible. A huge misrepresentation in this case. Greening grass is and should be a cautious one, brown grass can be dead grass.

Apr 02, 2011 02:46 PM

I agree, Gary. An enhanced presentation makes a difference for some of the tenants we've brought in. Luckily most of the properties we have already have green grass, even during the winter (Thank you Florida!) and the few that we have that don't actually have no grass. The owners refuse to lay the grass down and it really lowers the homes value.

I agree Gary that dirty glass that is photo edited is incredibly missleading. Thank you for your comment. =)

Apr 04, 2011 04:25 AM

When is it okay to edit your photos?

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