How Do You Help Your Client's Sell Their Homes

There was a time when attention to these issues was not important...but that time is so OVER!  Those of you with real estate licenses for only a few years, especially here in Seattle where the market has been hot during that time, need to change your practices a bit.

Don't rely on the fact that your methods worked in 2005 and 2006 and 2007 until September.  The market has shifted!  Sales are down YOY 30% to 32% since that time.

Let's assume we all agree that 77% more or less of people start their search for property on the internet.  In our area buyers will often refuse to go see a property after they have viewed the photos and "don't like it".  So good photos have become one of the most important things that we do for sellers hoping to sell their homes.

Even if the property sells with bad photos, maybe it's later rather than sooner and with only one offer and price suffered.  So photos are #1 priority.  I do not agree that all properties need a professional photographer.  In fact, most don't.  But if it serves your purpose as an agent to always have a professional phtographer, that's fine too as long as the property is not misrepresented by wide angle lens photos that make everything look twice the size of what it really is.

THE NUMERO UNO MISTAKE THAT AGENTS MAKE REGARDING PHOTOS, and the reason for this post, is putting them in the wrong order.  It's not a visual tour.  When buyers look at property the first photo on many sites, like REALTOR.com, must attract them enough to get them to click on something to see the rest of the pictures.  So your first shot (depending on your mls rules) should be your BEST exterior shot.  Here there is a rule that interior photos cannot be the #1 photo.  But VIEW can and view often IS the best feature to show in that first photo.

Don't show all of your outside shots in a row and then "go in" the house as you might with a video tour.  You MUST order the photos in the order of BEST features of the home.  Why?  Because if you have ever watched a buyer look at property on the internet, often they will move away at photo 2, 3 or 4 and not look at the rest.

Make sure your photos are such that your best ones are at the top and worst at the end...or not there at all.  Better to have 8 great shots than 15 including 7 bad ones. 

Exceptions:

1) If you show everything except the kitchen, people will assume it sucks.  Kitchens are important features of any property and should not be excluded.

2) Unless the best thing the property has going for it is outside, and the inside is really bad, don't put one or two ro more exterior photos at the top before you get to the inside photos.  Otherwise people will assume that five photos ina row of the exterior means the inside is terrible.

3) Don't forget to crop and add light.  If you don't have a photo editor then GET ONE FAST!  Often I have a shot where it is so dark that I can't see anything, but by adding light you would never even know the original photos was practically black.  I'm not going to drag lighting inside a property.  If I'm tempted to...then it is time to hire a photographer for that property.  We need to spend most of our time on real estate issues, not all the ancillary things.  But most times a decent digital camera is good enough and some wide angle usage as needed in tight spaces.

4) Don't take a picture without moving anything.  The number one thing I see in photos that should be removed is a kitchen towel on a new stainless steel stove handle.  The feature of the stove is more important than a towel.  Take it off, take the photo, and then put it back for the owner's use.

5) This I learned from a Jeff Turner post and it has come in handy.  Stand on something to get a bit OVER things when you take the photo.  It makes a lot of difference and is well worth the effort of moving a chair around as you take the photos.

YOU DO NOT NEED!

That photo with the tarp covered car in the driveway as photo number 3. 

The picture of half the street in front of the house.  If you go that far back to get the photo, then don't forget to crop out the street and the neighbor's homes, when possible.

Any bad photos at all.  It is your job to market the property.  Let them see bad things after they come to the house.  Don't show bad things so that they never bother to come.

How many owner's have reduced their asking price to sell the home simply because no one was coming due to poor photos?  One is too many, and I fear the amount is staggering and a darn shame.

Make good photos your number one priority when representing a seller client.