A Picture's Worth A Thousand Words...

Ok, so I've been reading everyone's blogs and comments regarding all sorts of things around the world of real estate and the effects of pictures.  All sorts of pictures have been discussed- Realtor pictures, profile pictures, pictures in MLS and the pictures created in virtual tours too.

As a Realtor AND a Virtual Tour Provider, I can totally relate to what this is all about.  So, if a picture is truly worth a thousand words, and in the world of the multiple listing service and the limited amount of space you have to comment, why in the world wouldn't you want to have a few great photos?!  And I can only imagine that along that same concept, that a virtual tour, with panoramic images and 360 spins; that must be worth a million words alone.  Or don't the sellers want people to actually take a peak inside?  I assumed that's why they have their house on the market in the first place?  To get people inside, to take a look around, to fall in love with it and BUY IT?!  I saw a comment that one real estate agent had made that said, that she only put one picture on for her listings and then if they wanted to see more, they'd make an appointment- OR NOT?!  HELLO!?  Buyers have sooo many choices on the market right now, at least in KC they do, and that right there, is just one more way to help them narrow their search and eliminate some of their choices.  First, they'll go through and eliminate those without any photos, then those without interior shots and the ones with bad interior pictures and then if still overwhelmed, heck, they'll choose to sort them by choosing ONLY those with virtual tours all together!  Why in the world wouldn't you want to do all you can to promote your listing?!  I just don't get it?!  But then again, I don't get the virtual tours that are simply just a slide show of the same pictures you showed in the MLS?  Whoever is making money selling those tours is either ingenious or just plain ripping you off?!  But I get sidetracked.... what I'm trying to say is that if your marketing a home and want to get the maximum exposure for your sellers or for yourself for that matter, why not take the pictures, post a tour and put it out there?!  If you post it, they will come!  And it's like holding an open house 24/7!  Now what seller wouldn't want this?  Without the headache of cleaning and presenting the home in tip-top shape and having tire kickers and lookers poking through their things at all hours of the day inside their house?!  This way only the serious buyers will be the ones to actually set up the appointments and walk through their house, bringing you one step closer to a sale!

So, that's my 2c as far as that goes...  but I'm not done.  There's still the problem with poor quality photos posted online.  It's not necessarily the matter of buying a more expensive camera, but in knowing what to do with the one you've got.  The digital world is not the same as film.  Your printed quality and your cyber quality are not equal.  It took me a long time to understand this one as once you have the basic understand of pixels and megapixels and how that works, you would think that it really shouldn't make any difference on the computer, and in most aspects it doesn't- but there's a trick to it.  Although I have a great digital camera with 8 megapixels and a 15x zoom- this does me absolutely no good for real estate.  I take all my pictures in the lowest resolution setting that I can and use that.  Unless these pictures are going to be printed in any size larger than a 4x6, this setting is perfect for the computer and internet usage and for most flyers and brochures that agents are printing, I have yet to come across the need for an image to be printed any larger.  The problem is that when the mls compresses the higher resolution picture in order for a faster loading time online, all those pixels are compressed and moosh the image causing wavy siding and roofs.  And then if you go and try to copy those pictures, they're such a low resolution that they're not worth printing anyway- at least your originals aren't bad and they're not too big to email or print either.  Now as for the crooked pictures, the blurred ones and the bad lighting- those people really have no business behind a camera.

Of course, I could go on and on- but I'm not going to subject you to that.  You can rant and rave all you want regarding profile pictures and Realtor photos, I've got better things to do.  It all goes back to first impressions and which one you're trying to make.  I think Cheryl's post summed it up well, so if you haven't had a chance to read it, she had a lot of great points to make!  Thanks Cheryl.