Realtors you'll notice that while I am a home stager, a number of my blog postings have to do with taking better photos of listings. This is because I KNOW that what a home buyers SEES influences their desire to purchase... or NOT. But what a buyer SEES often starts BEFORE they drive up to your listing or walk through its front door.
With each passing day the Internet becomes more and more of a resource for buyers to PRESCREEN your listings by looking at the photos YOU have provided. So with digital photography being so easy and inexpensive... Realtors you have the responsibility to feature PERFECT images of your listings.
WOW... "perfect" is a mighty demanding standard to expect! But isn't marketing and selling a home what you have been hired to do? Isn't capturing and then displaying a listing in its best light YOUR job... and in YOUR best interest? It is no wonder that many Realtors now use professionals to shot video tours and/or photographs to help market and sell their listings. In fact, more and more professional Homes Stagers are shooting the homes they have staged and providing these quality images, that best show off the home, to the agents as part of their service.
HOWEVER... if you choose to save some bread and do it yourself (which I think can be done easily) here are 2 suggestions:
1. Digital cameras put AMAZINGLY easy photographic capabilities right in your hands. Taking the time to READ the manual and learn more than which "thingy" to push to take the picture... will pay off handsomely. I am NOT talking a huge investment in time. Spending ONE Saturday afternoon focused on learning and practicing with your camera, OR better yet, one LONELY open house, where you are sitting trapped... could improve your listing photos drastically.
2. Once you know how to operate your camera... then you can focus your attention on a simple CRUSTY COMPOSITION technique. Unfortunately for many of us, years of taking pictures of PEOPLE has wrongfully influenced your approach to photographing a listing (especially interior shots). We have learned to JUST point the viewfinder in the middle (where the people usually are) and CLICK. But if you just take a moment to LOOK, not only in the direct center, but also LOOK to see and take into consideration what is happening around the 4 outside edges (think bread crust) your listing pictures will be composed and FRAMED better.
It's that easy. Oh... and yes, encrusted above is a picture of a totally vacant home we recently staged.
Stage it Forward...
Me
PS: Here are the links to my previous blogs for do-it-yourself photographers interested in improving your listings photos:
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